ARRANGING MATERIAL FOR NEW MUSEUM 271 



about 8,000 feet high and I made immense collections for a number 

 of days and then we turned our faces to the north and headed for 

 Fort Macleod. At the Blood Reserve, we found the Indians 

 working like white men, as, that year, they had taken the contract 

 to cut 1 50 tons of hay for the Mounted Police and were making 

 it and drawing it in on their wagons, just as the white settlers did 

 at Moose Jaw. 



In due course of time, we reached Fort Macleod and found 

 the people there all of the opinion that I had had in the spring, 

 that the country was drying up and that there was no chance of 

 any future for farming in that part of Alberta. I still believed 

 that the drouth was broken and that next year, 1896, would be 

 a prosperous year, which it turned out to be. 



From Fort Macleod, we went to Lethbridge and, from thence, 

 to Moose Jaw, where I dsimissed the men and then I went back 

 to Ottawa. During the winter, I wrote a report of my trip and 

 explained to the Government that the drouth was broken and 

 that there was every prospect of a prosperous year, if my opinions 

 were of any account or value. At this time, all the lakes in the 

 country were dried up and the water that fell in them all ran into 

 the cracks and disappeared, of course; but, in conversation with 

 Mr. Gass, the postmaster at Moose Jaw, he told me that if 

 certain conditions were fulfilled in April, the ponds would be full 

 again and the conditions were exactly what I had discovered when 

 William S. dug the well at the Milk River, that, when the cracks 

 filled, the bottom of the lake would again become impervious and 

 would retain the water that ran into it. Mr. Gass said that, if a 

 heavy snow-storm came in April and was blown into the ponds, 

 when it melted it would deposit enough of mud in the cracks 

 to stop the leaks and then the lakes would fill. This actually 

 happened in the spring of 18% and the railway ditches at Regina, 

 which were entirely without water when I passed in 1895, were 

 filled full of water when I passed going back in 1896. 



In the year 1896, my son, J. M., was slated to go to Alaska 

 as Commissioner in the Fur Seal investigation and William S. 

 was to go with Mr. A. P. Low, down to Hudson's Bay and go across 

 from James Bay to the coast of Labrador, starting on Hudson's 



