Each year, according to the
tale of the old settlers, the rivers of the prairies have been becoming
wider by denudation, so that each flood tends to be less. Several
conditions seem to be necessary for a flood upon these prairie rivers.
These are a very heavy snowfall during the prairie winter, a late spring
in which the river ice retains its hold, and a sudden period in the
springtime of very hot weather, these being modified as the years go on
by the ever-widening river channel.
The winter of 1825-6 was one of the most terrific ever known in the
history of the Selkirk Settlement. Just before Christmas the first woe
occurred. The snow drove the herds of buffaloes far out upon the
prairies from the river encampments and the wooded shelter. The horses
in bands were scattered and lost, dying as they floundered in the deep
snows. Even the hunters were cut off from one another, the hunters'
families were driven hither and thither, and in many cases separated on
the wide snowy plains. Sheriff Ross, who was a visitor from the
Settlement to Pembina in the dreary winter there, describes the scene of
horror. "Families here and families there despairing of life, huddled
themselves together for warmth, and in too many cases, their shelter
proved their grave.
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