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Show CHAPTER XXIV. MINNESOTA. IN July, 1859, I stood on the banks of Rum River and watched the long trains of Bois Brules from Pembina, slowly descending that stream to St. Paul. Their carts were made entirely of wood, from bed and wheel to lynch- pin, and were drawn by oxen, one to each cart in most cases; men, carts and animals splashed and clotted with the black mud of the many sloughs they had crossed. The dry season, neglect and alternate soaking and shrinking during the long journey through the " di-vide " and lake region, had brought the ve-hicles to a wretched condi-tion; and the heavily dragging wheels kept up a wailing creecliy, crawcliy, creechy, erawchy that could be heard nearly half a mile " a cry for grease," which went to the soul. The custom of these people, then, was to devote the late autumn and early winter to hunting and trapping; the rest of the winter was fairly divided between merry- making and preparing the furs and pelts they had taken ; and when the late May sunshine had brought forward grass enough for their animals the trains departed southward. At St. Paul they sold the proceeds of their last hunt, and laid in supplies for the next year. The importance of the trade to St. Paul was great: ( 379) PEOPLE FROM PEMBINA AXD THEIR OX- CARTS. |
