34 FIFTY YEARS IN WESTERN CANADA

directions, he resolved to pass this season with the
despised Stone Chilcotins.

He had himself to suffer from the consequences of
that decision. Riding with a temperature of thirty-
five degrees below zero, he froze one of his knees, and
had to be assisted off his horse. Then, as there was no
church, the midnight service had to be held in an old
abandoned lodge, the only building large enough to
accommodate the local population. Its mud roof was
repaired as well as possible under the circumstances,
and most of the interstices between the slender logs
were stopped with moss.

Nevertheless, it must be said that it was a very
cold Midnight Mass which marked the Christmas
of 1884 in the Chilcotin valley. As there was at that
time not one stove among the natives of the same, even
the sacramental wine froze during the service, while,
outside, the little half-wild Indian dogs were howling
themselves hoarse under the sting of the bitter frost.
Yet the celebration was not without its element of
luxury. It had its illumination, that indispensable
adjunct to such a feast. This consisted of five pieces
of tallow candles, which made quite an impression on
the primitive congregation, who had never seen so
many burning at one time.

Apart from the Chilcotins, Father Morice had early
been put in charge of four villages of the southernmost
division of the great Carrier tribe, of which further
mention is to be made, namely, those of Fort Alex-
ander, Quesnel, Blackwater’ and Lhuskez, without
counting a fifth, Lhkacho, whose inhabitants had as
yet never seen a priest. The Carriers of Fort Alex-

1! A village which was in reality on the Fraser, though at a very short
distance from the mouth of the Blackwater, after which its people were
named.

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