14 



devices more than once ; and even with these shaganappi ob- 

 structions to his rapid locomotion he made time fast enough 

 to make his capture, till his stomach was full, a very difficult 

 matter. Though bad in these respects, he was good in others j 

 for the swamp must be deep that he could not pull a cart 

 thiough ; and the bank of a stream just forded must have 

 been steep and slippery indeed that Blackie's unshod feet 

 could not scramble up. Bichon, the patient, would do his best 

 and, failing, would lie down in the one or slide back to the 

 bottom of the other. So that as we are apt, after many years, 

 to remember the o^ood and foroet the bad, I have ffiven the 

 first place in this, I fear, rambling narrative, to Blackie ; 

 though I acknowledge gratefully that it was on Bichon the 

 obedient's back that I explored the bog or essayed the river 

 crossing when the one was likely to be bad or the other deep. 

 So much for the horses. The saddle was simply a tree, strap- 

 ped on over a blanket, which was easier on the horses than 

 the Indian saddle; and the cart harness the dressed buffalo skin 

 one of the time, with the collar and hames in one piece, short 

 traces to iron pins in the shafts, to which also were attached 

 the hold backs, which were the broadest and heaviest part of 

 the harness. Shaganappi reins and a bridle wnth no blinkers 

 completed this simple but efficient equipment. 



Items Nos. 1 , 2, 3 and -i being now described, I come to an 

 important one. No. 5, the cart, the popular impression of which 

 now is that it was a ramshackle, squeaky affair, wdth wheels 

 five feet high, each one of which dished outwardly, so that the 

 felloes looked as if about to part company with the spokes and 

 hub ; and those who have seen them as curiosities at an Ex- 

 hibition wonder if the wood had shrunk, which left a loose 

 opening where felloe joined felloe in the queerly dished wheel, 

 or whether indeed the fellow who made these joints had been 

 quite himself when he completed this wooden monstrosity, 

 which had not a scrap of iron on or about it. Queer looking 

 they undoubtedly were, as compared with the present trim 

 buggy, though the squeak is a libel as a|)])lied to a lightly 

 loaded travelling cart, which has been t'airh' treated by the 



