Front matter
Reading edition
THE NEW WORLD FAIRY BOOK
Canadian Legends and Tales of Imagination,
Red and White. Sixth Edition.
THE STORY OF CANADA
In the Story of the Empire Series. Third
Edition.
NEW CANADA AND THE NEW
CANADIANS
Second Edition.
PROFESSOR BLACKIE, HIS SAYINGS
AND DOINGS
By his Nephew. Second Edition.
OLD HIGHLAND DAYS
Life of Dr. John Kennedy.
Manitoba Saskatchewan Alberta British Columbia PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS OF THE WEST
THE
BOOK OF THE WEST
By
HOWARD ANGUS KENNEDY
The Story of Western Canada, its Birth and
Early Adventures, its Youthful Combats,
its Peaceful Settlement, its Great
Transformation, and its
Present Ways.
THE RYERSON PRESS
TORONTO
Copyright, Canada, 1925, by
THE RYERSON PRESS
THIS BOOK
IS WRITTEN FOR
ALL LOVERS OF THE WEST WHO
ARE NOT TOO YOUNG TO
THINK OR TOO OLD
TO LEARN
Study to be quiet and to do your own
business, and work with your own hands,
that you may act honestly to others and
lack nothing yourselves.
—Paul the Apostle
CONTENTS
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Page
A Hill-Top Adventure. Foreword1
THE OLD TIMES
I.Adventures without a Man4
Giant Lizards, page 5. Birth of the Mountains, 7. Ice Age, 7. Rhinoceros and Mastodon, 8. A Continent Waiting for Man, 8.
II.The Indian by Himself9
First Arrivals from Asia, 9. Spreading South and East, 11. Corn Found, 11. Gardening Begins, 12. Wanderings of Northern Indians, 13. Prairie Left to the Last, 14. Life and Death, 15. The Mound Builders, 16. The First Plainsmen, 17. Buffalo Hunting Starts, 18. Blackfoot and Cree come out of the Woods, 19. Life in a Hunting Tribe, 20.
III.The White Man Comes Exploring23
Indians Hear Strange News, 23. Why the White Man Crossed the Sea, 25. French Ascend the St. Lawrence, 26. La Salle, 27. English Discover Hudson Bay, 25. Radisson and Groseillers reach the West, 31. Hudson’s Bay Company Started, 33.
IV.The Reign of King Beaver35
His Achievements, Dead and Alive, 35. “Rupert’s Land,” 37. Trading on the Bay Shore, 39. French Opposition, 40. Forest Runners, 41. The Vérendryes, 41. First Sight of the Mountains, 43. The English Strike Inland, 44. Indians on Horseback, 45. Hearne Reaches the Arctic Sea, 47. Eskimo Massacred by Indians, 48.
The Rival North-west Company, 49. Mackenzie Crosses to the Pacific, 50. Thompson Descends the Columbia, 50. Fraser of Fraser River, 51. The Companies at War, 52. Lord Selkirk’s Colony on Red River, 53. Battle of Seven Oaks, 55. The Rivals Join Forces, 56. Company Rule Extended to the Pacific, 56. The Fur Trader’s Life, 56. Travel by Land and Sea, 57. Perils of the Straits, 57.
The West as Paul Kane saw it in 1847, 60. Isolation of Red River, 61. Slaughter of Men and Buffalo, 61. The Cree and Blackfoot Feud, 62. Indian Dance and Horse Race, 63.
Tragedy of Arctic Exploration, 64. Fate of Franklin, 65. North-west Passage Found, 66. Amundsen Gets Through, 66.
V.The Farthest West68
North-west Passage Hunt not Wasted, 68. Drake on the Pacific Coast, 69. Captain Cook, 69. British and Spanish on Vancouver Island, 70. United States Frontier Fixed, 71. Company’s Forts and Farming, 72. Dogs Bred for Wool, 72. Indian Sports and Slavery, 73. Flat-Heads, 74.
First White Colony, 75. The Gold Rush, 75. Company Rule Ended, 76. British Justice, 79. Coal Found, 81. Federation with Canada, 81. The Hog of San Juan, 82.
VI.The Windows Opened83
Exploring for Homes, 83. “Paradise of Fertility,” 84. The Door Still Shut, 84. Toleration of Savagery, 85. Alexander Henry, 86. Indians and Christianity, 86. A Peace Maker, 87. Rupert’s Land Enters Dominion, 88. Trouble on Red River, 89. Wolseley’s Expedition, 90.
VII. The Mounted Police91
New Danger on the Frontier, 91. Mounted Police Organized, 92. Campaign against Whiskey Smugglers, 93. Indians make Treaty, 93. Redcoats and Redskins, 94. Sioux from the States, 96.
THE GREAT DIVIDE
VIII.Our First and Last Indian War98
Riel’s Second Revolt, 99. The Indian Peril, 99. Duck Lake Fight, 99. Battleford Besieged, 100. Frog Lake Massacre, 101. An Army from the East, 103. The Railway just in Time, 104. Relief of Battleford, 105. The Fight on Cutknife Hill, 106. Fish Creek, 111. Victory of Batoche, 112. Surrender of the Chiefs, 112. The Hunt for Big Bear, 114.
THE NEW TIMES
IX.Opening the Door of the West117
The Railway to the Pacific, 117. A National Necessity, 118. How it was Got, 120. Difficulties of Construction, 121. Finished in Five Years, 122.
X.Our Fathers and Mothers Come in124
British Settlers in the East, 124. Their Children Colonize the West, 126. Immigrants Direct from Europe, 126. Early Isolation, 126. King Steer and King Wheat, 127. Collecting Buffalo Bones, 127. The Ranching Era, 127.
XI.Riding the Plains in 1905128
A Ride through Two New Provinces, 128. Calgary, 129. Livestock in the Park Lands, 129. Untouched Prairie, 129. “We are Canadians Now,” 130. Wild Life, 131. Antelope and Railway, 131. Thin Thread of Settlement, 132. Hospitable Métis, 133.
Turn the Key and Walk in, 135. A Man from Iowa, 135. Kings and Presidents, 136. Law and Order, 137. French-Canadians’ Return, 138. Revisiting a Battlefield, 139. Indians Farming, 139. A Sylvan Home, 140.
XII.Learning to be Canadians141
Freighting, 141. The Blacksmith’s Wife, 141. Health in the Air, 142. Scandinavians, 142. “Who are the Slavs?” 143. Small Beginnings, 143. A Spinning Bachelor, 143. A Doukhobor Village, 145. The Long Migration, 148. The Newcomer Learns, and Teaches, 149.
XIII.The Tree of Freedom151
Twin Provinces Born, 151. How to Cultivate the Tree of Freedom, 153. The Political Art of Living Together, 154. Loyalty to Union, 155. The Two Empires, 156.
XIV.On the Wings of the West158
“Cultivating our Garden,” 158. Seeing the West from the Air, 159. Victoria, 159. Federal Observatory, 159. Ships, 160. What the British Navy Means, 160. Vancouver, 160. Fish, Forest, and Mine, 161. A Pioneer Family, 162. “Simple Life and High Standard of Living,” 163. Fruit Valleys, 164. Westerners and the War, 164. Sea of Mountains, 165. Airplane, Wireless, and Forest Fires, 166.
XV.A Flight Across the Plains167
Wealth of Coal and Water Power, 167. Manufactures, 168. The Chinook, 169. Watering Dry Land, 169. Bees, 170. Natural Gas, 170. Quality in Cattle and Sheep, 171. Regina, 171. Rare Clay and Common Dirt, 171. Network of Railways, 172. Better Houses, 172. Telephones, 172. Tree Planting, 173. Nomads Yet, 174. Climates, 175. “Test and Select,” 176. Wasteful Cultivation, 176. Automobiles, 177. The Business End of Farming, 178. Experimental Farms, 179. Universities, 180. People Wanted, 180. Small Farming, 181. Butter and Cheese, 183. Winnipeg, 184. Sports, 185. Boys and Girls, 185. Citizen Soldiers, 186.
XVI.Up to the North and Home Again187
The Caribou Pastures, 187. Reindeer and Food Supply, 188. Police on Arctic Islands, 189. Wireless on the Arctic Coast, 190. Up the Mackenzie, 190. Peace River, 191. Homes in the Brush, 191. Buffalo Flourish Again, 192. Fur Farming and Trapping, 192. A Beaver Colony, 193.
New Settlers and Canadian Ideals, 194. Harmony and Variety, 196. A Sure Foundation, 196. Pure Canadian, 199.
The Spirit of the West201
Index203
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
Parliament Buildings of the Western ProvincesFrontispiece
Very Early Westerners5
Giant Lizards on the Red Deer. Drawing by E. S. Christman.
Indian Lacrosse Player13
Drawing by George Catlin.
Early Buffalo Hunting24
Drawing by George Catlin.
Towing Through the Ice29
From Gerrit de Veer’s “Vraye Description de Trois Voyages,” Amsterdam, 1600.
The Voyageurs’ Way to the West. A Portage on the Ottawa36
From W. H. Bartlett’s Engraving in “Canadian Scenery.”
Chief Poundmaker36
From Pastel by Edmund Morris.
Chief Piapot36
From a Photograph.
Beaver at Work, and Beaver Hats37
From Horace T. Martin’s “Castorologia.”
The Beaver and the Unicorn37
From John Ogilby’s “America,” 1671.
In a Swift Current52
Drawing by Frederic Remington.
On the Winter Highway52
Drawing by Frederic Remington.
Lord Selkirk, Father of Western Settlement53
From a Painting by Raeburn.
Fort Douglas; Where Winnipeg Now Stands53
Built to Protect the Selkirk Settlers. From a Water-Color believed to be by Peter Rindifbacher, Dutch Artist.
Coast Indian Masks73
From the Marquis of Lorne’s “Canadian Pictures.”
On the Cariboo Trail, Thompson River77
From the Marquis of Lorne’s “Canadian Pictures.”
Fort Chipewyan, Lake Athabasca96
From a Drawing by W. S. Watson, 1899.
Buffalo Herd and Prairie Fire96
From a Painting by F. A. Verner.
Mounted Police Chasing Whiskey Smugglers97
The Covered Wagon97
A Returned Canadian, Home-seeking. From a Photograph by H. A. Kennedy, 1905.
An Indian Ultimatum102
Facsimile of Big Bear’s Demand for Surrender of Fort Pitt.
On the Battlefield. Friends Again112
Mounted Police Officer and Cree Indian, Sir Archibald Macdonell and Piacutch. From a Photograph by H. A. Kennedy on Cutknife Hill, 1905.
A Horse Ranch112
Where No Trees Grew. Forestry Station, Indian Head113
Quality Raising Quality. School Fair Prize Winners113
Antelope on the Prairie132
From a Drawing by George Catlin.
From the Russian Oven176
At the Spinning Wheel176
Doukhobor Housewives. From Photographs by H. A. Kennedy.
The Old House and the New. On a Ruthenian Farm177
A Family from Poland177
Lake Louise, Rocky Mountains National Park192
Mount Robson, Jasper National Park193
The E. P. Ranch, High River193
The Prince of Wales and his Canadian Home
Sketch Map of Western Canada206
Hearty thanks are given to the Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, and the publishers of “Canadian Pictures,” for the use of pictures from that book by the late Duke, Governor-General of Canada; to Mrs. H. T. Martin for the beaver pictures from her husband’s book; to Harper’s Magazine and Mrs. Remington’s executors for the two travel scenes by Frederic Remington; to the American Museum of Natural History, New York, for the giant lizards; to the scientific staff of the Victoria Museum at Ottawa for checking my pre-historic facts; to many other officers of the Dominion and the four Western Provinces, and unofficial informants, for pictorial and other details; above all, to the numberless good folk all over the West who have made my travelling and living among them an endless revelation and delight.—H.A.K.
THE BOOK OF THE WEST
THE BOOK OF THE WEST
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