the sea, the country becomes still more level, the same kind of
sandstone continuing as a subsoil. The plains nourish only a coarse
short grass, and the trees which had latterly dwindled to small clumps,
growing only on low points on the edge of the river under shelter of the
high bank, entirely disappear. A few ranges of trap hills intersect this
plain also, but they have much less elevation than those we passed
higher up the stream.
"The river in its section of the plain, as far as Bloody Fall, presents
alternately cliffs of reddish sandstone, and red-coloured slaty
indurated clay or marl, and shelving white clay banks. At Bloody Fall,
the stream cuts through a thick bed of dark, purplish-red felspar rock,
similar to that observed at the Rocky Defile (page 527), and associated,
as at that place, with a rock composed principally of light red felspar
and quartz, but which is probably a species of red secondary granite. At
the Bloody Fall, the felspar rock is covered to the depth of six or
seven hundred feet with a bed of greyish white, and rather tenacious
clay, which being deeply intersected with ravines, forms steep hills.
Nearer the sea, the river is bounded by very steep cliffs of
yellowish-white sand; and on the sea-coast, the above-mentioned red
granite reappears on the west bank of the river, forming a rugged ridge
about two hundred and fifty feet high" ("First Journey," pp. 528-530).
Sir John Franklin makes the following reference to the Copper Mountains,
which he visited in July 1821:
"We rejoined our hunters at the foot of the Copper Mountains, and found
they had killed three musk-oxen. This circumstance determined us on
encamping to dry the meat, as there was wood at the spot. We availed
ourselves of this delay to visit the Copper Mountains in search of
specimens of the ore, agreeably to my instructions; and a party of
twenty-one persons, consisting of the officers, some of the voyagers,
and all the Indians, set off on that excursion. We travelled for nine
hours over a considerable space of ground, but found only a few small
pieces of native copper. The range we ascended was on the west side of
the river, extending W.N.W. and E.S.E. The mountains varied in height
from twelve to fifteen hundred feet. The uniformity of the mountains is
interrupted by narrow valleys, traversed by small streams. The best
specimens of metal we procured were among the stones in these valleys,
and it was in such situations that our guides desired us to search most
carefully. It would appear, that when the Indians see any sparry
substance projecting above the surface, they dig there; but they have no
other rule to direct them, and have never found the metal in its
original repository. Our guides reported that they had found copper in
large pieces in every part of this range, for two days' walk to the
north-west, and that the Esquimaux come hither to search for it. The
annual visits which the Copper Indians were accustomed to make to these
mountains, when most of their weapons and utensils were made of copper,
have been discontinued since they have been enabled to obtain a supply
of ice-chisels and other instruments of iron by the establishment of
trading posts near their hunting grounds. That none of those who
accompanied us had visited them for many years was evident, from their
ignorance of the spots most abundant in metal.
"The impracticability of navigating the river upwards from the sea, and
the want of wood for forming an establishment, would prove insuperable
objections to rendering the collection of copper at this part worthy of
mercantile speculation" ("First Journey," p. 340-1).
[AQ] This piece of Copper is now in the possession of the Hudson's Bay
Company.
[AR] There is a strange tradition among those people, that the first
person who discovered those mines was a woman, and that she conducted
them to the place for several years; but as she was the only woman in
company, some of the men took such liberties with her as made her vow
revenge on them; and she is said to have been a great conjurer.
Accordingly when the men had loaded themselves with copper, and were
going to return, she refused to accompany them, and said she would sit
on the mine till she sunk into the ground, and that the copper should
sink with her. The next year, when the men went for more copper, they
found her sunk up to the waist, though still alive, and the quantity of
copper much decreased; and on their repeating their visit the year
following, she had quite disappeared, and all the principal part of the
mine with her; so that after that period nothing remained on the surface
but a few small pieces, and those were scattered at a considerable
distance from each other. Before that period they say the copper lay on
the surface in such large heaps, that the Indians had nothing to do but
turn it over, and pick such pieces as would best suit the different uses
for which they intended it.[81]
[81] A slightly different version of this tradition is given by Sir John
Franklin, who heard it at Fort Chipewyan in 1820 from an old Chipewyan
Indian named "Rabbit's Head," a stepson of Matonabbee. See Franklin's
"First Journey," pp. 145-7.
[AS] What is meant by Beaver in other kind of furrs, must be understood
as follows: For the easier trading with the Indians, as well as for the
more correctly keeping their accounts, the Hudson's Bay Company have
made a full-grown beaver-skin the standard by which they rate all other
furrs, according to their respective values. Thus in several species of
furrs, one skin is valued at the rate of four beaver-skins; some at
three, and others at two; whereas those of an inferior quality are rated
at one; and those of still less value considered so inferior to that of
a beaver, that from six to twenty of their skins are only valued as
equal to one beaver skin in the way of trade, and do not fetch
one-fourth of the price at the London market. In this manner the term
"Made Beaver" is to be understood.
[AT] Since this Journal was written, the Northern Indians, by annually
visiting their Southern friends, the Athapuscow Indians, have contracted
the small-pox, which has carried off nine-tenths of them, and
particularly those people who composed the trade at Churchill Factory.
The few survivors follow the example of their Southern neighbours, and
all trade with the Canadians, who are settled in the heart of the
Athapuscow country: so that a very few years has proved my
short-sightedness, and that it would have been much more to the
advantage of the Company, as well as have prevented the depopulation of
the Northern Indian country, if they had still remained at war with the
Southern tribes, and never attempted to better their situation. At the
same time, it is impossible to say what increase of trade might not, in
time, have arisen from a constant and regular traffic with the different
tribes of Copper and Dog-ribbed Indians. But having been totally
neglected for several years, they have now sunk into their original
barbarism and extreme indigence; and a war has ensued between the two
tribes, for the sake of a few remnants of iron-work which was left among
them; and the Dog-ribbed Indians were so numerous, and so successful, as
to destroy almost the whole race of the Copper Indians.
While I was writing this Note, I was informed by some Northern Indians,
that the few which remain of the Copper tribe have found their way to
one of the Canadian houses in the Athapuscow Indians' country, where
they get supplied with every thing at less, or about half the price they
were formerly obliged to give; so that the few surviving Northern
Indians, as well as the Hudson's Bay Company, have now lost every shadow
of any future trade from that quarter, unless the Company will establish
a settlement with the Athapuscow country, and undersell the
Canadians.[82]
[82] In 1778 Peter Pond, a fur trader from Montreal, had built a trading
post on the east bank of Athabasca River, about thirty miles up-stream
from Athabasca Lake, and in 1786, after the formation of the North-West
Company, Laurent Leroux and Cuthbert Grant, two of the employees of this
Company, had descended Slave River to Great Slave Lake and had
established a trading post on its southern shore. The Copper Indians
traded at the latter post, while the Northern or Chipewyan Indians
resorted to the more southern and older post on the Athabasca River.
Among the members of this latter tribe, who had been accustomed to make
long pilgrimages to Churchill in order to procure implements and
utensils of various kinds in exchange for furs, but who afterwards found
that they could buy such goods as they needed more advantageously from
the traders on the Athabasca River, very much nearer home, was a man
known to those traders as "English Chief." This Indian accompanied Sir
Alexander Mackenzie, one of the partners of the North-West Company, and
one of those who would have been spoken of by Hearne as _Canadians_, on
his journey from Lake Athabasca to the Arctic Ocean in 1789.
This note also throws an interesting light on the date on which the
journal was written, for the first outbreak of small-pox, which swept
off the Indians of Western Canada, occurred in 1781, and therefore the
journal itself was written before that date, while Hearne was living as
Governor at Fort Prince of Wales. The note would appear to have been
written about 1787, after the destruction of Fort Prince of Wales, and
while Hearne was living at Fort Churchill, five miles south of the old
fort, and before he finally returned to England.
[AU] Mr. Moses Norton.
[83] The party had thus reached Congecathawhachaga on the morning of the
seventh day after leaving Bloody Falls or the mouth of the Coppermine
River, the distance in a direct line being about one hundred and sixty
miles. If they travelled in a direct line they averaged twenty-five
miles a day, but the windings of the journey would add something to this
distance.
[84] Contwoito Lake, described on page 152.
[85] The exact position of this place, to which the women and children
had moved from the north shore of Cat or Clinton-Colden Lake, is not
certain, but it was evidently on some of the lakes or streams marked on
his map as lying between Cogead (Contwoito) and Point Lakes.
{189} CHAP. VII.
Remarks from the Time the Women joined us till our Arrival at
the Athapuscow Lake.
_Several of the Indians sick--Method used by the conjurers to
relieve one man, who recovers--Matonabbee and his crew proceed
to the South West--Most of the other Indians separate, and go
their respective ways--Pass by White Stone Lake--Many deer
killed merely for their skins--Remarks thereon, and on the deer,
respecting seasons and places--Arrive at Point Lake--One of the
Indian's wives being sick, is left behind to perish
above-ground--Weather very bad, but deer plenty--Stay some time
at Point Lake to dry meat, &c.--Winter set in--Superstitious
customs observed by my companions, after they had killed the
Esquimaux at Copper River--A violent gale of wind oversets my
tent and breaks my quadrant--Some Copper and Dog-ribbed Indians
join us--Indians propose to go to the Athapuscow Country to kill
moose--Leave Point Lake, and arrive at the wood's edge--Arrive
at Anawd Lake--Transactions there--Remarkable instance of a man
being cured of the palsey by the conjurers--Leave Anawd
Lake--Arrive at the great Athapuscow Lake._
[Sidenote: 1771. August.]
[Sidenote: 1771. August.]
Several of the Indians being very ill, the conjurers, who are always the
doctors, and pretend to perform great cures, began to try their skill to
effect their recovery. Here it is necessary to remark, that they use no
medicine either for internal or external complaints, but perform all
their cures by charms. In ordinary cases, sucking the part affected,
blowing, and singing to it; {190} haughing, spitting, and at the same
time uttering a heap of unintelligible jargon, compose the whole process
of the cure. For some inward complaints; such as, griping in the
intestines, difficulty of making water, &c., it is very common to see
those jugglers blowing into the _anus_, or into the parts adjacent,
till their eyes are almost starting out of their heads: and this
operation is performed indifferently on all, without regard either to
age or sex. The accumulation of so large a quantity of wind is at times
apt to occasion some extraordinary emotions, which are not easily
suppressed by a sick person; and as there is no vent for it but by the
channel through which it was conveyed thither, it sometimes occasions an
odd scene between the doctor and his patient; which I once wantonly
called an engagement, but for which I was afterward exceedingly sorry,
as it highly offended several of the Indians; particularly the juggler
and the sick person, both of whom were men I much esteemed, and, except
in that moment of levity, it had ever been no less my inclination than
my interest to shew them every respect that my situation would admit.
I have often admired the great pains these jugglers take to deceive
their credulous countrymen, while at the same time they are
indefatigably industrious and persevering in their efforts to relieve
them. Being naturally not very delicate, they frequently continue their
windy process so long, that I have more than once seen the doctor quit
his patient with his face and breast in a very disagreeable condition.
However {191} laughable this may appear to an European, custom makes it
very indecent, in their opinion, to turn any thing of the kind to
ridicule.
When a friend for whom they have a particular regard is, as they
suppose, dangerously ill, beside the above methods, they have recourse
to another very extraordinary piece of superstition; which is no less
than that of pretending to swallow hatchets, ice-chissels, broad
bayonets, knives, and the like; out of a superstitious notion that
undertaking such desperate feats will have some influence in appeasing
death, and procure a respite for their patient.
[Sidenote: 1771. August.]
On such extraordinary occasions a conjuring-house is erected, by driving
the ends of four long small sticks, or poles, into the ground at right
angles, so as to form a square of four, five, six, or seven feet, as may
be required. The tops of the poles are tied together, and all is close
covered with a tent-cloth or other skin, exactly in the shape of a small
square tent, except that there is no vacancy left at the top to admit
the light. In the middle of this house, or tent, the patient is laid,
and is soon followed by the conjurer, or conjurers. Sometimes five or
six of them give their joint-assistance; but before they enter, they
strip themselves quite naked, and as soon as they get into the house,
the door being well closed, they kneel round the sick person or persons,
and begin to suck {192} and blow at the parts affected, and then in a
very short space of time sing and talk as if conversing with familiar
spirits, which they say appear to them in the shape of different beasts
and birds of prey. When they have had sufficient conference with those
necessary agents, or shadows, as they term them, they ask for the
hatchet, bayonet, or the like, which is always prepared by another
person, with a long string fastened to it by the haft, for the
convenience of hauling it up again after they have swallowed it; for
they very wisely admit this to be a very necessary precaution, as hard
and compact bodies, such as iron and steel, would be very difficult to
digest, even by the men who are enabled to swallow them. Besides, as
those tools are in themselves very useful, and not always to be
procured, it would be very ungenerous in the conjurers to digest them,
when it is known that barely swallowing them and hauling them up again
is fully sufficient to answer every purpose that is expected from them.
[Sidenote: 1771. August. 6th.]
At the time when the forty and odd tents of Indians joined us, one man
was so dangerously ill, that it was thought necessary the conjurers
should use some of those wonderful experiments for his recovery; one of
them therefore immediately consented to swallow a broad bayonet.
Accordingly, a conjuring-house was erected in the manner above
described, into which the patient was conveyed, and he was soon
followed by the conjurer, who, after a long preparatory discourse, and
the necessary {193} conference with his familiar spirits, or shadows, as
they call them, advanced to the door and asked for the bayonet, which
was then ready prepared, by having a string fastened to it, and a short
piece of wood tied to the other end of the string, to prevent him from
swallowing it. I could not help observing that the length of the bit of
wood was not more than the breadth of the bayonet; however, as it
answered the intended purpose, it did equally well as if it had been as
long as a handspike.
Though I am not so credulous as to believe that the conjurer absolutely
swallowed the bayonet, yet I must acknowledge that in the twinkling of
an eye he conveyed it to--God knows where; and the small piece of wood,
or one exactly like it, was confined close to his teeth. He then paraded
backward and forward before the conjuring-house for a short time, when
he feigned to be greatly disordered in his stomach and bowels; and,
after making many wry faces, and groaning most hideously, he put his
body into several distorted attitudes, very suitable to the occasion. He
then returned to the door of the conjuring-house, and after making many
strong efforts to vomit, by the help of the string he at length, and
after tugging at it some time, produced the bayonet, which apparently he
hauled out of his mouth, to the no small surprize of all present. He
then looked round with an air of exultation, and strutted into the
conjuring-house, where he renewed his incantations, and continued them
without intermission twenty-four hours. {194} Though I was not close to
his elbow when he performed the above feat, yet I thought myself near
enough (and I can assure my readers I was all attention) to have
detected him. Indeed I must confess that it appeared to me to be a very
nice piece of deception, especially as it was performed by a man quite
naked.
[Sidenote: 1771. August.]
Not long after this slight-of-hand work was over, some of the Indians
asked me what I thought of it; to which I answered, that I was too far
off to see it so plain as I could wish; which indeed was no more than
the strictest truth, because I was not near enough to detect the
deception. The sick man, however, soon recovered; and in a few days
afterwards we left that place and proceeded to the South West.
[Sidenote: 9th.]
On the ninth of August, we once more pursued our journey, and continued
our course in the South West quarter, generally walking about seven or
eight miles a day. All the Indians, however, who had been in our
company, except twelve tents, struck off different ways. As to myself,
having had several days rest, my feet were completely healed, though the
skin remained very tender for some time.
[Sidenote: 19th-25th.]
From the nineteenth to the twenty-fifth, we walked by the side of
Thaye-chuck-gyed Whoie,[86] or Large Whitestone Lake, which is about
forty miles long from the North {195} East to the South West, but of
very unequal breadth. A river from the North West side of this lake is
said to run in a serpentine manner a long way to the Westward; and then
tending to the Northward, composes the main branch of the Copper-mine
River, as has been already mentioned; which may or may not be true. It
is certain, however, that there are many rivulets which empty themselves
into this lake from the South East; but as they are all small streams,
they may probably be no more than what is sufficient to supply the
constant decrease occasioned by the exhalations, which, during the short
Summer, so high a Northern latitude always affords.
Deer were very plentiful the whole way; the Indians killed great numbers
of them daily, merely for the sake of their skins; and at this time of
the year their pelts are in good season, and the hair of a proper length
for clothing.
[Sidenote: 1771. August.]
The great destruction which is made of the deer in those parts at this
season of the year only, is almost incredible; and as they are never
known to have more than one young one at a time, it is wonderful they do
not become scarce; but so far from being the case, that the oldest
Northern Indian in all their tribe will affirm that the deer are as
plentiful now as they ever have been; and though they are remarkably
scarce some years near Churchill River, yet it is said, and with great
probability of truth, that they are {196} more plentiful in other parts
of the country than they were formerly. The scarcity or abundance of
these animals in different places at the same season is caused, in a
great measure, by the winds which prevail for some time before; for the
deer are supposed by the natives to walk always in the direction from
which the wind blows, except when they migrate from East to West, or
from West to East, in search of the opposite sex, for the purpose of
propagating their species.
It requires the prime part of the skins of from eight to ten deer to
make a complete suit of warm clothing for a grown person during the
Winter; all of which should, if possible, be killed in the month of
August, or early in September; for after that time the hair is too long,
and at the same time so loose in the pelt, that it will drop off with
the slightest injury.
Beside these skins, which must be in the hair, each person requires
several others to be dressed into leather, for stockings and shoes, and
light Summer clothing; several more are also wanted in a parchment
state, to make _clewla_ as they call it, or thongs to make netting for
their snow-shoes, snares for deer, sewing for their sledges, and, in
fact, for every other use where strings or lines of any kind are
required: so that each person, on an average, expends, in the course of
a year, upwards of twenty deer skins in {197} clothing and other
domestic uses, exclusive of tent cloths, bags, and many other things
which it is impossible to remember, and unnecessary to enumerate.
[Sidenote: 1771. August.]
All skins for the above-mentioned purposes are, if possible, procured
between the beginning of August and the middle of October; for when the
rutting season is over, and the Winter sets in, the deer-skins are not
only very thin, but in general full of worms and warbles[87]; which
render them of little use, unless it be to cut into fine thongs, of
which they make fishing-nets, and nets for the heels and toes of their
snow-shoes. Indeed the chief use that is made of them in Winter is for
the purpose of food; and really when the hair is properly taken off, and
all the warbles are squeezed out, if they are well-boiled, they are far
from being disagreeable. The Indians, however, never could persuade me
to eat the warbles, of which some of them are remarkably fond,
particularly the children. They are always eaten raw and alive, out of
the skin; and are said, by those who like them, to be as fine as
gooseberries. But the very idea of eating such things, exclusive of
their appearance, (many of them being as large as the first joint of the
little finger,) was quite sufficient to give me an unalterable disgust
to such a repast; and when I acknowledge that the warbles out of the
deers backs, and the domestic lice, were the only two things I ever saw
my {198} companions eat, of which I could not, or did not, partake, I
trust I shall not be reckoned over-delicate in my appetite.
[Sidenote: 1771. August.]