this art,) on his arrival at Prince of Wales's Fort in the Winter of
1778, informed me, that a man whom I had never seen but once, had
treated him in such a manner that he was afraid of his life; in
consequence of which he pressed me very much to kill him, though I was
then several hundreds of miles distant: On which, to please this great
man to whom I owed so much, and not expecting that any harm could
possibly arise from it, I drew a rough sketch of two human figures on a
piece of paper, in the attitude of wrestling: in the hand of one of
them, I drew the figure of a bayonet pointing to the breast of the
other. This is me, said I to Matonabbee, pointing to the figure which
was holding the bayonet; and the other, is your enemy. Opposite to those
figures I drew a pine-tree, over which I placed a large human eye, and
out of the tree projected a human hand. This paper I gave to Matonabbee,
with instructions to make it as publicly known as possible. Sure enough,
the following year, when he came in to trade, he informed me that the
man was dead, though at that time he was not less than three hundred
miles from Prince of Wales's Fort. He assured me that the man was in
perfect health when he heard of my design against him; but almost
immediately afterwards became quite gloomy, and refusing all kind of
sustenance, in a very few days died. After this I was frequently applied
to on the same account, both by Matonabbee and other leading Indians,
but never thought proper to comply with their requests; by which means I
not only preserved the credit I gained on the first attempt, but always
kept them in awe, and in some degree of respect and obedience to me. In
fact, strange as it may appear, it is almost absolutely necessary that
the chiefs at this place should profess something a little supernatural,
to be able to deal with those people. The circumstance here recorded is
a fact well known to Mr. William Jefferson, who succeeded me at
Churchill Factory, as well as to all the officers and many of the common
men who were at Prince of Wales's Fort at the time.
[96] The lake which he has now reached and which he calls Athapuscow
Lake, Arathapescow Lake of the Cook and Pennant maps, is Great Slave
Lake of the present maps, or the Slave Lake of Alexander Mackenzie, and
not the lake now known as Athabasca Lake; and the point at which he
reached it was somewhere east of the entrance to the North Arm.
According to l'Abbé Petitot, the name Athabasca is a Cree word,
referring to a reedy, grassy mouth of a river, and means "The Herbaceous
Network." It does not appear to have been the original name of any
particular place or lake, but was doubtless applied to this lake by
Hearne on account of the great marsh which covers much of the delta of
Slave River, and later it was applied to the lake now known as Athabasca
Lake on account of the character of the delta at the mouth of Athabasca
River, near which Peter Pond, a trader from Montreal, established in
1778 the first trading-post on the Mackenzie waters. His map of 1785
designates the lake Arabasca Lake. Petitot states (Royal Geographical
Society, vol. v. N.S. 1883, p. 728) that Great Slave Lake is called
"'Thu-tué,' or 'Lake of the Breasts,' by the Chipewyans, because its
eastern part is terminated by two extensive bays, in outline fancifully
resembling the female bosom."
[97] Indian Deer = Wood Caribou (_Rangifer caribou_ (Gmel.)).--E. A. P.
[98] _Castor canadensis_ Kuhl.
[AZ] The difficulty here alluded to, was the numberless vaults the
beaver had in the sides of the pond, and the immense thickness of the
house in some parts.
[99] The eight different kinds of beavers referred to by Mr. Dobbs are
rather eight different grades of beaver-skins classified on a strictly
commercial basis. His statement is:
"There are eight kinds of Beavers received at the Farmer's Office.
"The first is the fat Winter Beaver, kill'd in Winter, which is worth
5s. 6d. per Pound.
"The Second is the fat Summer Beaver, killed in Summer, and is worth 2s.
9d.
"The third the dry Winter Beaver, and fourth the Bordeau, is much the
same, and are worth 3s. 6d.
"The fifth the dry Summer Beaver is worth very little, about 1s. 9d. per
Pound.
"The sixth is the Coat Beaver, which is worn till it is half greased,
and is worth 4s. 6d. per Pound.
"The 7th the Muscovite dry Beaver, of a fine Skin, covered over with a
silky Hair; they wear it in Russia, and comb away all the short Down,
which they make into Stuffs and other Works, leaving nothing but the
silky Hair; this is worth 4s. 6d. per Pound.
"The eighth is the Mittain Beaver, cut out for that Purpose to make
Mittains, to preserve them from the Cold, and are greased by being used,
and are worth 1s. 9d. per Pound." ("An Account of the Countries
adjoining to Hudson's Bay." By Arthur Dobbs, London, 1744, pp. 25-26.)
On a later page, quoting Joseph Lefranc: "The Beavers, he says, are of
three Colours; the brown reddish Colour, the black, and the white; the
first is the cheapest; the black is most valued by the Company, and in
England; the white, tho' most valued in Canada, giving 18 Shillings,
when others gave 5 or 6 Shillings, is blown upon by the Company's
Factors at the Bay, they not allowing so much for these as for the
others; and therefore the Indians use them at home, or burn off the
Hair, when they roast the Beavers like Pigs, at an Entertainment when
they feast together; he says these Skins are extremely white, and have a
fine Lustre, no Snow being whiter, and have a fine long Fur or Hair; he
has seen 15 taken of that Colour out of one Lodge or Pond." (Ibid., pp.
39-40.)
White Beavers are not often caught. One skin which I obtained from the
vicinity of the Winnipeg River, in Eastern Manitoba, had a decidedly
pinkish tint.
[100] As dried Beaver skins weigh on an average from one and a half to
two pounds, 300 skins would weigh on an average from 450 to 600 lbs.,
which is a heavier load than most of the birch-bark canoes made by the
Chipewyans will carry in addition to the Indians and their necessary
baggage and provisions. Dobbs's statement that 100 Beaver skins is a
load for an Indian canoe is more nearly correct.
[BA] The Northern Indians think that the sagacity of the beaver directs
them to make that part of their house which fronts the North much
thicker than any other part, with a view of defending themselves from
the cold winds which generally blow from that quarter during the Winter;
and for this reason the Northern Indians generally break open that side
of the beaver-houses which exactly front the South.
[BB] This being the largest of the Orkney Islands, is called by the
inhabitants the Main Land.
{247} CHAP. VIII.
Transactions and Remarks from our Arrival on the South Side of
the Athapuscow Lake, till our Arrival at Prince of Wales's Fort
on Churchill River.
_Cross the Athapuscow Lake--Description of it and its
productions, as far as could be discovered in Winter, when the
snow was on the ground--Fish found in the lake--Description of
the buffalo;--of the moose or elk, and the method of dressing
their skins--Find a woman alone that had not seen a human face
for more than seven months--Her account how she came to be in
that situation; and her curious method of procuring a
livelihood--Many of my Indians wrestled for her--Arrive at the
Great Athapuscow River--Walk along the side of the River for
several days, and then strike off to the Eastward--Difficulty in
getting through the woods in many places--Meet with some strange
Northern Indians on their return from the Fort--Meet more
strangers, whom my companions plundered, and from whom they took
one of their young women--Curious manner of life which those
strangers lead, and the reason they gave for roving so far from
their usual residence--Leave the fine level country of the
Athapuscows, and arrive at the Stony Hills of the Northern
Indian Country--Meet some strange Northern Indians, one of whom
carried a letter for me to Prince of Wales's Fort, in March one
thousand seven hundred and seventy-one, and now gave me an
answer to it, dated twentieth of June following--Indians begin
preparing wood-work and birch-rind for canoes--The equinoctial
gale very severe--Indian method of running the moose deer down
by speed of foot--Arrival at Theeleyaza River--See some
strangers--The brutality of my companions--A tremendous gale and
snow-drift--Meet with more strangers;--Remarks on it--Leave all
the elderly people and children, {248} and proceed directly to
the Fort--Stop to build canoes, and then advance--Several of the
Indians die through hunger, and many others are obliged to
decline the journey for want of ammunition--A violent storm and
inundation, that forced us to the top of a high hill, where we
suffered great distress for more than two days--Kill several
deer--The Indians method of preserving the flesh without the
assistance of salt--See several Indians that were going to
Knapp's Bay--Game of all kinds remarkably plentiful--Arrive at
the Factory._
[Sidenote: 1772. January.]
[Sidenote: 9th.]
After expending some days in hunting beaver, we proceeded to cross the
Athapuscow Lake; but as we had lost much time in hunting deer and
beaver, which were very plentiful on some of the islands, it was the
ninth of January before we arrived on the South side.
This lake, from the best information which I could get from the natives,
is about one hundred and twenty leagues long from East to West, and
twenty wide from North to South. The point where we crossed it is said
to be the narrowest. It is full of islands; most of which are clothed
with fine tall poplars, birch, and pines, and are well stocked with
Indian deer. On some of the large islands we also found several beaver;
but this must be understood only of such islands as had large ponds in
them; for not one beaver-house was to be seen on the margin of any of
them.[101]
[Sidenote: 1772. January.]
The lake is stored with great quantities of very fine fish; particularly
between the islands, which in some {249} parts are so close to each
other as to form very narrow channels, like little rivers, in which I
found (when angling for fish) a considerable current setting to the
Eastward.
The fish that are common in this lake, as well as in most of the other
lakes in this country, are pike, trout, perch, barble, tittameg, and
methy[102]; the two last are names given by the natives to two species
of fish which are found only in this country. Besides these, we also
caught another kind of fish, which is said by the Northern Indians to be
peculiar to this lake; at least none of the same kind have been met with
in any other. The body of this fish much resembles a pike in shape; but
the scales, which are very large and stiff, are of a beautifully bright
silver colour; the mouth is large, and situated like that of a pike; but
when open, much resembles that of a sturgeon; and though not provided
with any teeth, takes a bait as ravenously as a pike or a trout. The
sizes we caught were from two feet long to four feet. Their flesh,
though delicately white, is very soft, and has so rank a taste, that
many of the Indians, except they are in absolute want, will not eat it.
The Northern Indians call this fish Shees.[103] The trout in this lake
are of the largest size I ever saw; some that were caught by my
companions could not, I think, be less than thirty-five or forty pounds
weight. Pike are also of an incredible size in this extensive water;
here they are seldom {250} molested, and have multitudes of smaller fish
to prey upon. If I say that I have seen some of these fish that were
upwards of forty pounds weight, I am sure I do not exceed the truth.
[Sidenote: 1772. January.]
Immediately on our arrival on the South side of the Athapuscow Lake, the
scene was agreeably altered, from an entire jumble of rocks and hills,
for such is all the land on the North side, to a fine level country, in
which there was not a hill to be seen, or a stone to be found: so that
such of my companions as had not brass kettles, loaded their sledges
with stones from some of the last islands, to boil their victuals with
in their birch-rind kettles, which will not admit of being exposed to
the fire. They therefore heat stones and drop them into the water in the
kettle to make it boil.
Buffalo,[104] moose, and beaver were very plentiful; and we could
discover, in many parts through which we passed, the tracks of martins,
foxes, quiquehatches, and other animals of the furr kind: so that they
were by no means scarce: but my companions never gave themselves the
least trouble to catch any of the three last mentioned animals; for the
buffalo, moose, and beaver engaged all their attention; perhaps
principally so on account of the excellency of their flesh; whereas the
flesh of the fox and quiquehatch are never eaten by those people, except
when they are in the greatest distress, and then merely to save {251}
life. Their reasons for this shall be given in a subsequent part of my
Journal.
[Sidenote: 1772. January.]
The buffalo in those parts, I think, are in general much larger than the
English black cattle; particularly the bulls, which, though they may not
in reality be taller than the largest size of the English oxen, yet to
me always appeared to be much larger. In fact, they are so heavy, that
when six or eight Indians are in company at the skinning of a large
bull, they never attempt to turn it over while entire, but when the
upper side is skinned, they cut off the leg and shoulder, rip up the
belly, take out all the intestines, cut off the head, and make it as
light as possible, before they turn it to skin the under side. The skin
is in some places of an incredible thickness, particularly about the
neck, where it often exceeds an inch. The horns are short, black, and
almost straight, but very thick at the roots or base.
The head of an old bull is of a great size and weight indeed: some which
I have seen were so large, that I could not without difficulty lift them
from the ground;[BC] {252} but the heads of the cows are much smaller.
Their tails are, in general, about a foot long, though some appear to
be, exclusive of the long brush of hair at the end, longer. The hair on
the tails of the bulls is generally of a fine glossy black; but the
brush at the end of the cows' tails is always of a rusty brown, probably
owing to being stained with their urine.
The hair of the body is soft and curled, somewhat approaching to wool;
it is generally of a sandy brown, and of an equal length and thickness
all over the body: but on the head and neck it is much longer than it is
on any other part.
[Sidenote: 1772. January.]
The Indians, after reducing all the parts of the skin to an equal
thickness by scraping, dress them in the hair for clothing; when they
are light, soft, warm, and durable. They also dress some of those skins
into leather without the hair, of which they make tents and shoes; but
the grain is remarkably open and spungy, by no means equal in goodness
to that of the skin of the moose: nor am I certain that the curriers or
tanners in Europe could manufacture these skins in such a manner as to
render them of any considerable value; for, to appearance, they are of
the same quality with the skins of the musk-ox, which are held in so
little estimation in England, that when a number of them was sent home
from Churchill Factory, the Company issued out orders the year
following, that unless they could be purchased from the Indians at the
rate of four {253} skins for one beaver, they would not answer the
expence of sending home; a great proof of their being of very little
value.
[Sidenote: 1772. January.]
The buffalos chiefly delight in wide open plains, which in those parts
produce very long coarse grass, or rather a kind of small flags and
rushes, upon which they feed; but when pursued they always take to the
woods. They are of such an amazing strength, that when they fly through
the woods from a pursuer, they frequently brush down trees as thick as a
man's arm; and be the snow ever so deep, such is their strength and
agility that they are enabled to plunge through it faster than the
swiftest Indian can run in snow-shoes. To this I have been an
eye-witness many times, and once had the vanity to think that I could
have kept pace with them; but though I was at that time celebrated for
being particularly fleet of foot in snow-shoes, I soon found that I was
no match for the buffalos, notwithstanding they were then plunging
through such deep snow, that their bellies made a trench in it as large
as if many heavy sacks had been hauled through it. Of all the large
beasts in those parts the buffalo is easiest to kill, and the moose are
the most difficult; neither are the deer very easy to come at, except in
windy weather: indeed it requires much practice, and a great deal of
patience, to slay any of them, as they will by no means suffer a direct
approach, unless the hunter be entirely sheltered by woods or willows.
The flesh of the buffalo {254} is exceedingly good eating; and so
entirely free from any disagreeable smell or taste, that it resembles
beef as nearly as possible: the flesh of the cows, when some time gone
with calf, is esteemed the finest; and the young calves, cut out of
their bellies, are reckoned a great delicacy indeed. The hunch on their
backs, or more properly on their shoulders, is not a large fleshy lump,
as some suppose, but is occasioned by the bones that form the withers
being continued to a greater length than in most other animals. The
flesh which surrounds this part being so equally intermixed with fat and
lean, is reckoned among the nicest bits. The weight, however, is by no
means equal to what has been commonly reported. The tongue is also very
delicate; and what is most extraordinary, when the beasts are in the
poorest state, which happens regularly at certain seasons, their tongues
are then very fat and fine; some say, fatter than when they are in the
best order; the truth of which, I will not confirm. They are so esteemed
here, however, that many of them are brought down to the Company's
Factory at York as presents, and are esteemed a great luxury, probably
for no other reason but that they are far-fetched; for they are by no
means so large, and I think them not so fine, as a neat's tongue in
England.
The moose[105] deer is also a large beast, often exceeding the largest
horse both in height and bulk; but the length of the legs, the bulk of
the body, the shortness of the neck, {255} and the uncommon length of
the head and ears, without any appearance of a tail, make them have a
very awkward appearance. The males far exceed the females in size, and
differ from them in colour. The hair of the male, which is long, hollow,
and soft, like that of a deer, is at the points nearly black, but a
little way under the surface it is of an ash colour, and at the roots
perfectly white. The hair of the female is of a sandy brown, and in some
parts, particularly under the throat, the belly, and the flank, is
nearly white at the surface, and most delicately so at the root.
[Sidenote: 1772. January.]
Their legs are so long, and their necks so short, that they cannot graze
on level ground like other animals, but are obliged to brouze on the
tops of large plants and the leaves of trees during the Summer; and in
Winter they always feed on the tops of willows, and the small branches
of the birch-tree; on which account they are never found during that
season but in such places as can afford them a plentiful supply of their
favourite food: and though they have no fore-teeth in the upper-jaw, yet
I have often seen willows and small birch-trees cropped by them, in the
same manner as if they had been cut by a gardener's sheers, though some
of them were not smaller than common pipe-stems; they seem particularly
partial to the red willow.
In Summer they are generally found to frequent the banks of rivers and
lakes, probably with no other view {256} than to have the benefit of
getting into the water, to avoid the innumerable multitudes of muskettos
and other flies that pester them exceedingly during that season. There
is also a variety of water-plants, of which the moose are very fond, and
which are adapted to their necessities in a peculiar manner during the
Summer season, as they can easily brouze on them when nearly emerged in
water, to avoid the torment of the flies.
[Sidenote: 1772. January.]
The head of the moose is, as I have observed, remarkably long and large,
not very unlike that of a horse; but the nose and nostrils are at least
twice as large. The ears are about a foot long, and large; and they
always stand erect. Their faculty of hearing is supposed to be more
acute than either their sight or scent; which makes it very difficult to
kill them, especially as the Indians in those parts have no other method
of doing it but by creeping after them, among the trees and bushes, till
they get within gun-shot; taking care always to keep to leeward of the
moose, for fear of being overheard. In Summer, when they frequent the
margins of rivers and lakes, they are often killed by the Indians in the
water, while they are crossing rivers, or swimming from the main to
islands, &c. When pursued in this manner, they are the most inoffensive
of all animals, never making any resistance; and the young ones are so
simple, that I remember to have seen an Indian paddle his canoe up to
one of them, and take it by the poll without the least opposition: the
poor {257} harmless animal seeming at the same time as contented
along-side the canoe, as if swimming by the side of its dam, and looking
up in our faces with the same fearless innocence that a house-lamb
would, making use of its fore-foot almost every instant to clear its
eyes of muskettos, which at that time were remarkably numerous.
I have also seen women and boys kill the old moose in this situation, by
knocking them on the head with a hatchet; and in the Summer of one
thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, when I was on my passage from
Cumberland House to York Fort, two boys killed a fine buck moose in the
water, by forcing a stick up its fundament; for they had neither gun,
bow, nor arrows with them. The common deer are far more dangerous to
approach in canoes, as they kick up their hind legs with such violence
as to endanger any birch-rind canoe that comes within their reach; for
which reason all the Indians who kill deer upon the water are provided
with a long stick that will reach far beyond the head of the canoe.
The moose are also the easiest to tame and domesticate of any of the
deer kind. I have repeatedly seen them at Churchill as tame as
sheep,[BD] and even more so; for they {258} would follow their keeper
any distance from home, and at his call return with him, without the
least trouble, or ever offering to deviate from the path.[BE]
[Sidenote: 1772. January.]
The flesh of the moose is very good, though the grain is but coarse, and
it is much tougher than any other kind of venison. The nose is most
excellent, as is also the tongue, though by no means so fat and delicate
as that of the common deer. It is perhaps worth remarking, that the
livers of the moose are never found, not even at any time of the year;
and, like the other deer, they have no gall. The fat of the intestines
is hard, like suet; but all the external fat is soft, like that of a
breast of mutton, and when put into a bladder, is as fine as marrow. In
this they differ from all the other species of deer, of which the
external fat is as hard as that of the kidnies.
{259} The moose in all their actions and attitudes appear very uncouth,
and when disturbed, never run, only make a kind of trot, which the
length of their legs enables them to do with great swiftness, and
apparently with much ease; but were the country they inhabit free from
under-wood, and dry underfoot, so that horsemen and dogs might follow
them, they would become an easy prey, as they are both tender-footed and
short-winded: But of this more hereafter.[BF]
[Sidenote: 1772. January.]
The skins of the moose, when dressed by the natives, make excellent
tent-covers and shoe-leather; and in fact every other part of their
clothing. These, like the skins of the buffalo, are of very unequal
thickness. Some of the Indian women, who are acquainted with the
manufacture of them, will, by means of scraping, render them as even as
a piece of thick cloth, and when well dressed they are very soft; but
not being dressed in oil, they always grow hard after being wet, unless
great care be taken to keep rubbing them all the time they are drying.
The same may be said of all the Indian-dressed leather, except that of
the wewaskish,[106] which will wash as well as shammoy-leather, and
always preserve its softness.
{260} The female moose never have any horns, but the males have them of
a prodigious size and weight, and very different in shape from those of
the common deer. The extremity of each horn is palmated to the size of a
common shovel, from which a few short branches shoot out; and the shaft
of the horn is frequently as large as a common man's wrist. They shed
them annually like the common deer. The horns of the moose are
frequently found to exceed sixty pounds weight; and their texture,
though of a large size and of such rapid growth, is much harder than any
other species of deer-horns in those parts.