The Frontier Fort | Page 3

with their new friends, the hunters,
who, as soon as the buffalo they had last killed had been turned into
pemmican, intended to return to the Red River. Next morning they
continued their journey westward, pushing on at greater speed than
usual, to make up for lost time, Burnett being very anxious to reach the
fort by the day he was expected.
The country was generally lovely, being well wooded, with numerous
lakelets, now rising into softly rounded knolls, and occasionally
opening out into a wide, fair landscape. The soil was of rich loam, and
the vegetation luxuriant, sprinkled with flowers of many tints.
They had been moving on for a couple of hours or more, when Loraine,
looking to the southward, observed a remarkable appearance in the

horizon, which wore an unearthly ashen hue. Pointing it out to Burnett,
he asked--
"Can that be produced by a prairie fire?"
"No; but if I mistake not, we shall have, before long, a flight of locusts
passing over our heads. That peculiar look of the sky is produced by the
light reflected from their transparent wings."
As he spoke, the whole sky appeared to be changing from blue to
silvery white, then to ashy grey and lead colour; while, opposite to the
sun, the prevailing hue was a silver white--perceptibly flashing, the air
seeming as if rilled with flakes of snow.
"The insects are flying from five hundred to a thousand feet above our
heads; and I hope we may get clear of them before we camp, or they
will play mischief with everything made of leather, which is left
exposed," observed Burnett.
He was, however, disappointed; for, in a short time, the locusts
descended--the whole air became filled with them, until they reached
the ground, where they clung to the blades of grass in countless
multitudes.
During the remainder of the day the creatures continued coming on;
and when the party at length stopped at night, they had to clear away
the ground to form their camp.
The voracity of the insects was proved by the way they attacked and
destroyed several articles of clothing, which had carelessly been left on
the grass. The travellers found, indeed, that the only way to protect
their property was to pile it up in the carts out of reach. Dan Maloney
appeared with a melancholy countenance, exhibiting a leather bag and a
pair of woollen trousers, which he had thrown down outside the tent,
eaten through and through in all directions. At night the insects,
fortunately, did not move. Early in the morning they were found busily
feeding; but as soon as the sun had evaporated the dew, they began
taking short flights, and then cloud after cloud rose, and pursued their

way to the northward.
Burnett assured his companions that he had never seen so large a flight
before; and, as far as he could ascertain, many years had passed without
the country receiving a similar visitation.
Scarcely had the locusts disappeared, than what looked like a thick,
black fog-bank was seen rising from the direction whence they had
come. It approached nearer and nearer. Leblanc, riding forward,
pointed it out to Burnett.
"The prairie is on fire," he remarked.
"I know it is; I saw it from the first. But I don't think it will come near
us."
"I am not quite so sure of that. It comes on fast, and the grass here is
very long," said the guide.
"Then we'll make our way to yonder knoll, where it is shorter," said
Burnett, who was not to be put out by Indians, locusts, or prairie fires.
The word was given to drag the carts towards the spot Burnett had
indicated.
"A fire on the prairie is a serious matter, is it not?" observed Loraine, in
a tone of inquiry.
"I do not much fear it, notwithstanding," answered Burnett. "We shall
have a storm before long, I suspect, and that will fight the flames."
"I should have thought that a storm would be more likely to fan them
into greater fury," remarked Loraine, who considered that Burnett was
not sufficiently alive to the dangers they might have to encounter from
the fire.
"Not if it rains as I expect it will," observed Burnett. "Look at that
cloud ahead. It contains a torrent sufficient to extinguish the fiercest
flames."

Loraine had hitherto been admiring the beautiful appearance of the sky.
To the south it was of that bright blue such as is seldom seen in the
British Isles. To the west it was bordered with vast, billowy clouds of
the softest, snowy white. Beneath the black cloud, which was every
instant extending, were grey masses whirling on at a terrific rate; while,
suddenly, to the north and east the expanse of heaven assumed a
dun-coloured