the trip extended over six or eight weeks, it was necessary to 

 be well provided with food. The fare was simple but sub- 

 stantial. Flour, strong black tea and sugar were the staples, 

 and the well-known pemmican. Pemmican is now a thing of 

 the past, but was the sheet anchor of the Red River voyageur. 

 Obtained by the buffalo hunters on their buffalo hunts, the 

 f]esh of the buffalo was out up into slices, dried and 

 beaten or flailed into powder; it was then packed in bags of 

 raw hide, into which hot boiling fat and marrow of the buf- 

 falo carcass was^ poured. Thus it became air proof, and with- 

 out salt or any preservative, the bag closely sewed up, could 

 be thus kept for years. A finer sort of this article, called 

 "berry pemmican,'^ was made by mixing the flesh with the 

 berries of the abundant saskatoon, or service berry (Amelan- 

 chier Canadensis). This was considered a delicacy. While 

 some, like the late Bishop McLean, did not appreciate pemmi- 

 can, he having declared before an audience of notables in 

 London, that eating pemmican was to him like chewing a 

 tallow candle, yet this important staple, worth thousands' of 

 pounds a year to the prairie travellers, was so important that 

 tlie Hudson's Bay Company could not have carried on its 

 wide and extensive enterprises without it. Supplies for the 

 inner man having been provided, the axe, saw, drawknife, 

 auger and square, needles to sew harness and moccasins are 

 not forgotten, as well as a supply of material for harness. 

 This was of two kinds. First, the " shagganappe," or prairie 

 cordage, made by cutting the buffalo hide into narrow strips, 

 from one-half to an inch in vddth; and second, the "babiche," 

 or narrow strips cut from the deer skin and taking the place 

 of twine. In addition sinews from the back of the buffalo 

 were shredded and spun into what might be called prairie 

 thread. All these have disappeared with the buffalo. 



THE RED RIVER CART. 



The object of greatest interest in the Red River trippers' 

 outfit was the Red River cart. Made of tough, well-seasoned 

 wood without a particle of iron about it, it was a marvel of 

 mechanism. It consisted of two rough shafts, called by the 

 settlers trams, t^velve feet long, worked out of oak, and with 

 cross-pieces firmly morticed into them. The two outer ones, 

 being about six feet apart, form the foundation. Holes are 



