page_title: James Carnegie, 9th Earl of Southesk
section_title: 1859 Canadian Expedition
hierarchical_section_title: James Carnegie, 9th Earl of Southesk / 1859 Canadian Expedition
caption_attribution_description: English: Identifier: cu31924104730357 (find matches) Title: The life and habits of wild animals Year: 1874 (1870s) Authors: Wolf, Joseph, 1820-1899 Elliot, Daniel Giraud, 1835-1915 Subjects: Animal behavior Birds Publisher: London, A. Macmillan Contributing Library: Cornell University Library Digitizing Sponsor: MSN View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: ly it cannot continue its rapid course for any length of time.Terrible would be the duel, if when aroused to anger, these two great beasts shouldmeet and. engage in conflict. Difficult indeed would it be to foretell which would ,come off victorious. Their mode of. life does not often cause themi to interferewith each other, the Bear preferring the seclusion of the thick jungle, while theBison, as I have said, is a dweller on the open plains. It is possible, however,that they have fierce disputes at times, and the moment has been selected forillustration when a sharp-clawed Grizzly is overthrown by a blow delivered bythe armed head of his ferocious-looking adversary.. It is impossible to surmise theresult of this conflict, for we may rest assured that one blow will not put the bearhors-de-combat. When he next returns to the charge. the position of the com-batants may be reversed, and terrible will be the struggle for the mastery, betweensuch great and powerful rival monarchs. PLATE y\/ Text Appearing After Image: RIVAL MONARCHS. THE KING OF BEASTS. Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: James Carnegie, 9th Earl of Southesk KT was a Scottish nobleman, explorer and poet.
context_section_description: In 1859, after the death of his wife, the Earl was advised that to improve his health he should travel to a place where he could live an open-air life and hunt.  In 1859, at the age of 32, he embarked on a trip to western Canada.
  Carnegie wrote that the reason for the expedition was to, "travel in some part of the world where good sport could be met with among the larger animals, and where, at the same time, I might recruit my health by an active open-air life in a healthy climate."
  — James Carnegie, 9th Earl of Southesk
  Southesk left Liverpool on April 15, 1859 on a Cunard paddle-wheeler called the “Africa” for North America.  Eventually, he ended up in St. Paul, Minnesota, the jumping off point for his expedition and then continued on north to Fort Garry, the Hudson's Bay Company's western headquarters in the Red River Colony.  In June, Southesk, headed out west and over the next seven months, the expedition travelled more than 4,000 kilometres across the northern prairies to the Rocky Mountains. The plan was to head west out of Fort Garry into Rupert's Land, to hunt bears and bison. He arrived at Fort Edmonton on August 1.  At the fort he paused to buy horses, hired a Metis guide called Antoine Blandoine and built enough pack saddles to haul his outfit into the mountains west of Cadomin to pursue bighorn sheep. The journey, in early September, took the expedition up the Athabasca River to the McLeod River and finally, the Medicine Tent River, noting that he was now in country that, "no European had ever seen, where bears and wild sheep were certain to be abundant." The expedition then crossed over Southesk Pass, to the Kootenay Plain s of the Saskatchewan River valley, in present-day Alberta. The expedition followed the Siffleur River, crossed over the Pipestone Pass, and followed the Pipestone River to the Bow River.  After camping near Cascade Mountain, the Earl nearly crossed paths with another explorer, James Hector at a time when there were very few Europeans in the Canadian Rockies.
  On the expedition, the Earl of Southesk climbed a mountain, located 6 km north of Mount Southesk and erected a cairn on top that can still be seen today. He wrote in his journal, "I am the first European who has visited this valley, and if I might have the geographic honour of giving my name to some spot of earth, I should choose the mountain near which the two rivers rise."
  For the expedition he employed a number of Métis guides and scouts; James McKay, John McKay, George Klyne, John "Piscan" Munroe, Baptiste La Grace, James "Little Dog" Short, Antoine Blandion, Pierre Desnomme, Thomas Arinwakena, and Duncan Robertson. These men were experienced buffalo hunters. During this trip which took him west to Fort Edmonton and into the Rocky Mountains he commissioned and collected several Métis and aboriginal artifacts.
  While on his trip, the Earl received considerable support from the Hudson's Bay Company. HBC Governor Sir George Simpson helped the Earl arrange for guides, supplies and horses. He gave the Earl a map and instructed HBC employees to show him “every attention.”.
  In 1875 he wrote, "Saskatchewan and the Rocky Mountains" which described his travels.
  An exhibit dedicated to the Earl's Canadian prairie trip, including a life-sized statue of a large plains grizzly bear he killed while on a bison hunt on the nearby prairie, can be found at Ancient Echoes Interpretive Centre in Herschel, Saskatchewan.
caption: Plains Grizzly Bear and Plains Bison
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