66 NARRATIVE OF 1853. 
houses, stock, с. They start out to the southward in search after buffalo, taking with them 
their families, carts, animals, &c. These carts, when loaded, contain about 800 pounds, and 
are used in common. There were 336 men in the present train, of whom over 300 were 
hunters. Each hunt, of which there are two every year, continues about two months, the 
first starting in June, the second about the middle of October. Their carts were already half 
full, and they expected to return to their homes in the latter part of August. On their first 
trip the buffalo are hunted for the purpose of procuring pemmican, dried meat, tongues, &c.; 
the skins, being useless for robes, are dressed for lodge skins, moccasins, &c. In October 
the meat is still better and fatter, and they procure a like quantity of dried meat, reserving 
sufficient for a year’s provision, which is about one-half of the whole amount procured; they 
dispose of the rest at the trading posts of the Hudson Bay Company. 
The meat which they carry home finds its way, through the Red river traders of the Fur 
Company, to Fort Snelling, where it is exchanged for goods, sugar, coffee, &c., at the rate of 
fifteen cents a pound. 
The trade of this company is all in dry goods, sugar, tea, ammunition, &c. Notes are also 
issued by the Hudson Bay Company, which are currency among them. Several of these, of 
| the denomination of five shillings, payable at York Factory, and bearing the signature of 
Sir George Simpson, were offered in change to various members of the expedition on pur- 
chasing various articles. 
The skins collected in the summer hunt are usually retained by the hunters for their own 
use, while the robes collected in the fall hunt are a staple of trade with the Fur Company, and 
also with the Hudson Bay Company, which latter company do a large business in this portion 
of the country, supplying the settlers with most of their clothes, groceries, &c. 
The Red river settlements are made up of a population of half-breeds, traders of the Hudson 
Bay and Fur Companies, discharged employés of these companies, and Indians, representatives 
of every nation of Europe, Scotch, Irish, English, Canadians, and speaking a jargon made up 
of these dialects, intermingled with Chippewa and Sioux, patois French being the prevailing 
tongue. ` | 
These settlements, started some twenty-five years since, now number, in the vicinity of 
Pembina mountain, some four thousand people. The men are generally much finer looking 
than the women. On the latter depend all the drudgery of camp duties, 
attending to animals, cooking, &c. 
The men dress usually in woollens of various colors. The coat generally worn, called the 
Hudson Bay coat, has a capot attached to it. The belts are finely knit, of differently colored 
wool or worsted yarn, and are worn after the manner of sashes. Their powder horn and shot 
bag, attached to bands finely embroidered with beads or worked with porcupine quills, are 
worn across «я shoulder, making ап X before and behind. Many also have a tobacco pouch 
игшк to their sashes, in which is tobacco mixed with kini-kinick, (dried bark of the osier 
willow керей fine, ) a fire steel, punk, and several flints. Add to these paraphernalia a gun, 
and a good idea will be formed of the costume of the Red river hunter. 
The women are industrious, dress in gaudy calicoes, are fond of beads and finery, and are 
remarkably apt at making bead work, moccasins, sewing, &c. - 
pitching the tents, 
