Forest, Lake and Prairie
Twenty years of frontier life in western Canada, 1842-62, By John McDougall

Contents

• Chapter I
  Childhood - Indians - Canoes - "Old Isaiah " - Father goes to college.
• Chapter II
  Guardians - School - Trip to Nottawasaga - Journey to Alderville - Elder Case - The Wild Colt, etc.
• Chapter III
  Move into the far north - Trip from Alderville to Garden River - Father's work - Wide range of big steamboat - My trip to Owen Sound - Peril in storm - In store at Penetanguishene - Isolation - First boat - Brother David knocked down.
• Chapter IV
  Move to Rama - I go to college - My chum - How I cure him - Work in store in Orillia - Again attend college - Father receives appointment to "Hudson's Bay" - Asks me to accompany him.
• Chapter V
  From Rama to St. Paul - Mississippi steamers - Slaves - Pilot - Race.
• Chapter VI
  Across the plains - Mississippi to the Red - Pemmican - Mosquitoes - Dogs - Hunting - Flat boat - Hostile Indians.
• Chapter VII
  From Georgetown on the Red to Norway House on the Nelson - Old Fort Garry - Governor MacTavish - York boats - Indian gamblers - Welcome by H. B. Co. people.
• Chapter VIII
  New mission - The people - School - Invest in pups - Dog-driving - Foot-ball - Beautiful aurora.
• Chapter IX
  First real winter trip - Start - Extreme fatigue - Conceit all gone - Cramps - Change - Will-power - Find myself - Am as capable as others - Oxford House - Jackson's Bay.
• Chapter X
  Enlarging church - Winter camp - How evenings are spent - My boys - Spring - The first goose, etc.
• Chapter XI
  Opening of navigation - Sturgeon, fishing - Rafting timber - Sawing lumber.
• Chapter XII
  Summer transport - Voyageurs - Norway House - The meeting place of many brigades - Missionary work intensified.
• Chapter XIII
  Canoe trip to Oxford - Serious accident.
• Chapter XIV
  Establish a fishery - Breaking dogs - Dog-driving, etc.
• Chapter XV
  Winter trip to Oxford - Extreme cold - Quick travelling.
• Chapter XVI
  Mother and baby's upset - My humiliation.
• Chapter XVII
  From Norway House to the great plains - Portaging - Pulling and poling against the strong current - Tracking.
• Chapter XVIII
  Enter the plains - Meet a flood - Reach Fort Carlton.
• Chapter XIX
  The Fort - Buffalo steak - "Out of the latitude of bread".
• Chapter XX
  New surroundings - Plain Indians - Strange costumes - Glorious gallops - Father and party arrive.
• Chapter XXI
  Continue journey - Old "La Gress" - Fifty miles per day.
• Chapter XXII
  Fort Pitt - Hunter's paradise - Sixteen buffalo with seventeen arrows - "Big" Bear.
• Chapter XXIII
  On to White-fish Lake - Beautiful country - Indian camp - Strike northward into forest land.
• Chapter XXIV
  The new Mission - Mr. Steinhauer - Benjamin Sinclair.
• Chapter XXV
  Measurement of time - Start for Smoking Lake - Ka-Kake - Wonderful hunting feat - Lose horse - Tough meat.
• Chapter XXVI
  Mr. Woolsey - Another new mission.
• Chapter XXVII
  Strike south for buffalo and Indians - Strange mode of crossing "Big River" - Old Besho and his eccentricities - Five men dine on two small ducks.
• Chapter XXVIII
  Bear hunt - Big grizzlies - Surfeit of fat meat.
• Chapter XXIX
  The first buffalo - Father excited - Mr. Woolsey lost - Strike trail of big camp - Indians dash at us - Meet Maskepetoon.
• Chapter XXX
  Large camp - Meet Mr. Steinhauer - Witness process of making provisions - Strange life.
• Chapter XXXI
  Great meeting—Conjurers and medicine-men look on under protest - Father prophesies - Peter waxes eloquent as interpreter - I find a friend.
• Chapter XXXII.
  The big hunt - Buffalo by the thousand - I kill my first buffalo - Wonderful scene.
• Chapter XXXIII
  Another big meeting - Move camp - Sunday service all day.
• Chapter XXXIV
  Great horse-race - "Blackfoot," "Moose Hair," and others - No gambling - How "Blackfoot" was captured.
• Chapter XXXV
  Formed friendships - Make a start - Fat wolves - Run one - Reach the Saskatchewan at Edmonton.
• Chapter XXXVI
  Swim horses - Cross in small boat - Dine at officers' table on pounded meat without anything else - Sup on ducks - No carving.
• Chapter XXXVII
  Start for new home - Miss seeing father - Am very lonely - Join Mr. Woolsey.
• Chapter XXXVIII
  William goes to the plains - I begin work at Victoria - Make hay - Plough - Hunt - Storm.
• Chapter XXXIX
  Establish a fishery - Build a boat - Neils becomes morbid - I watch him.
• Chapter XL
  Lake freezes - I go for rope - Have a narrow escape from wolf and drowning - We finish our fishing - Make sleds - Go home - Camp of starving - Indians en route.
• Chapter XLI
  Mr. O. B. - The murderer - The liquor keg.
• Chapter XLII
  William comes back - Another refuge seeker comes to us - Haul our fish home - Hard work.
• Chapter XLIII
  Flying trip to Edmonton - No snow - Bare ice - Hard travel - A Blackfoot's prayer.
• Chapter XLIV
  Midnight mass - Little Mary - Foot-races - Dog races, etc. - Reach my twentieth birthday - End of this book.

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