The great prairie is as
flat as a table, and is the exact counterpart of Portage Plains,
in Manitoba, or a number of them, with the addition of belts and
beautiful islands of timber, the soil being a loamy clay, unmistakably
fertile. Nothing could excel the beauty of this region, not even
the fairest portions of Manitoba or Saskatchewan.
On the 18th we finished our drive over a like beautiful prairie,
slightly rolling, dotted with similar clumps of timber like a
great park, and carpeted with ripe strawberries and flowers,
including the wild mignonette, the lupin, and the phlox.
Descending a very long and crooked ravine, we reached the river
flat at last, upon which is situated Fort Dunvegan, called after
the stronghold of the McLeods of Skye, but alas! with no McCrimmon
to welcome us with his echoing pipes! Chief-factor McDonald, in
his scanty journal of Sir George Simpson's canoe voyage in 1828
from Hudson's Bay to the Pacific, does not give the date at
which this post was established, but mentions its abandonment
in 1823, owing to the murder of a Mr. Hughes and four men at
Fort St. John by the Beaver Indians. It had been re-established
by Chief-trader Campbell. Simpson, Mr. McDonald, and Mr.
McGillivray, who had embarked at Fort Chipewyan, where Sir
George himself had served his clerkship, spent a day at Dunvegan
in August, resting and getting fresh supplies. The warring
traders had united in 1821, and this voyage was undertaken in
order to harmonize the Indians, who, from the bay to the coast,
particularly across the mountains, had become fierce partisans
of one or other of the great companies.
Pages:
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109