requesting that it be taken in and cared for.Previous entries of Sam Steele's Journal
October 1, 1874
In the rear our party was obliged to walk all the time; our horses could carry us no longer.
October 2, 1874
The horses we were driving would sometimes fall, and be unable to rise. Carr and I, with a pole under the brisket, had to lift the wretched brutes to their feet while the shoeingsmith assisted to steady them.
October 3, 1874
To add to our troubles, some of the teams would be hours behind the leaders, and we who were in the rear with the cattle and worn-out horses, had to stay and help them along. Pulled past a high conical hill.
A horse collapsed and was unable to get up. Word
was sent to Fort Pitt
requesting that it be taken in and cared for.
October 6, 1874
Axes and spades were in constant demand to repair the numerous bad spots on the trail, long stretches of which were under water, often for hundreds of yards.
October 8, 1874
Many animals too sick to go on, so a day of rest was ordered upon reaching Frog Creek.
At last, we reached Victoria,
a Company's post with a palisaded enclosure, situated on a narrow ridge
along the Saskatchewan.
There was a mission founded by the Rev. George
McDougall,
one of the pioneers of the Methodist church, and round the fort and on the
river bank clustered the thatched log houses of the Scotch and English Métis
who had followed him to the place.
October 19, 1874
The Métis here made a living by hunting
buffalo, fishing and freighting. They sowed their crops in the spring, and
never saw them again until harvest. If the crops failed it did not matter,
for the distance to the herds of buffalo was not far, and the numerous lakes
of white fish were near at hand, Whitefish Lake Mission being located about
60 miles north of Victoria.
October 19, 1874
We enjoyed the halt here among the good people
of Victoria settlement. The Cree Indians who had recently come in to trade
at the fort came to see and wonder at us. One of them was known by the breathless
title of " Sky - Blue - Horn - Sitting - Down - Turning - Round - On
- A - Chair."
October 19, 1874
Before we left Victoria we made arrangements to leave the cows, calves and weak oxen there for the winter months, under a contract with one of the settlers at 15 dollars a head for oxen and cows and 10 dollars each for calves.
October 20, 1874
Our progress from here to Edmonton was slow and the going very difficult. Our loose horses very often fell, one fine animal being lifted bodily by Carr, the shoeingsmith, and myself at least a dozen times by means of a pole.
We had not been halted very long when a messenger
arrived from Inspector Jarvis
directing
Gagnon 
to bring the
division into Fort Edmonton the same afternoon. Some of the horses could
not go on, and a marquee was pitched to shelter them at night, and two men
were left in charge.
October 22, 1874
Gagnon went ahead with the yoke oxen and was soon
out of sight and I pushed on with the horse teams and had the hardest trek
that I have yet undertaken. The trail was worse than any we had encountered.
It was knee-deep in black mud, sloughs crossed it every few hundred yards,
and the waggons had to be unloaded and dragged through them by hand.
October 24, 1874
Many small ponds covered with a thin coating of
ice lined the sides of the trail, and gave us much trouble while we were
engaged in unloading the waggons. The poor animals, crazed with thirst and
feverish because of their privations, would rush to the ponds to drink,
often falling and having to be dragged out with ropes from where they fell.
October 26, 1874
Determined to carry out my orders to get to Fort
Edmonton, which was only 12 miles on, I kept my willing men going in spite
of the darkness, which frequently caused us to miss the trail. On one occasion
the ambulance driver, who was ahead, took his team out into an extensive
marsh covered by thin ice for several hundred yards until the increased
depth of water warned him of his mistake.
October 28, 1874
This struggle to obey orders continued until five
o'clock the following morning, when we arrived at Rat Creek, a small stream
about 4 miles from Edmonton. Gagnon was there with the two ox teams which,
of course, walked through the sloughs without much difficulty. I informed
him that it was useless to continue, the men and horses having been constantly
on the move for at least 21 hours, exclusive of the noonday halt, and they
all needed rest. They appeared to have reached the limit of their endurance.
Gagnon agreed to this, and went on to Fort Edmonton, while I had the tents
pitched, caused two rows of fires to be built of the quantities of dry wood
in the vicinity, and had the horses washed, dried and rubbed down and turned
out to graze with two herders to watch them...
October 30, 1874
We had just got ready to turn in when the herders called out that a horse was in difficulties. I seized my rope and rushed to the spot, followed by the men, and found the animal partly through the ice in a large, round hole with high banks. I gave the men one end of the rope and had secured the horse by the lasso with my usual hitch round the neck and hindquarters, when the ice broke and horse and men sank in about ten feet of water. The men hung on to the rope, however, and so did I, and after a few hearty pulls we were once more on dry land. This accident was the last.
The men were sent to rest, and I changed my clothes.
As it was after six o'clock, and I was not tired, I cut poles to make a
bridge across the creek, which was only a couple of yards wide, but awkward
for the horses. I was engaged in laying them when the O.C. (officer-in-charge)
arrived. He was cheerful, expressed himself well pleased with our work,
and told me that he had secured winter quarters for us at Fort Edmonton.
November 1, 1874
We inspanned (harnessed the animals to the wagons) immediately and, passing over the first dry piece of trail, reached the fort in fairly good time. When they sighted the welcome roofs the poor horses pricked up their ears and made a feeble attempt to trot as we moved down the hills. Mr. Hardisty, one of the kindest and best of men, met us at the gate of the fort and assigned us our quarters ...The distance covered by the division since it left Fort Garry amounted to 1,255 miles.
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