THE WHITE HORSE PLAIN. 



147 



him again. A few strips of buffalo hide placed our cart 

 in travelling condition, and permitted us slowly to resume 

 our journey. 



Eegaining the main road, well marked by the deep 

 ruts formed by the buffalo hunters' carts, we soon arrived 

 at the White Horse Plain, a vast, slightly undulating 

 prairie, bounded by the horizon in every direction but 

 the south, where the distant wooded banks of the 

 Assinniboine afford some relief to the eye. The grass is 

 long and rank, and the soil a black mould of great depth, 

 often exceeding eighteen inches. In many places it is 

 thrown up into conical heaps by moles, and uniformly 

 displays the same rich appearance, truly represented by 

 the bountiful profusion of verdure it sustains. In 1857 

 the edges of the White Horse Plain unfortunately teemed 

 with another kind of life. The grasshoppers (locusts) ap- 

 peared in countless millions just before my arrival; every 

 bare patch of ground in the road was filled with their eggs, 

 the living insects were leaping through the tall grass in infi- 

 nite multitudes, yet, notwithstanding, failing to change the 

 appearance of the country in the midst of so great a pro- 

 fusion of food. What the next year's brood may do 

 remains to be seen, their progenitors had come in swarm- 

 ing clouds from the south side of the Assinniboine, but no 

 one could tell of their origin, or of the devastations they 

 must have created before they took their flight, and 

 alighted on the White Horse Plain. 



The last house of the settlement, westward of White 

 Horse Plain, is about thirty-three miles from Fort Garry, 

 and between it and the Company's Post, in charge of 

 Mr. Lane, there are nine houses and farms. The Prairie 

 Portage road, however, does not pass near them, it touches 

 the river only at those bends which do not necessarily 

 compel much deviation from a straight course. The 



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