CHAPTER VIII 



THOMAS ANDERSON 



We were now back at Smith Landing, and fired with 

 a desire to make another Buffalo expedition on which 

 we should have ampler time and cover more than a 

 mere comer of the range. We aimed, indeed, to strike 

 straight into the heart of the Buffalo country. The 

 same trouble about guides arose. In this case it was 

 less acute, because Sousi's account had inspired con- 

 sideraibly more respect. Still it meant days of delay 

 which, however, I aimed to make profitable by inves- 

 tigations near at hand. 



After all, the most interesting of creatures is the 

 two-legged one with the loose and changeable skin, 

 and there was a goodly colony of the kind to choose 

 from. Most prominent of them all was Thomas 

 Anderson, the genial Hudson's Bay Company officer 

 in charge of the Mackenzie River District. His head- 

 quarters are at Fort Smith, 16 miles down the river, 

 but his present abode was Smith Landing, where all 

 goods are landed for overland transport to avoid the 

 long and dangerous navigation on the next 16 miles of 

 the broad stream. Like most of his official brethren, 

 he is a Scotchman; he was born in Nairn, Scotland, in 

 1848. At 19 he came to the north-west in service of 



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