19 

 scrutiny of our horses and equipment seemed to be satisfac- 

 tory save that he insisted on his present of a little dried buf- 

 falo meat, which he said went fai- when you met Indians, and 

 on learning that it was my first essay at prairie travel, urged 

 me to take a young Indian part of the way to put us on the 

 right track. This was a damper, for the trail on the east bank 

 was in full view, going up from the ferry landing, and the line 

 ot the Red River skirting woods, through which it had been 

 cut, could be distinctly seen, and so while middle age experi- 

 ence on the bank expostulated and advised, youthful ignorance 

 and over-confidence at the horses' heads on the ferry thaid^ed 

 and assured, till the ferry touched the opposite bank, up which 

 Blackie quickly sprang, anxious to be away from his floating 

 footing, which yawed and jerked in the passage across. Alas, 

 when was ever the confidence of the young justified as against 

 the experience of their elders ? The tracks, triple mai-ked, 

 were plain enough till the outer limit of the skirting woods was 

 reached, and then they began diverging like the ribs of a fan, 

 but as they all led through a low savannah, ignorance, to wit, 

 myself, assumed that they would converge again on higher 

 ground, and so the best marked of them was followed. 



It was noticed that the trail we had chosen was a circuit- 

 ous one, if we were to reach by it the first camping place on 

 the bank of the " Two Rivers," but we supposed that to be 

 due to the necessity of reaching higher ground ; doubts, how- 

 ever, about it were set at rest after a couple of hours' travel, 

 by its ending abruptly at the hay stack behind a willow blufi' 

 which had concealed it. There was nothing for it but to re- 

 turn and essay anothei' track, which brought us to where hay 

 had been cut and carted away ; a third venture having failed, 

 and the day being far spent, we gladly availed ourselves of 

 the .services of a Metis boy, who piloted us to where we could 

 see ihe aspen bluff near the ford of the first river we had to 

 cross. " Experientia docel" generally when too late; and the 

 da}'- ended with tired horses, and only a short part of a day's 

 journey traversed. The two rivers, with their muddy, miry 

 banks and bottoms, wei'e crossed at dusk, for it is a rule in 



