The Frontier Fort | Page 2

the westward.
Accompanying the carts was a drove of loose horses--the animals now
rearing and kicking and biting at each other--now moving along
steadily, under the management of a single driver, Francois Chabot,
also a French half-breed. He had seldom to use his long whip to keep
them in order; and even the most restless showed no inclination to
leave their companions. They were intended to supply the travellers
with a change of steeds once or twice in the day; for in making long
journeys, when day after day forty or fifty miles have to be got over
between sunrise and sunset, one horse seldom possesses sufficient
strength and endurance to carry his rider the whole distance.
When a horse shows signs of fatigue, his saddle is removed to the back
of another, and he contentedly runs on with the herd. The horses were
mostly small, and many of them sorry-looking steeds; but they had,
notwithstanding, carried their riders without showing signs of fatigue,
or growing thinner. Their only food was the grass they could pick up
while the party were encamped at night, or during their noon-day halt,

neither beans nor corn being given them.
Reginald Loraine and the Doctor had provided themselves with English
saddles; the rest of the party bestrode those of native manufacture,
which were merely large pads of dressed leather, stuffed with hair or
grass, and having a broad and fringed crupper. Several of them were
trimmed and handsomely adorned with quills, the talent of the
manufacturer being especially exerted in ornamenting the saddle-cloths.
The stirrups were formed of curved pieces of wood, hanging by leather
thongs to the primitive saddle. The bridles might more properly be
called halters. They consisted of a thong of raw hide, thirty feet in
length, called an atscacha. One end was tied round the animal's lower
jaw, and the other, after being brought over the neck to the rider's hand,
was allowed to drag on the ground some fifteen feet behind. It requires
care, particularly by those in the rear, not to tread on the thongs trailing
behind. By so doing, the mouth of the horse receives a jerk which
seldom fails to make it rear and curvet from side to side.
The object of this long thong is to enable the rider, when he dismounts,
to hold his horse while he fires at a foe; or, should he be thrown by the
animal stumbling in a rabbit-burrow, to prevent it running off. The long
thong serves also as a halter, ever ready to tie it up, or to catch it when
at liberty. Even the gentlemen who used English bridles found it
convenient to have these halters secured to their horses' heads.
Day after day the travellers had been making their way along the Fertile
Belt, the name given to a broad tract of country extending between the
Red River and the base of the Rocky Mountains, bordered on the north
by forests, lakes, and rivers, and on the south by that sandy and desert
region which extends along the whole frontier of the United States.
The party rode steadily on, every man carrying his rifle at his back; for
although the natives were generally friendly, it was considered wise to
be prepared, lest so rich a booty as the carts would afford might tempt
them. At night, too, a constant watch was kept on the horses, as the
Crees roaming over that part of the country are notorious horse-stealers,
and would have considered it a creditable feat to have carried off as
many of the travellers' steeds as they could catch.

They had proceeded some distance, when, shading his eyes with his
hand, Mr Burnett looked out eagerly ahead.
"What is it you see?" asked Loraine, imitating his example.
"A party of horsemen, whom I at first thought might be Blackfeet on
the war-path, but I am satisfied they are Red River men, on a buffalo
hunt," answered Burnett. "We shall soon know. See, Leblanc has gone
forward to ascertain who they are."
The guide in a short time returned, saying that the strangers were Red
River hunters; that they had just sighted buffalo, and would be glad if
any of the gentlemen of the party would join them.
Loraine and Hector were delighted to accept the invitation, and Allan
Keith and Maloney were anxious to try their skill as hunters. While
they galloped on to join the half-breeds, Burnett and his men moved
towards the spot which had been fixed on for camping at night.
The buffalo hunt need not be described, except to say that the young
Englishmen won the admiration of their new friends by their courage
and dexterity, each having brought a couple of the shaggy monsters to
the ground.
The travellers spent the evening