190 REVIEWS—NORTH WEST TERRITORY. 
those who, alike on economic and political grounds, anticipate the 
speedy occupation of the explored areas by Canadian and British 
settlers. 
Turning from this practical aspect of the exploring party’s report, 
to the interest which attaches to the narrative of an intelligent travel- 
ler’s observations in a country still mainly occupied by the wild Indian 
in his natural state, the volume presents many curious passages which - 
we would gladly transfer to our pages. But one or two must suffice 
to direct our readers to the original work. Professor Hind and his 
party were thrown a good deal among the various tribes of Indians— 
Crees, Sioux, Blackfeet, and Ojibways,—-who find hunting grounds, 
or opportunities of trading at the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Forts, in 
the territory explored. The picture he draws of the Red Man, exhib- 
its in no very flattering aspect, the improvident, superstitious, and 
treacherous savage, whom civilization visits seemingly only to extermi- 
nate. Here is an account of one of the processes of reckless improvi- 
dence persisted in by the Indians on the Prairies, whereby a sterile and 
forbidding aspect is stamped on vast tracts of country along the 
courses of the Qu’Appelle and Assiniboine Rivers. A few miles west 
of the Souris Forks, the Qu’ Appelle is only nineteen feet wide, while 
the great valley through which the river winds its way is still a mile 
broad and two hundred feet deep. Here, says Professor Hind, “we 
caught a glimpse of the blue outline of the Grand Coteau, with a tree- 
less plain between. This afternoon we saw three fires spring up 
between us and the Grand Coteau. They were Indian signs, but 
whether they referred to the presence of buffalo, or whether they were 
designed to intimate to distant bands the arrival of suspicious strangers, 
we could not then tell, and not knowing whether they were Crees, 
Assiniboines, or Blackfeet, we became more cautious. In a few days 
we ascertained that the fire had been put out* by Crees, to inform 
their friends that they had found buffalo. 
‘‘The grandeur of a prairie on fire belongs to itself. It is like a - 
volcano in full activity, you cannot imitate it, because it is impossible 
to obtain those gigantic elements from which it derives its awful 
splendour. Fortunately, in the present imstance the wind was from 
the west, and drove the fires in the opposite direction, and being 
south of us we could contemplate the magnificent spectacle without 
anxiety. One object in burning the prairie at this time, was to turn 
eee a a an RE TLE NT Bs Se el 
* This native expression ; ‘ put out fire,’ signifies to set the prairie on fire. 
