314 ASSINNIB01NE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



horses and torn clothes. They had come from Fort Union, 

 on the Missouri, having been hunting on the Grand 

 Coteau, where they met a war party of sixty Blackfeet. 

 They fled to the fort, the Blackfeet pursuing them and 

 insisting that the Fort Union people should give them up, 

 a request which was promptly refused. 



During the night, the Fort Union people furnished them 

 with a small supply of provisions, and leading them out to 

 the prairies, told them to run for it ; they did so, and 

 arrived in safety at Fort Ellice after a harassing journey. 



At 4 p.m. on the 12th July, we left Fort Ellice and 

 traveled due west through a pretty country near the 

 banks of the Qu'appelle or Calling Eiver. After break- 

 fast on the following day we arrived at the Cross Woods, 

 which, according to our half-breeds, extend as far as Pipe- 

 stone Creek ; they consist of aspen, with a splendid under- 

 growth. Here we observed during the morning the grass- 

 hoppers descending from a great height perpendicularly, 

 like hail — a sign, our half-breeds stated, of approaching 

 rain. Our route lay through a rolling country, the soil 

 consisting of sandy loam with much vegetable matter in 

 the valleys. Aspen groves are numerous, and many little 

 lakes margined with reeds afford quiet breeding-places for 

 duck. The road is good in summer, but wet and soft in 

 the spring. 



The grasshoppers were excellent prognosticators : a vio- 

 lent thunder storm in the afternoon commenced in the east 

 (all preceding storms had come from the west), and was 

 accompanied by exceedingly heavy rain and a very bois- 

 terous w T ind. The storm continued several hours. At 9 

 in the evening, the air was calm and the heavens clear 

 and bright ; at 10, the storm returned from the west, and a 

 more terrific and sublime exhibition of elemental warfare 

 none of us had ever before witnessed. Three times the 



