OF THE POLAR SEA. 



117 



as the least bulky article that can be taken on a winter journey. 

 The mode of making pemmican is very simple, the meat is dried by 

 the Indians in the sun, or over a fire, and pounded by beating it 

 with stones when spread on a skin. In this state it is brought to 

 the forts, where the admixture of hair is partially sifted out, and a 

 third part of melted fat incorporated with it, partly by turning 

 them over with a wooden shovel, partly by kneading them together 

 with the hands. The pemmican is now firmly pressed into leathern 

 bags, each capable of containing eighty-five pounds, and being 

 placed in an airy place to cool, is fit for use. It keeps in this state, 

 if not allowed to get wet, very well for one year, and with great care 

 it may be preserved good for two. Between three and four hundred 

 bags were made here by each of the companies this year. 



There were eight men, besides Mr. Prudens and his clerk, be- 

 longing to Carlton House. At La Montee there were seventy 

 Canadians and half-breeds, and sixty women and children, who con- 

 sumed upwards of seven hundred pounds of buffalo meat daily, the 

 allowance per diem for each man being eight pounds. 



There are other provision posts, Fort Augustus and Edmonton, 

 farther up the river, from whence some furs are also procured. The 

 Stone Indians have threatened to cut off the supplies in going up 

 to these establishments, to prevent their enemies from obtaining 

 ammunition, and other European articles; but as these menaces 

 have been so frequently made without being put in execution, the 

 traders now hear them without any great alarm, though they take 

 every precaution to prevent being surprised. Mr. Back and I were 

 present when an old Cree communicated to Mr. Prudens, that the 

 Indians spoke of killing all the white people in that vicinity this 

 year, which information he received with perfect composure, and 

 was amused, as well as ourselves, with the man's judicious remark 

 which immediately followed, " A pretty state we shall then be in, 

 without the goods you bring us." 



