Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-06
Hardships of the Trail.

An account of some of these trips which
has lately been published by the Royal
Society of Canada puts different face
upon them. The men. when they Were
properly Injured to that kind OF travel
underwent no excessive hardships and ex-
perenced only such deprivaticns as made
hunting enjoyable and brought into play
the arts of the expert woodsman. The
Hudson $ bay clerk whose entertaining
journal has thus been made accessible
was Edward Ermatinger, who served the
company for ten years, beginning in 1918.
he Wlntered one year at Island lake
another at Oxford house and spent two
winters at York factory, on Hudson < bay.
Then he passed year at Red river and
finally went to the region of the Column
bla, where he stayed three years. March
20 at quarter before q in the evening
ne LETT Vancouver at the head of an eX-
press party for Fort York. With h COM
pany were various persons Well known in
oregon history. DR.. Mclaughlin. who
was then chief factor of the monopoly
was the most distinguished, but Pierre
Chrysologue Pambrun. whom Bonnevili e
encountered at Walia Walla in 1Si2. was
also with the expedition. So was tn
botanist, Davis Douglas. who wrote an
interesting account of his scientific and
other experiences in the Canadian wilder
ness
AS far as Walla Walla the gentlemen
of the party rode horseback most of the
way on such sorry beasts as they could
obtain from the miserable savage along
the river. These Indians we see them
in Ermatinger'S journal present very little
to console the admirers of the noble red
man of fiction. One of their old women
who had CHANGED to die at an incon-
venlent moment was found by the travel
ers thrust into pit beside the trail and
left there, without a rag of covering. for
the coyotes to devour. On another occa-
sion some of the travellers forgot gun
at the morning campfire. Returning for
it. they found ii in the possession of a
red-faced scamp. who gave up the booty
only under threats of death. Ermat-
niger found the Indians south of the
Columbia in much the same moral and
economic state as Jason Lee did those
of the Willamette They We're hopelessly
filthy and depraved. Efforts to convert
them We're total failures and they usually
repaid kindness with treachery.
Athabaska Pass.
Ermatinger's party followed the course
of the Columbia to Athabaska pass. in
the Rocky mountains. Here the great
river flows from the southeast, making a
sudden bend in its course, and the noun
tains form the water parting between the
Pacific ocean and Hudson's bay In cross
ing Athabaska pass, which they reached
May i, the travellers We're obliged to use
Siio"sHoeS. IN TACT, the trail was OBJ
structed by snow until they had descend
ed far down the Athabaska and WhirI-
pool rivers, which, with the Saskatche-
wan, determined their route to Winnipeg
lake.
On the Athabaska their daily advance
was hindered not only by deep snow,
but also by a heavy growth of timber
The soil consisted of gravel deposits. no
doubt of glacial origin. in a fiat valley
and on this an almost impossible forest
had grown up Ermatinger, who was
more interested in fur-bearng animals
and buffalo than in trees does not tell
us to what species the forest growth be-
longed. but 1t is easy TO guess that they
We're evergreens. BY May ) they had
made their way through the snow and
the swampy woods and came to a point
where canoes could be used again. Err
matinger now had only six men with
him. DIR. Mclaughlin had left the party
little below the. 18th .raraueI. al old
Fort Colville. From this point to Win
nipeg lake fish and game were plentiful
The party saw herds OF buffalo and shot
as many as they needed. Ii is interesting
to learn from Ermatnger:s faithful jour
nal that only bulls We're slain. If Ame,i-
can hunters had been wise enough TO nur-
sue the same policy, these animals would
not have been eXterminated but on the
plains to the southwark they We're killed
by the thousands for their hides and
horns no age or Sex being spared
Besides the intrinsic interest of Err
matinger'S narrative. it derives some eco
nomic Importance in our day from the
project of the Canadian government to
build railroad from the Pacific to Fort
York, on Hudscns bay. Such road
would naturally follow the course OF the
Columbia to Athabaska pass and then
proceed down the Saska tchewan to Win
nipeG lake. Thus Erma fingers sketchy
but entirely reliable observations might
become the basis of a scientinc survey.