Volume 1

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FORT ASSINIBOINE—SWAN RIVER NOTED. 299
where. The H. B. Co. people were busily employed making
hair lines with which they fetter their horses ;
they perform
this work with great expedition, and very neatly, in
the same way that rope is made. The hair they commonly
use is that which buffaloes have between the horns, and
which is sometimes upward of a foot long. They also use
horsehair, which is much stronger than buffalo's. Indians
are also expert and ingenious in making these hair lines,
but their work is slow and tedious in comparison to the
English make.
Having been ferried over to our fort, I found Mr. Chaboillez
[Charles, junior] and Allan McDonald,'* from Fort
Dauphin, on their way to Swan river '^ and Riviere Qu'Ap-
Chaboillez writes, that they behaved honourably toward his people, who are
there to trade with the Natives." (For the Chaboillez matter see L. and C,
ed. 1893, p. 187.) Harmon was wintering at Fort Alexandria when he wrote
this. While at Montagne a la Bosse in Apr., 1805, he had made up his mind to
go to the Pacific via the Missouri river at the Mandans ;
had he done so, he
might have given Lewis and Clark a close race for their laurels ! But ill
health caused him to give up this project. He adds, p. 137, " A Mr. [F. A.]
La Rocque attempted to make this tour ; but went no further than the Mandan
Village." His appearance on that scene is familiar to readers of L. and C.
'* Plainly so in copy : elsewhere in Henry MS. Allen McDonell : see L,
and C, ed. 1893, p. 1184. Allen McDonald appears as clerk N. W. Co., 1804,
Fort Dauphin. He goes with Henry to the Mandans.
" Swan r. is the principal feeder of that Swan 1. which discharges by Swan
or Shoal r. into Lake Winnipegoosis. It is a considerable stream, which arises
in the S.
E. corner of Saskatchewan, enters the N. E. corner of Assiniboia, and
thence flows N. E. in Manitoba to the lake said, thus curving around the
elevated country known as Porcupine mt., and draining between Red Deer r.
and the uppermost Assiniboine ; some of its tributaries are Swan cr., Snake or.,
Bear's Head cr. , Thunder Hill cr,, Tamarac cr.. Rolling r., and Sinclair r. It
has been the scene of various important posts, and for some years gave name to
a department or district of the N. W. Co.
through the chain of great lakes ; and
It was easily accessible from below
also from above, by land N. for a few
miles from the elbow of the Assiniboine, where Fort Pelly now stands, to the
mouth of Snake cr. and vicinity. Thompson came to the N. W. Co. house on
Swan r. at 9 a. m. Sept. 2ist, 1797, about 12 m. by water up river from Swan L
He found in charge " a Mons. Frankure," who, I suppose, was Gabriel Franchere,
and one " Perrinnu " (the MS. blind at the name, but no doubt meant for
Perigne). Thos. Swain and four men were at the H. B. Co. house. Sept. 23d,
Thompson set off with Cuthbert Grant up river, en route to the Assiniboine