THE START FOR THE PRATRTES. 



277 



long, and weighed 150 lbs. each. At the White Horse 

 Plain, twenty- two miles -from Fort Garry, I procured an 

 additional cart, and purchased an ox to serve as a dernier 

 ressort in case we should not meet with buffalo ; and at 

 Prairie Portage, the last settlement on the Assinniboine, 

 I engaged the services of an old hunter of Cree origin, 

 who had been from his youth familiar with Indian habits 

 and stratagems. This addition increased the party and 

 equipment, before we left the last settlement, to fifteen men, 

 fifteen horses, six Eed Eiver carts, one waggon/and one ox. 



Leaving our camp early on the morning of the fifteenth, 

 we ascertained by leveling the altitude of an ancient lake 

 ridge, near to St. James's Church*, to be eleven feet above 

 the prairie at Fort Garry, and about two miles from it. 

 These ridges are common in the prairies of Eed Eiver, and 

 do not necessarily point to an ancient lake margin, as it is 

 probable that most of them were formed under water. 

 They may be traced for many miles, but are sometimes 

 lost in the general rise of the prairie, or blend with higher 

 ridges. 



On arriving at St. James's Church we separated into two 

 divisions, Mr. Fleming and Mr. Hime, with the carts and 

 waggon, proceeding to Lane's Post on the Assinniboine, 

 twenty-four miles from Fort Garry, while Mr. Dickinson 

 and myself with two half-breeds, struck in a north-west- 

 erly direction across the prairie to Stony Mountain, and 

 thence to the Big Eidge, having arranged to meet at 

 Prairie Portage. 



In a wheat field opposite St. James's Church were se- 

 veral pigeon traps, constructed of nets 20 feet long by 15 

 broad, stretched upon a frame ; one side was propped up 



* The Eev. W. H. Taylor's Mission. The income of this Mission is de- 

 rived from the following sources : ,£100 from the Society for the Propaga- 

 tion of the Gospel, ^100 from the Bishop of Rupert's Land. 



t 3 



