so THROUGH THE MACKENZIE BASEST 



iion, but entering a country much of which is suited by 

 nature for the support of man. 



The best reflection is that there is a really good country 

 -to fall back upon when the prairies to the south are taken up. 

 Swamps and muskegs abound, but good land also abounds, 

 and the time will come when the ring of the Canadian axe 

 ■will be heard throughout these forests, and when multitudes 

 of comfortable homes will be hewn out of what are the almost 

 inaccessible wildernesses of to-day. 



By the end of the first week in July the issue of scrip cer- 

 tificates began to fall off, though the declarations were still 

 numerous. But land was in sight ; that is to say, our release 

 and departure for Peace River, which we were all very 

 anxious, in fact burning, to see. 



By 'this time there was, of course, much money afloat 

 amongst the people, which was rapidly finding its way into 

 the traders' pockets. There was a " blind pig," too, doing 

 business in the locality, though we could not discover where, 

 as everybody professed entire ignorance of anything of the 

 kind. The fragrant breath and hilarity of so many, how- 

 ever, betrayed its existence, and, as a crowning evidence, 

 before sunrise on the 6th, we were all awakened by an 

 uproarious row amongst a tipsy crowd on the common. 



The disturbance, of course, awakened the dogs, if, indeed, 

 those wonderful creatures ever slept, and soon a prolonged 

 howl, issuing from a thousand throats, made the racket com- 

 plete. It seemed to our listening ears, for we stuck to our 

 beds, to be a promiscuous fight, larded with imprecations in 

 broken English, the phrase " goddam '*" being repeated in the 

 most comical way. We expected to see a lot of badly bruised 

 men in the morning, but nothing of the kind ! JSTobody was 

 hurt. It proved to be a very bloodless affair, like the scrim- 

 mages of the dogs themselves, full of sound and fury signify- 

 ing nothing. 



