NARRATIVES OF SASKATOON

1882-1912

Genealogy, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, Pioneer,Saskatchewan history, Temperance Colony, Temperance Colonization Society, Pioneers,John N. Lake, John Lake, Saskatoon history, Saskatoon Gen Web, Genealogy, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, Pioneer,Saskatchewan history, Temperance Colony, Temperance Colonization Society, Saskatoon history, Saskatoon Gen Web

than a person would imagine, powerful as they looked. We would chop a hole in the ice and put in a beef head, filling up the hole in the ice with water to hold the head solid. The wolverine would tear it out and never get caught in a trap. I have known where a wolverine would come across a coyote caught in a trap and dashed it around him on the snow as a dog would handle a badger. The coyote was then torn out of the trap, dragged. into the bush some distance and eaten all but the head. A coyote in a trap is no mean enemy either. Mink trapping was good but I believe we got the most of these also. Some of the wolverine gave very large and beautiful furs, The last few years I never saw a track of these animals. A few timber wolves were around Saskatoon. In the early spring of '83 I shot A very large one about where the post office is at Nutana. We had then moved to a building which we had put up for John Conn. Every evening on opening the dOor to throw some scraps out something would dash away. After watching for some time we found it to be a wolf. Then careful watch was kept. He had grown bold and would only run a short distance and return when the door was shut. One beautiful moonlight night the chance came. The door was opened; he ran a short distance and sat down on his haunches; light and all other conditions for night shooting were for a wonder favorable. I got him through the neck. He measured seven feet from tip of tail to nose. A beautiful fur, pure white with only a streak of black or grey on the back. A beautiful rug was made from the pelt and served for years. A little incident shows the trials of a bachelor on the homestead. I had to leave the place for a week. I had sixty-two chickens, hens and pullets and nine turkeys. Plenty of feed was to be had at the straw stack and lots of water. On my return one rooster was there to greet me. He was gone next morning. A large badger had a hole in the corner of the stable. Of course I got the badger but he had my poultry. Some days af- ter I heard that one of my turkeys was at Trounce's in Nutana. The only one left had flown over the river! I had no use for one bird so gave her to old Mrs. Blackley who kept her until she died a natural death. Fish from the river made a large part of the diet of those who lived near it. In the Pike Lake district my house was at one time near the river. I had plenty of fish, sturgeon, sometimes, not often, a cat-fish, plenty of mud cats and gold eyes, and some fine pike. I have caught a seven foot pike, but never a very large sturgeon, though I have seen some enormous fish taken out. All surplus fish were smoked. Smoked mud cat, or ling as some call them, were as good as the finest Finnan Haddock ever eaten. Goldeyes smoked are, of course, familiar to most people, and smoked pike, when part of a large fish, is a good fish. The real cat fish is very fine meat, but it was a rarity to get one of these. I notice that in the Pike Lake district, on the flats below the hills, the government has settlers filed on lands in these flats surveyed roads for them where section lines could not be followed on account of swamp or muskeg. In all cases the roads laid out were those which we cleared and made across creeks and through bush to get at the hay land. Though the whole of the wooded country on each side of the river was named Moose Woods, I never spoke to an Indian or half-breed who would say he had at any time seen a Moose there. I refer to the wooded country beginning a few miles up the river from Saskatoon. In '83 enormous elk horns could be found on the Pike Lake district still in a fair state of preser- vation, but none were seen alive later or even a few years previously. Wild cat or lynx were also plentiful in this part. I think we, however, largely thinned them out. Buffalo bones or skulls would be found with part of the hide still remaining, bones with flattened bullets or flint arrow- heads still sticking in them, and such like. I spent a week or so one winter with Gabriel Dumont, later Riel's right hand man. He was visiting Andy, a French half-breed from Quebec, whom the Company had sent up to run the ferry, At the time I was nurse to Andy, as he had split his foot with the axe when cutting wood, and dared not put the foot down. Gabriel was a splendid shot, and kept us bountifully supplied with venison. His wife would have a pot full always on the fire, when anyone felt hungry he Page 42

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