Volume 1

RETURN TO CAMP AT GRAND FORKS.
15I
buffalo feeding on the plain, and red deer in the edge of
the wood or passing through the open spaces.
My guide was anxious to depart. At eight o'clock we
set out, and, without making halt to rest our horses, we.
reached our camp at Grandes Fourches at sunset. Here I
was obliged to treat my guide with high wine ; he was soon
intoxicated, and brave as a lion, saying he was sorry we had
seen no Sioux, as he would have taken some scalps, and
even offering to go to Otter Tail lake. After much of his
boasting, I asked him once more to go with my man up
Riviere du Lac Rouge [Red Lake river] to-morrow in search
of the Indians. He offered to start instantly if I would
give him the keg to take, in case he should find them ;
but
this would not do. I gave him an extra dose of undiluted
high wine, and, after some trouble to keep him from crossing
the river, which he attempted to do several times,
in intervals of running toward the plain and calling the
Sioux " old women," he fell asleep exhausted.
Nov, I2th. At sunrise the Indian and my man crossed
the river on the raft, whilst I remained to take care of our
horses. The poor beasts required rest. I gave the men
proper directions, should they fall in with the Indians, to
bring them here. I slept most of the day. At sunset my
people returned, having been up as far as Deux Rivieres aux
Marais,^' two small parallel rivers on the S. side of Red
Lake river. At the entrance of one of them they found
the sign of some persons who had worked the beaver lately,
and whom the Indian believed to have been those we
sought; he said that, judging by the marks he saw, they
had returned to their families.
Nov. Jjth. At daybreak we were on horseback. We had
some trouble to cross Turtle river. The mud was frozen
on each side, but the crust was not strong enough to bear
our horses ;
their legs went through, and they were in danger
of being hurt. However, we got over, and proceeded to
'' No doubt the pair of small streams which fall into Red Lake r, from the
S. in the vicinity of Fisher, Polk Co., Minn.