And yet, strange as it may seem, fat men are seldom seen in the
northern wilderness. That is something movie directors should remember.

Pemmican, though little used nowadays, was formerly the mainstay of the
voyageurs. It was made of the flesh of buffalo, musk-ox, moose,
caribou, wapiti, beaver, rabbit, or ptarmigan; and for ordinary use was
composed of 66 per cent. of dried meat pounded fine to 34 per cent. of
hard fat boiled and strained. A finer quality of pemmican for officers
or travellers was composed of 60 per cent. of dried meat pounded extra
fine and sifted; 33 per cent. of grease taken from marrow bones boiled
and strained; 5 per cent. of dried Saskatoon berries; 2 per cent. of
dried choke cherries, and sugar according to taste. The pounded meat
was placed in a large wooden trough and, being spread out, hot grease
was poured over it and then stirred until thoroughly mixed with the
meat. Then, after first letting it cool somewhat, the whole was packed
into leather bags, and, with the aid of wooden mallets, driven down
into a solid mass, when the bags were sewn up and flattened out and
left to cool; during the cooling precaution was taken to turn the bags
every five minutes to prevent the grease settling too much to one side.
Pemmican was packed 50, 80, or 100 lb. in a bag--according to the
difficulty of transporting it through the country in which it was to be
used. The best pemmican was made from buffalo meat, and 2 lb. of
buffalo pemmican was considered equal to 2 1/2 lb. of moose or 3 lb. of
caribou pemmican.

Later, a cool sunset breeze from over the water blew the little
tormentors away, and then it was that those swarthy men enjoyed their
rest. After supper some made bannock batter in the mouths of
flour-sacks, adding water, salt, and baking powder. This they worked