STORM ON THE WINNIPEG. 



109 



his head beyond his thick and matted hair, he soon 

 crouched, and drew a part of the gutta-percha cloth over 

 him. Lambert being provided with a thick fur cap held 

 bravely on, although he loudly exclaimed that the hail- 

 stones were bruising his hands, and he would not be able 

 to paddle much longer. Fortunately we were now close 

 to the bank, and Lambert called out to the Indian to keep 

 the canoe from striking against the rocks. A few strokes 

 of the paddles brought us within a yard of the shore, 

 when the Indian, lightly springing out of the canoe, 

 caught her bow as she was about to strike the rock. I 

 succeeded in disentangling myself from the covering, 

 which was pressed down by an accumulation of hail- 

 stones, enough to have filled at least three buckets, and 

 looking over the side of the canoe I saw the Indian in Mr. 

 Dawson's tiny craft leap out on the bank, and catch the 

 fragile vessel as it was about to strike with wonderful 

 agility. Lambert's hands were much bruised, and soon 

 became swollen and very painful ; he wrapped them in 

 wet cloths, and on the following morning, with his usual 

 lightheartedness, declared they were as sound as ever. 

 We made a large lire and a comfortable tent of spruce 

 bows, soon forgetting, as the storm cleared away and 

 allowed us to enjoy a most gorgeous sunset, the imminent 

 danger from which we had escaped. Violent thunder 

 storms are very common during the summer months on 

 the Winnipeg ; hailstones have been known to descend 

 with such force as to pass through the thin birch-bark of 

 the small canoes constructed by the Indians who hunt on 

 this river. On the grand Coteau de Missouri, the tough 

 buffalo-skin tents of the Crees and Sioux are sometimes 

 penetrated by the small angular masses of ice which fall 

 on that elevated plateau. In the summer of 1858 the 

 canoes we carried across the prairies to the elbow of the 



