Volume 1

FOURNIER PRAIRIE—ROAD TO SHOAL LAKE. 289
anywhere out of the smudge, although nearly suffocated by
it,
and while lying down we were in continual danger of our
horses treading on us, as the night was dark, the poor beasts
could not eat, and were continually crowding in the smoke.
July gth. Fine weather, but excessively warm. We
mounted and left, directing our course N. W., to avoid
some large marais and low meadows which lie along the
river near Prairie a Faurneer,* and which we supposed were
overflowed— the mosquitoes tormenting us as usual. Our
horses, which had little rest last night, were almost ungovernable,
tearing up the grass, throwing their fore feet over
their heads to drive away the insects, and biting their
sides
till our legs were in danger of their teeth. In a word the
poor tortured and enraged beasts often attempted to throw
themselves down and roll in the water. We also suffered
intolerably, being almost prevented from taking breath.
At ten o'clock we fell upon the great cart road which
goes to Lac Plat,* about two leagues N. of us, where a num-
* So copy, but read Fournier (baker), in this instance a personal name. Thus
McDonnell, May 19th, 1794, in Masson, I. p. 290, has: " Met two canotees
of South-Men, ascending, headed by a Mons. Fournier. Took Morelle, a
deserter of ours from Pembina River, from him. The first prairie below Fort
de la Reine has been called Prairie a Fournier after this South Trader."
There
were several persons in the N. W. Co. of this name.—One Fournier brought an
express from Slave 1.
to Fort Chipewyan, Apr. 17th, 1800.—Ignace Fournier is
listed as voyageur. Fort des Prairies, 1804. — Joseph Fournier is listed as voyageur
contre-maitre. Upper Red r., 1804 ;
perhaps this is the one McDonnell
speaks of.—
Jacques Fournier, a Canadian voyageur, date and place of birth
unknown, died in Kansas in July, 1871, at an alleged age of 124 or 125 years,
probably about 100 ; he claimed to remember the battle of Abraham Plains,
1759, perhaps meaning siege of Quebec in 1775 ; was traced through Pittsburg,
Pa., to New Orleans, where he was in the war of 1812, and is said to have been
with Lewis and Clark. There is no mention of such a person, but he might
have been one of the unnamed boatmen, who went as far as the Mandans and
returned.—Louis Fournier was on the Willamette r. in Oregon in 1835.—Henry
is traveling in St. Fran9ois Xavier parish, past the town of that name on the N.
bank of the river, toward Bale St. Paul. A town on the same bank, between
the two said, is now known as Pigeon Lake.
^ Now Shoal 1., a considerable body of water lying between Lake Manitoba
and Lake Winnipeg.
The cart road to this lake went north of the river in the
vicinity of the present town of Marquette, on the main C. P. Ry.