Part 3

BUFFALO were plentiful in my first years and I have seen thousands of them. Many of the old freighters have told me that very often when the buffalo were travelling south that they were compelled to stop their brigades of carts and camp for one or two days until the great herds passed. Of course the freighters picked out the choice ones, or as many as they required, for meat supply on the trip.

I saw where buffalo in the fall had tried to cross the Saskatchewan River, and had broken through the ice. The animals behind had forced the others on, trampling them to death. Carcasses of dead buffalo completely bridged the river, the remainder of the herd passing over them. Buffalo always followed the leader like sheep. There were millions of them in that part of the country and all disappeared in a few years. Today there is a herd of about two hundred and fifty animals in the MacKenzie River valley. They have not increased in numbers. The Siberian wolves get among them continually and destroy many of the calves. There is another herd in the government park at Wainwright, Saskatchewan, which is thriving and increasing.

After the buffalo had disappeared, the plains Indians, who numbered many thousands at that time, were reduced to starvation. Many of them died, and the Canadian government of that day was compelled to gather them all into reservations throughout the country, and ration them. Living in small log houses, with only one room, was a great change from their roaming, open-air life on the plains, and they became afflicted with all kinds of diseases, consumption being their greatest destroyer.

The number of horses an Indian owned was the gauge of his wealth. Some of them had as many as three hundred head, of which quite a large number were in the buffalo-runner class. A horse in that class was never put to any other work. He had to be extra long-winded, swift and tough as steel, able to keep pace with a stampeding herd until his rider had shot down ten or fifteen animals. As a rule, these horses stood about fourteen and a half hands high and weighed nearly a thousand pounds. Their sires were usually imported thoroughbreds. The most of that breed of horses have gone to the "happy hunting grounds" where the Indian says the buffalo have gone. The gun used was a single barrel, muzzle-loading, flint-lock shot gun, using number twenty-eight ball instead of shot. Skill in riding was necessary and quickness at re-loading.

Fort Ellice, where I was assigned to duty, was built on the south bank of the valley of the Assiniboine River. It was a beautiful location with charming scenery, about three miles from where the Qu'Appelle River empties into the Assiniboine. The Assiniboine Valley was about two miles wide and that of the Beaver Creek about one thousand yards. The Fort was built on the top level between the two, on a beautiful plain dotted with little poplar bluffs, with numerous springs of gushing water up at the top of the level in the face of the banks. The river in the centre of the valley winds its tortuous way to empty itself later on into the Red River, thence to Lake Winnipeg, thence to Hudson Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

The Fort itself was built in a large square, the big front gates being about thirty yards from the edge of the bank which was very precipitous at this point, and well wooded with small trees, ferns and saskatoon bushes.

On one side of the square was a long row of one-storey log buildings, with thatched roofs all joined with one another. Our carpenter shop was at one end of this row and the blacksmith's shop at the other. The doors or entrances all faced to the Fort. There was the men's house, the mechanics' house, the native servants' and dog drivers' houses, also the married servants' houses, each consisting of one large room.

A door opened into each from the outside and there was no other means of entrance to any of the other houses in that long row of buildings, except by its own door or down the chimney. Two tiers of rough bunks round the walls represented the sleeping accommodations. A large mud chimney and open fire-place provided ventilation. We did all cooking at the open fireside.

On the other side of the square, in an equally long row, built in the same style, were warehouses, ration houses, dry meat and pemmican house, flour, pork and beef house, and a well-appointed dairy, with a good cellar and lots of ice. These buildings were one and a-half storeys high and were without chimneys or fire-places.

At one side of the big gate in front was the trading store and district office, and on the other side the fur store and reserve stock warehouse. Each of these buildings was very long and substantial, fully one and a-half storeys high.

The main building in the Fort was the Factor's dwelling or the "big house," as it was called. This was the quarters of the officers and clerks. It stood well back in the square, its front being in line with the end of the long rows of buildings on either side, so that every house in the Fort could be seen from its windows. The "big house" was a two and a-half storey building, with a large kitchen behind, built from the same plan as the officers' dwellings in Fort Garry, and known as a Red River frame building.

It had a fine balcony and verandah. The main entrance was in the centre of the building opening into a large recreation and council hall.

==============================

==============================

The Factor's private office was at the right, and the parlour or sitting-room to the left. The large mess-room, dining-room, and private bedrooms were in the rear. Upstairs was a large hall and reading-room, and bedrooms for the clerks. The upper floor was heated with large Carron stoves, as well as the hall downstairs, and the trading shop and district office.

There were four fire-places on the ground floor and another in the kitchen, as well as a large cooking range. A splendid mud oven stood outside for baking bread and cooking extra large roasts. There was also a fine well close at hand with the proverbial oaken bucket attached to a rope and chain. The "big house" and kitchen were thatched, and all the houses were mudded and white-washed with lime. They presented a good appearance from a distance.

A four foot sidewalk ran all around the square, and another one from the front gate to the front door of the "big house." There was a nice vegetable, flower and kitchen garden of about an acre behind the house. The flagstaff stood at the front gate, and the belfry stood outside the Factor's private office. While a high stockade enclosed the whole square, so when the big gates were locked at night there was no danger of losing any scalps before morning.

(_To be continued_)

==============================

Captain Freakley Married

CAPTAIN NORMAN FREAKLEY, Superintendent of Transport for the Company, with headquarters at Montreal, came to Winnipeg last month to claim a bride from the head office staff of the Fur Trade Department. The captain was wedded December 30th to Miss Frances Menagh, at St. George's Church, Winnipeg. Miss Menagh, daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Menagh of Cork, Ireland, had been engaged with the Company at Winnipeg for several years.

========================================

Two Ends to Every Stick

By J. M. GREEN, Portage la Loche.

_Oh, it's easy for to sit and grouch when letters don't arrive; Letters you've been waitin' for and letters that you prize; And you sit and cuss the postman, and you cuss the bloomin' mail, And maybe you cuss the writer and pile it good and thick, But have you ever stopped to think of his end of the stick?_

_You can sit in cosy rooms back home, the Post does all the rest. Perhaps to post a letter you walk a block at best. And then you sit and wonder why the devil don't he write? To keep us all awaitin', it's a shame--it isn't right. And you growl like a grizzly. Sure; you'd make an Indian sick, Just because you don't know anything of his end of the stick._

_Suppose the nearest mail box was a hundred miles or more. And no one but yourself to pack the letters to your door; And suppose there ain't no street cars, no motors, not a road. Just a team of mangy mongrels to help you pack your load; And its forty below zero, and your feet both feel like brick, I wonder what would happen were that your end of the stick?_

_And s'pose the mail man ain't arrived an' spring's set in at last, And there ain't no snow but just the ice arotten' good and fast; And you know to miss the mail man means to wait three months or so Before you read a letter, and you don't want for to go, But you can't wait any longer and your heart is mighty sick, I wonder would you grumble, would you grin, or would you stick?_

+-------------------+ | LETHBRIDGE | +-------------------+

MR. JAMES YOUNG originally hails from Scotland, and comes to us from the Macleod store to take charge of the dry goods department. Mr. Young has had wide experience, both in Canada and in the Old Land.

MR. P. K. SANGSTER, of New Westminster, B.C., has joined the Lethbridge staff as Advertising Manager. Mr. Sangster was with the I. H. Smith Co., of New Westminster for twelve years, excepting for the period when he was overseas. Mr. Sangster was one of the fortunate Canadian exchanged prisoners from Germany. He was picked up on the field in the Paschendaele affair, having had four inches of bone blown out of one of his legs. Mr. Sangster was a prisoner in Germany eight months prior to his exchange.

AFTER four and one-half years with the Lethbridge store, Miss Annie Hurst was presented with a pair of Hudson's Bay blankets and linen towels prior to her marriage to Mr. J. Wilsoncroft on January 17th in St. Mary's Church of England. A reception was held in the evening at the home of the bride's parents.

MRS. MARS, manager of the ladies' ready-to-wear department, recently had the pleasure of a visit from her sister, Mrs. Carney and Dr. Carney, of Great Falls, Montana.

+-------------------+ | NELSON, B.C. | +-------------------+

THE Nelson "STORE BABY" is leaving very soon. She is supposed to be going into another branch of work, but there are those who think it is another style of work altogether. A little bird claims she is a good cook and excellent housekeeper.

THE HUDSONIA SOCIAL CLUB is continuing its good work of last year. Several card and dance parties have been held. A big evening open to the public will have been held by the time this goes to press. Last year, a similar affair was the hit of the season.

==============================

FEATURING BONNIE BABIES

_They Are All Deserving of Prizes and Deciding Winners Was Difficult_

PROMISING people indeed are the little pink-toed, plump-jowled babies of H.B.C. fathers who occupy the centre of our interest this month. They are a "full-stage" attraction in this issue of _The Beaver_. Find them over the page in bonnie _ensemble_; all at that happy stage of life when affectation has utterly no power over dress, expression or gesture. None of them has been specially posed for the occasion; some were snapped at most unconventional moments.

There is no sign of race suicide here. Yet this showing is only a partial one; we publish only those winning prizes or deserving special mention; and in the limited time allowed for photographs, there was no opportunity to hear from a great many points in the far northern districts.

If we could have got them all in this group, surely this would be a "Baby Show" to evoke the plaudits of the greatest "baby experts." Weaklings are notably absent amongst H.B.C. children, and the judges of the group of H.B.C. infants presented in this issue are firmly inclined to the opinion that H.B.C. babes of the types shown score just a little higher than babes ordinarily pictured.

The limitation of the prizes to three in number proved a real hardship for the judges, as it was considered the lot of them possessed prize-winning qualities. Deciding on the winners was difficult, but awards were finally made as follows:

_First Prize_--

Silver mounted comb and brush set awarded to Miss Bettie Everitt, daughter of Mr. B. A. Everitt, of the H.B.C. land department, Winnipeg.

_Second Prize_--

Sterling silver thumb spoon, awarded to Kindersley Lidstone, son of Mr. I. T. Lidstone, buyer of crockery H.B.C. store at Kamloops, British Columbia. This fine baby was born on the day of the 250th Anniversary Celebration at Kamloops and was named for Governor Sir Robert Kindersley by special arrangement.

_Third Prize_--

Sterling and ivory bell rattle, awarded to Kathleen Flora Gould, daughter of Mr. Gould, of H.B.C. Edmonton Store.

==================================================

H.B.C. Helped Settlers Remain on Land During "Lean Years"

_Liberal and Constructive Policy of Company in Disposal of Its Farm Land Estate in Canada Has Obtained Agriculturists for the West and Kept Them_

PROBABLY no institution or organization in Canada has done more towards pioneering and paving the way for settlement than the Hudson's Bay Company. From the very beginning, when the first white settlers began to arrive, agricultural lands were made available for settlement by the Company in the Red River Valley, and as the demand increased, prairie lands were surveyed into regular townships, and lands accruing to the Company were made available for sale at reasonable prices, and every inducement and encouragement given to agriculturists to settle thereon.

There were, of course, in those days, lean years as well as years of abundant crops, but prices which could be realized for grains were usually very low, and facilities for exporting were quite inadequate.

There were periods of depression and sometimes hardship, when the early settlers and purchasers of the Company's lands were unable to meet their interest payments, and in some cases the farmers could not even meet their taxes. During these difficult times, when lands were not by any means of such great value as they are today, and land was a doubtful security, the Hudson's Bay Company never wavered in its confidence in the future of the West, and in order to assist in maintaining the optimism of the settlers, the Company did not unduly press for the liquidation of its purchasers' obligations, but gave every encouragement to the farmers who suffered reverses, would even advance taxes to tide them over until crop conditions improved and they were able to meet their commitments.

These conditions obtained fairly often, and by reason of unbounded faith in the future of the prairie provinces by the Company's officials, hundreds of settlers and agriculturists were retained for Western Canada, who in other circumstances would have abandoned their farms and left Canada for other parts.

Long before Dominion Government Surveyors were sent west to sub-divide the prairies into rectangular townships under the existing system of Dominion Government Surveys, and previous to the surrender of Rupert's Land by the Company to the Crown, the Company arranged to have laid off farming plots fronting on the Red River, running east and west to a distance back of two or more miles.

The first regular sale of farming land by the Company under the Government system of surveys is designated as sale No. 1, the land having been sold to William McKechnie, of Emerson, Man. The sale was negotiated on the 4th of August, 1879, covering the whole of section 8, township 1, range 3, east of the principal meridian, containing 640 acres, at the price of $6.00 per acre, the total consideration being $3,840.00, which in those days was considered very fair compensation for such land.

In the present day administration of the Company's land, the same sound policy prevails, and by this time the Company has sold many thousands of parcels and continues to make sales, preferring always to deal with and sell to _bona-fide_ settlers.

No purchaser of Hudson's Bay Company's farming lands who has made an honest endeavour to cultivate the land and use it for legitimate farming purposes has ever had just cause for complaint in the treatment he has received at the Company's hands. Lean years are bound to come, and adversity as the result in some cases is bound to follow, and when it is fairly established to the Company that the farmer has done his part within reason, he has not been unduly pressed for liquidation of his indebtedness.

Under the regular terms of Hudson's Bay farm land sales, the contracts mature in seven years, but it sometimes happens that, on account of adversity over which the purchaser has no control, it has taken him from twenty to twenty-five years before he has been able to fully meet his obligations and obtain title. The Company has always been very patient and lenient with this class of purchaser. This method of dealing with settlers and farmers is fundamentally sound, and instead of a dissatisfied purchaser abandoning his interest and leaving the West, he ultimately becomes the possessor of his farm, is retained to Canada, and is a worthy asset to the community to which he belongs. The Company's persistent policy in dealing with its estate in Canada is fully in keeping with its traditions in every branch of its business, and according to the Company's Land Commissioner, "the policy of the directors, as above outlined, has been and is still one of the chief reasons why the Company has thousands of satisfied land purchasers, customers and friends with whom it has had dealings during the past forty-two years.

"To date the Company has disposed of over three and a half million acres of farming lands in the prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and sales continue to be effected at the rate of approximately 20,000 acres per month. Practically all the lands are sold for development and farming purposes.

"The Company will continue its sound, proven policy always preserving, under all circumstances, its established name for fair dealing, with the primary object always of contributing, in the fullest measure possible within its powers, towards the up-building of Western Canada, and incidentally doing its quota towards the building, enlargement and ever increasing integrity of the British Empire."

==========

Dinorwic Post News

REV. CANON LOFTHOUSE, of Kenora, was a guest over the week-end at the manager's house.

TOM CHIEF (brother of Chief William Chief), one of the oldest Indians trapping here, died in St. Joseph Hospital, Kenora, on January 8th, 1921. He was one of our medalists, and a faithful hunter for the Company.

"THE BEAVER" is awaited with great interest by the members of the staff at this Post. It is getting better every issue. We would like to see more news of the fur trade, in this section of the magazine, as this news is of great interest to all in the fur trade department of the Company; so all members of it should get busy and gather up all the news they can. The advertising of the Company by its employees is another good thing, so all together for it, "_The harder the pull, the higher the flag of the H.B.C._"

L. R. JOHNSON (H.B.M.) was confined to his bed three days last month with a severe cold.

GAME OVERSEER W. H. Martin, of Kenora, paid us an official visit last month.

MRS. FRED NAGLE, of Fort William, mother of Mrs. L. R. Johnson, was visiting her for a few days in the month of December.

+------------------------------------------------------------------+

We Cannot Stand Still

By J. M. GIBSON

General Manager, Calgary Retail

_IF there is no forward movement, we must slide back, as the power of gravity ever grips where motion has ceased. The business, great or small, that comes to a stand-still with a smile of self-satisfaction is heading for the shelf of dry rot. Every business must strive in its present year to beat that of the past, to beat the turnover, the service, the public good-will and the net results. The very strife after these ends develops the initiative, broadens the aspect and reproduces better men; therefore do not hesitate, never stop, but always keep climbing._

+------------------------------------------------------------------+

How Shipping Rates on Goods Affect Stores' Salespower

_What Change Should be Made in Proposed New Freight Classification (No. 17)?_

By J. BROWN

_Editor's Note._--_A circular letter, dated, 7th January, from one of the best organized trade associations of Canada, indicates that meetings are to be held soon to consider the application of the proposed new freight classification (No. 17)._

THE latterday high cost of transportation so vitally affects the salespower of the Company's department stores (as well as other wholesale or retail stores in Western Canada) that favourable groupings of certain classes of goods under the proposed new freight classification (No. 17) are considered important in view of the Company's great problem of distribution.

While the new schedule is under consideration, H.B.C. traffic men will see the advantage of working to secure a spread of _two classes_ between less-than-carload and full carload ratings on drygoods. It is reported also that every effort will be made to convince carriers that certain lines of drygoods should be listed separately or in greatly restricted groups, instead of being carried, as at present, under extensive groups. It is apparent that an important saving for H.B.C. stores would result from such re-classification in view of the 35 per cent. difference between first and third class and first and second class ratings.

Under the proposed new freight classification (No. 17), certain drygoods shipped in carlots will take a _second class_ rate. The present classification (No. 16) on such drygoods gives no advantage in rate for carloads.