Fort Chipewyan To Fort McMurray.
Chipewyan, it may be remarked, is not a Déné word. It is the name
which was given by the Crees to that branch of the race when they
first came in contact with them, owing to their wearing a peculiar
coat, or tunic, which was pointed both before and behind; now
disused by them, but still worn by the Esquimaux, and, until
recent years, by the Yukon Indians. Though somewhat similar
in sound, it has no connection, it is asserted, with the word
Chippeway, or Ojibway. For all that, the words are perhaps
closely akin. The writer for the accurate use in this narrative
of words in the Cree tongue is under obligation to experts.
When preparing his notes to his drama of "Tecumseh" he was
indebted to his friend, Mr. Thomas McKay, of Prince Albert,
Sask., a master of the Cree language, for the exact origin
and derivation of the words Chippeway and Ojibway. Both are
corruptions of O-cheepo-way, _cheepo_ meaning "tapering," and
_way_ "sound," or "voice." The name was begot of the Ojibway's
peculiar manner of lowering the voice at the end of a sentence.
As "_wyan_" means a skin, it is not improbable that the word
Chipewyan means tapering or "pointed" skin, referring, of course,
to the peculiar garb of the Athapuskow Indians when the Crees
first met with them.
The sites of old posts are to be found all over this region; but
Chipewyan in the beginning of the last century was the great supply
and trading-post of the North-West Company. From Sir John Franklin's
Journal (1820) it would appear that the Hudson's Bay Company had
begun, and, for some reason not given, had ceased trading on Lake
Athabasca, as he says "Fort Wedderburne was a small post built
on Coal Island--now called Potato Island-about A.D. 1815, when
the Hudson's Bay Company recommenced trading in this part of the
country." He often visited this island post, then in charge of
a Mr. Robertson, and, in June, engaged there for his memorable
journey his bowmen, steersmen and middlemen, and an interpreter,
his other men being furnished by the rival company. Fort Chipewyan
was in charge at that time of Messrs. Keith and Black, of the
North-West Company, a noticeable feature of the post being a
tower built, Franklin says, about the year 1812, "to watch
Indians who had evil designs."
The site was well chosen, being sheltered from storms from the lake
side by a great bulwark of wooded and rocky islands. The largest
is Potato Island, just opposite, its outliers being the Calf and
English Islands--the Lapeta, Echeranaway and Theyaodene of the
Chipewyans; the Petac, Moośtoos and Akayasoo of the Crees.
Fort Chipewyan stands upon a rising ground fronting a sort of bay
formed by these islands, and at the time of our visit consisted of
a trading-store, several large warehouses and the master's residence,
etc., all of solid timber, erected in the days of Chief-factor
MacFarlane, who ruled here for many years.
[Mr. MacFarlane's career in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company
is typical of the varied life and movements of its old-time
adventurous traders. He entered the service in 1852, his first
winter being spent as a clerk at Pembina (now Emerson), and also
as trader in charge at the Long Creek outpost. From here he was
transferred to Fort Rae, and afterwards to Fort Good Hope, Mackenzie
River, where he remained six years. His next post was Fort Anderson,
on the Begh-ula, or Anderson River, in the Barren Grounds, which he
held for five years, much of his scientific work being done during
excursions from this point. Afterwards he became trader and
accountant at Fort Simpson, and was for two years in charge of
the Mackenzie River district. This was succeeded by a six months'
residence at Fort Chipewyan, where, subsequently, for fifteen years
he had charge of the district. For two years he had control of
the Caledonia district, in British Columbia, but removed to Fort
Cumberland, Sask., where he remained for five years. Other removals
followed until he finally retired from the service, and, returning
to Winnipeg, has lived there ever since.]
But old as the fort is, it has no relics--not even a venerable
cabin. In the store were a couple of not very ancient flint-locks,
and, upstairs, rummaging through some dusty shelves, I came across
one volume of the Edinburgh, or second, edition of Burns in gray
paper boards--a terrible temptation, which was nobly resisted.
Though there was once a valuable library here, with many books now
rare and costly, yet all had disappeared.
East of the fort are shelving masses of red granite, completely
covered by a dark orange lichen, which gives them an added warmth
and richness; and on the highest part stood a square lead sun-dial,
which, at first sight, I thought had surely been set up by Franklin
or Richardson, but which I was told was very modern indeed, and
put up, if I am not mistaken, by Mr. Ogilvie, D.L.S. To the west
of the fort is the Church of England Mission, and, farther up,
the Roman Catholic establishment, the headquarters of our esteemed
fellow-voyager, Bishop Grouard. [The first Roman Catholic Mission in
Athabasca was formed by Bishop Farrand the year after Bishop Taché's
visit to Fort Chipewyan, about A.D. 1849, he being then a missionary
priest. Bishop Farrand established other missions on Peace River,
and went as far north as Fort Resolution, on Great Slave Lake.
He died in 1890, and was succeeded by our guest, Bishop Grouard,
O.M.I., _Eveque d'Ibora_, the present occupant of the See of Athabasca
and Mackenzie River. This prelate was born at Le Mans, in France,
and was educated there, but finished his education in Quebec. He was
ordained by Bishop Taché, near Montreal, in 1862, and was sent at
once to Chipewyan, where he learnt the difficult language of the
natives in a year. He has worked at many points, and perhaps no man
in all the North, with the exception of Archdeacon Macdonald, or the
late Anglican Bishop Bompas, has or had as accurate a knowledge of
the great Déné race, with its numerous subdivisions of Chipewyans,
Beavers, Yellow Knives, Dog Ribs, Slaves, Nahanies, Rabbit Skins,
Loucheaux, or Squint Eyes (so named from the prevalence of
strabismus amongst them), and of other tribes. All these were at one
time not only at war with the Crees, but with each other, with the
exception of the Slaves, who were always a tame and meek-spirited
race, and were often subjected to and treated like dogs by the
others. Indeed they were called by the Crees, Awughkanuk, meaning
"cattle."] In line with the fort buildings, and facing the lake,
stood a row of whitewashed cottages, all giving the place, with its
environs, deeply indented shore and rugged spits of red granite, the
quaint appearance of some secluded fishing village on the Gulf of
St. Lawrence.
In sight, but above the bay, was the trading-post of Colin Fraser,
whose father, the McCrimmon of the North-West, was Sir George
Simpson's piper. The late Chief-factor Camsell, of Fort Simpson,
and myself paddled up to it, and were most hospitably entertained
by Mr. Fraser and his agreeable family. His father's bagpipes,
still in excellent order, were speedily brought out, and it was
interesting to handle them, for they had heralded the approach of
the autocratic little Governor to many an inland post from Hudson's
Bay to Fraser River, over seventy years before.
Several days were spent at the fort taking declarations, but,
unlike Vermilion or Dunvegan, there were few large families here,
the applicants being mainly young people. The agricultural resources
of this region of rocks are certainly meagre compared with those of
Peace River. Potatoes, where there is any available soil, grow to
a good size; barley was nearly ripe when we were there, and wheat
ripens, too. But, of course, it is not a farming region, nor are
fish plentiful at the west end of the lake, the Athabasca River,
which enters there, giving for over twenty miles eastward a muddy
hue to the water. The rest of the lake is crystal clear, and
whitefish are plentiful, also lake trout, which are caught up to
thirty, and even forty, pounds' weight.
The distance from Fort Chipewyan to Fond du Lac is about 185 miles,
but the lake extends over 75 miles farther eastward in a narrow arm,
giving a total length of about 300 miles, the greatest width being
about 50 miles. The whole eastern portion of the lake is a desolate
scene of primitive rock and scrub pine, with many quartz exposures,
which are probably mineralized, but with no land, not even for
a garden. The scenery, however, from Black Bay to Fond du Lac
is very beautiful, consisting largely of islands as diversified
and as numerous as the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence.
These extremely solitary spots should be, one would think, the
breeding-grounds of the pelican, though it is said this bird really
breeds on islands in the Great Slave River. If disturbed by man it
is reputed to destroy its young and desert the place at once.
The Barren Ground reindeer migrate to the east end of this lake
in October, and return in March or April, but this is not certain.
Sometimes they unaccountably forsake their old migratory routes,
causing great suffering, in consequence, to the Indians. Moose
frequent the region, too, but are not numerous, whilst land game,
such as prairie chickens, ptarmigan, and a grouse resembling
the "fool-hen," is rather plentiful.
The Indians of Fond du Lac are healthy, though somewhat uncleanly
in their habits, and fond of dress, which is that of the white
man, their women being particularly well dressed.
As an agricultural country the region has no value whatever; but
its mineral resources, when developed, may prove to be rich and
profitable. Mining projects were already afoot in the country,
but far to the north on Great Slave Lake.
What was known as the "Helpman Party" was formed in England by
Captain Alene, who died of pneumonia in December, 1898, three
days after his arrival at Edmonton. The party consisted of a
number of retired army officers, including Viscount Avonmore,
with a considerable capital, $50,000 of which was expended.
They brought some of their outfit from England, but completed
it at Edmonton, and thence went overland late in the spring. But
sleighing being about over, they got to Lesser Slave Lake with
great difficulty, and there the party broke up, Mr. Helpman and
others returning to England, whilst Messrs. Jeffries and Hall
Wright, Captain Hall, and Mr. Simpson went on to Peace River
Crossing. From there they descended to Smith's Portage, on
the Great Slave River, and wintered at Fort Resolution, on
Great Slave Lake.
In the following spring they were joined by Mr. McKinlay, the
Hudson's Bay Company's agent at the Portage, and he, accompanied
by Messrs. Holroyd and Holt, who had joined the party at Smith's
Landing, and by Mr. Simpson, went off on a prospecting tour through
the north-east portion of Great Slave Lake, staking, _en route_, a
number of claims, some of which were valuable, others worthless. The
untruthful statements, however, of one of the party, who represented
even the worst of the claims as of fabulous value, brought the
whole enterprise into disrepute. The members of the party mentioned
returned to England ostensibly to raise capital to develop their
claims, but nothing came of it, not because minerals of great
value do not exist there, but on account of remoteness and the
difficulties of transport.
In 1898 another party was formed in Chicago, called "The Yukon
Valley Prospecting and Mining Company," its chief promoters being
a Mr. Willis and a Mr. Wollums of that city. The capital stock was
put at a quarter of a million dollars, twenty-five thousand dollars
being paid up. These organizers interested thirty-three other men in
the enterprise, the agreement being that these should go to Dawson
at the expense of the stockholders, and locate mining claims there,
a half-interest in all of which was to be transferred to the
company. These men proceeded to Calgary, and outfitted for Dawson,
which they wished to reach by ascending the Peace River. At Calgary
they were fortunate in procuring as leader a gentleman of large
experience in the North, W. J. McLean, Esq., a retired Chief-factor
of the Hudson's Bay Company, who pointed out the difficulties of
such a route, and recommended, instead, a possible one via Great
Slave Lake and the Mackenzie River to Fort Simpson, and thence up
the Liard River to the height of land at or near Francis Lake, and
so down the Pelly River and on to Dawson.
In February the party, led by him, left Edmonton with 160 ponies,
sleds and sleighs, loaded with supplies, and proceeded, by an
extremely difficult forest trail, to Lesser Slave Lake. They had
no feed for the horses, save what they drew, and, of course, they
reached the lake completely exhausted. Here, by Mr. McLean's advice,
they sold the horses, and with the proceeds hired local freighters
to carry them and their supplies to Peace River Crossing, where
boats were built in which the party, with the exception of one
of the organizers, Mr. Willis, who had returned in high dudgeon
to Chicago, set out for Great Slave Lake. Before getting to Fort
Resolution, Mr. McLean got private information from a former
servant of his at that post, which led to an expedition to the
north-east end of the lake, where he made valuable finds of copper
and other minerals. Another trip was made, and additional claims
were taken, and on Mr. McLean's return with a lot of samples
of ore, he with another prospector, came out, and proceeded to
Chicago. His samples were tested there and in Winnipeg, and yielded
in copper from 11 to 32 per cent.; and the galena 60 ozs. of
silver to the ton. Other minerals, such as sulphur, coal, asphalt,
petroleum, iron and salt were discovered, all of great promise,
and his opinion is that when transport is extended to that region,
it will prove to be a great storehouse of mineral wealth.
The other members of the party had at various times and places
separated, some going here and some there; but all eventually
left the country, and the company died a natural death. But Mr.
McLean is not only a firm believer in the mineral wealth of the
North, but in its resources otherwise. There are extensive areas
of large timber, and the lakes swarm with fish. The soil on the
Liard River is excellent, and he tells me that not only wheat but
Indian corn will ripen there, as he himself grew both successfully
when in charge of that district.
The mining enterprises referred to fell through, but I have described
them at some length since they are very interesting as being the
first attempts at prospecting with a view to development in those
remote regions. Failure, of course, at such a distance from transport
and supplies, was inevitable. But some of the prospectors, Captain
Hall and others who came out with ourselves, seemed to have no doubt
that much of the country they explored is rich in minerals. Indeed,
should the ancient repute of the Coppermine River be justified by
exploration, perhaps the most extensive lodes on the continent
will yet be discovered there.
If the Hudson's Bay route were developed, a short line of rail from
the western end of Chesterfield Inlet would tap the mining regions
prospected, and develop many great resources at present dormant. The
very moss of the Barren Lands may yet prove to be of value, and be
shipped to England as a fertilizer. I have been told by a gentleman
who has travelled in Alaska that an enterprising American there is
preparing to collect and ship moss to Oregon, where it will be
fermented and used as a fertilizer in the dairy industry.
To return to Lake Athabasca. It seemed at one time to have been the
rallying-place of the great Tiné or Déné race, to which, with the
exception of the Crees, the Loucheaux, perhaps, and the Esquimaux,
all the Indians of the entire country belong. It is said to have
been a traditional and central point, such as Onondaga Lake was to
the Iroquois.
It is noticeable that, in the nomenclature of the various Indians of
the continent, the names by which they were known amongst themselves
generally meant men, "original men," or people; e.g., the Lenni
Lenápe of the Delawares, with its equivalent, the Anishinápe of the
Saulteaux, and the Naheowuk of the Crees. It is also the meaning of
the word Déné, the generic name of a race as widely sundered, if not
as widely spread, as the Algonquin itself.
The Chipewyan of Lake Athabasca speaks the same tongue as the Apaché
of Arizona, the Navajo of Sonora, the Hoopa of Oregon, and the
Sarcee of Alberta. The word Apaché has the same root-meaning as
the word Déné though that fierce race was also called locally the
Shisińdins, namely, "The Forest People," doubtless from its original
habitat in this region.
Owing to the agglutinative character of the aboriginal languages,
numbering over four hundred, some philologists are inclined to
attribute them all to a common origin, the Basque tongue being
one of the two or three in Europe which have a like peculiarity.
In the languages of the American Indians one syllable is piled
upon another, each with a distinct root-significance, so that
a single word will often contain the meaning of an ordinary
English sentence. This polysynthetic character undoubtedly
does point to a common origin, just as the Indo-European tongues
trace back to Sanskrit. But whether this is indicative of the
ancient unity of the American races, whose languages differed
in so many other respects, and whose characteristics were so
divergent, is another question.
One interesting impression, begot of our environment, was that we
were now emphatically in what might be called "Mackenzie's country."
In his "General History of the Fur-Trade," published in London in
1801, Sir Alexander tells us that, after spending five years in Mr.
Gregory's office in Montreal, he went to Detroit to trade, and
afterwards, in 1785, to the Grand Portage (Fort William).
The first traders, he tells us, had penetrated to the Athabasca,
via Methy Portage, as early as 1791, and in 1783-4 the merchants
of Lower Canada united under the name of The North-West Company,
the two Frobishers--Joseph Frobisher had traded on the Churchill
River as early as 1775 and Simon McTavish being managers. The
Company, he says, "was consolidated in July, 1787," and became
very powerful in more ways than one, employing, at the time he
wrote, over 1,400 men, including 1,120 canoemen. "It took four
years from the time the good, were ordered until the furs were
sold;" but, of course, the profits, compared with the capital
invested, were very great, until the strife deepened between
the Montrealers. and the Hudson's Bay Company, whose first
inland post was only established at Sturgeon River, Cumberland
Lake, in 1774, by the adventurous, if not over-valiant, Samuel
Hearne. The rivalries of these two companies nearly ruined
both, until they got rid of them by uniting in 1821, when the
Nor'-Westers became as vigorous defenders of King Charles's
Charter as they had before been its defiers and defamers.
Fort Chipewyan was established, Mackenzie says, by Mr. Pond, in
1788, the year after his own arrival at the Athabasca, where, by
the way, in the fall of 1787, he describes Mr. Pond's garden at
his post on that river as being "as fine a kitchen garden as
he ever saw in Canada." Fort Chipewyan, however, though not
established by Mackenzie, was his headquarters for eight years.
From here he set out in June, 1789, on his canoe voyage to the
Arctic Ocean, and from here in October, 1792, he started on his
voyage up the Peace River on his way to the Pacific coast, which
he reached the following year.
In his history he states: "When the white traders first ventured
into this country both tribes were numerous, but smallpox destroyed
them." And, speaking of the region at large, he, perhaps, throws
an incidental side-light upon the Blackfoot question. "Who the
original people were," he says, "that were driven from it when
conquered by the Kinisteneaux (the Crees) is not now known, as
not a single vestige remains of them. The latter and the Chipewyans
are the only people that have been known here, and it is evident
that the last mentioned consider themselves as strangers, and seldom
remain longer than three or four years without visiting their
friends and relatives in the Barren Grounds, which they term their
native country."
[It is a reasonable conjecture that these "original people," driven
from Athabasca in remote days, were the Blackfeet Indians and their
kindred, who possibly had their base at that time, as in subsequent
days, at the forks and on both branches of the Saskatchewan. The
tradition was authentic in Dr. (afterwards Sir John) Richardson's
time. Writing on the Saskatchewan eighty-eight years ago he places
the Eascabs, "called by the Crees the Assinipoytuk, or Stone
Indians, west of the Crees, between them and the Blackfeet." The
Assiniboines are an offshoot of the great Sioux, or Dakota, race
called by their congeners the Hohas, or "Rebels." They separated
from their nation at a remote period owing to a quarrel, so the
tradition runs, between children, and which was taken up by their
parents. Migrating northward the Eascabs, as the Assiniboines called
themselves, were gladly received and welcomed as allies by the
Crees, with whom, as Dr. Richardson says, "they attacked and
drove to the westward the former inhabitants of the banks of the
Saskatchewan." "The nations," he continues, "driven westward by
the Easeabs and Crees are termed by the latter Yatchee-thinyoowuc,
translated Slave Indians, but properly 'Strangers.'" This word
Yatchee is, of course, the Iyaghchi of the Crees in their name for
Lesser Slave River and Lake. Richardson describes them as inhabiting
the country round Fort Augustus and the foot of the Rockies, and "so
numerous now as to be a terror to the Assiniboines themselves." They
are divided, he says, into five nations, of whom the Fall Indians,
so called from their former residence at Cole's Falls, near the
Forks of the Saskatchewan, were the most numerous, consisting of 500
tents, the Piegans of 400, the Blackfeet of 350, the Bloods of 300,
and the Sarcees of 150, the latter tribe being a branch of the
Chipewyans which, having migrated like their congeners, the Apaches,
from the north, joined the Crees as allies, just as the Assiniboines
did from the south.]
Besides Mackenzie's, another name, renowned in the tragic annals of
science, is inseparably connected with this region, viz., that of
Franklin, who has already been incidentally referred to. Others
recur to one, but these two great names are engrained, so to
speak, in the North, and cannot be lightly passed over in any
descriptive work. The two explorers were friends, or, at any rate,
acquaintances; and, before leaving England, Franklin had a long
conversation in London with Mackenzie, who died shortly afterwards.
The record of his "Journey to the Shores of the Polar Ocean,"
accompanied by Doctor Richardson and Midshipmen Back and Hood, in
the years 1819-20-21 and '22, practically began at York Factory in
August of the former year. The rival companies were still at war,
and in making the portage at the Grand Rapids of the Saskatchewan,
with a party of Hudson's Bay Company traders, "they advanced," he
says, "armed, and with great caution." When he returned on the 14th
July, 1822, to York, the warring companies had united, and he and
his friends were met there by Governor Simpson, Mr. McTavish, and
all the united partners, after a voyage by water and land of over
5,500 miles. Franklin spent part of the winter at Cumberland post,
which had been founded to counteract the rivalry of Montreal.
"Before that time," he says, "the natives took their furs to
Hudson's Bay, or sold to the French Canadian traders, who," he adds,
"visited this part of the country as early as 1697." If so, the
credit for the discovery of the Saskatchewan has been wrongly given
to the Chevalier, as he was called, a son of Varenne, Sieur de la
Varendrye.
Franklin left Cumberland in January, 1820, by dog train for
Chipewyan, via Fort Carlton and Green Lake. Fort Carlton was the
great food supply post, then and long afterwards, of the Hudson's
Bay Company, buffalo and wapiti being very abundant. The North-West
Company's fort, called La Montee, was three miles beyond Carlton,
and harbored seventy French Canadians and sixty women and children,
who consumed seven hundred pounds of meat daily, the ration being
eight pounds. This post was at that time in charge of Mr. Hallett,
a forebear, if I mistake not, of my old friend, William Hallett,
leader of the English Plain Hunt, and a distinguished loyalist in
the rebellion of 1869.
Franklin and Back left Fort Carlton on the 8th February, and
reached Green Lake on the 17th. The North-West Company's post at
the lake was managed by Dugald Cameron, and that of the Hudson's
Bay Company by a Mr. MacFarlane, and, having been equipped at
both posts with carioles, sledges and provisions, they left
"under a fusillade from the half-breed women." From the end of
the lake they followed for a short distance a small river, then
"crossed the woods to Beaver River, and proceeding along it,
passed the mouths of two rivers, the latter of which, they were
told, was a channel by which the Indians go to Lesser Slave
Lake." On the 11th of March they reached Methy Lake--so called
from an unwholesome fish of the burbot species found there,
only the liver of which is fit to eat--crossed the Methy
portage on the 13th, and, amidst a chaos of vast ravines and
the wildest of scenery, descended the next day to the Clearwater
River. Thence they followed the Indian trail on the north bank,
passing a noted scene, "a romantic defile of limestone rocks
like Gothic ruins," and, crossing a small stream, found pure
sulphur deposited by springs and smelling very strongly. On
the 17th they got to the junction of the Clearwater with the
Athabasca, where Port McMurray now stands, and next day reached
the Pierre an Calumet post, in charge of a Mr. Stewart, who
had twice crossed the mountains to the Pacific coast. The
place got its name from a soft stone found there, of which
the Indians made their pipes.
Franklin notes the "sulphurous springs" and "bituminous salt" in
this region, also the statement of Mr. Stewart, who had a good
thermometer, "that the lowest temperature he had ever witnessed
in many years, either at the Athabasca or Great Slave Lake, was
45 degrees below zero," a statement worth recording here.
On the 26th of March the party arrived at Fort Chipewyan, the
distance travelled from Cumberland House being 857 miles. He
notes that at the time of his arrival the fort was very bare
of both buffalo and moose meat, owing, it was said, to the trade
rivalry, and that where some eight hundred packs of fur used to
be shipped from that point, only one-half of that number was now
sent. Liquor was largely used by both companies in trade, and
scenes of riot and violence ensued upon the arrival of the Indians
at the fort in spring, and whom he describes otherwise as "reserved
and selfish, unhospitable and beggars, but honest and affectionate
to children." They painted round the eyes, the cheek-bones and the
forehead, and all the race, except the Dog Ribs and the Beavers,
believed that their forefathers came from the East. The Northern
Indians, Franklin says, suppose that they originally sprang from
a dog, and about A.D. 1815 they destroyed all their dogs, and
compelled their women to take their place. Their chiefs seemed to
have no power save over their own families, and their conjurers
were supported by voluntary contributions of provisions. These
are some of the chief characteristics Franklin notes of the Indians
who frequented Fort Chipewyan, at which point he spent several
months. One extraordinary circumstance, however, remains to be
mentioned. It is that of a young Chipewyan who lost his wife in
her first pregnancy. He applied the child to his left breast,
from which a flow of milk took place. "The breast," he adds,
"became of an unusual size." Here he and Back, afterwards Admiral
Back, were joined by Dr. Richardson and Mr. Hood, who had come
from Cumberland House by the difficult Churchill River route,
and on July 18th, at noon, the whole party left the fort on
their tragic expedition, the party, aside from those named,
consisting of John Hepburn, seaman, an interpreter and fifteen
voyageurs, including, unfortunately, an Iroquois Indian, called
Michel Teroahante. At two p.m. they entered Great Slave River,
here three-quarters of a mile wide, and, passing Red Deer Islands
and Dog River, encountered the rapids, overcome by seven or eight
portages, from the Casette to the Portage of the Drowned, all
varying in length from seventy to eight hundred yards.
On the 21st they landed at the mouth of Salt River to lay in a
supply of salt for their journey, the deposits lying twenty-two
miles up by stream. These natural pans, or salt plains, he
describes--and the description answers for to-day--as "bounded on
the north and west by a ridge between six and seven hundred feet
high." Several salt springs issue at its foot, and spread over the
plain, which is of tenacious clay, and, evaporating in summer,
crystallize in the form of cubes. The poisson inconnu, a species
of salmon which ascends from the Arctic Ocean, is not found, he
says, above this stream. A few miles below it, however, a buffalo
plunged into the river before them, which they killed, and those
animals still frequent the region.
On the 25th of July they passed through the channel of the
Scaffold to Great Slave Lake, and, landing at Moose Deer Island,
found thereon the rival forts, of course, within striking distance
of each other, and in charge, as usual, of rival Scotsmen. At Great
Slave Lake I must part company with Franklin's Journal, since our
own negotiations only extended to its south shores. But who that
has read it can ever forget the awful return journey of the party
from the Arctic coast, through the Barren Lands, to their own winter
quarters, which they so aptly named Fort Resolution? In the tales
of human suffering from hunger there are few more terrible than
this. All the gruesome features of prolonged starvation were present;
the murder of Mr. Hood and two of the voyageurs by the Iroquois;
his bringing to the camp a portion of human flesh, which he declared
to be that of a wolf; his death at the Doctor's hands; the dog-like
diet of old skins, bones, leather pants, moccasins, _tripe de roche_;
the death of Peltier and Semandre from want, and the final relief
of the party by Akaitcho's Indians, and their admirable conduct.
And all those horrors experienced over five hundred miles beyond
Fort Chipewyan, itself thousands of miles beyond civilization!
Did the noble Franklin's last sufferings exceed even these? Perhaps;
but they are unrecorded.
To return to our muttons. Some marked changes had taken place, and
for the better, in Chipewyan characteristics since Franklin's day;
not surprising, indeed, after eighty years of contact with educated,
or reputable, white men; for miscreants, like the old American
frontiersmen, were not known in the country, and if they had been,
would soon have been run out. There was now no paint or "strouds"
to be seen, and the blanket was confined to the bed. In fact, the
Indians and half-breeds of Athabasca Lake did not seem to differ in
any way from those of the Middle and Upper Peace River, save that
the former were all hunters and fishermen, pure and simple, there
being little or no agriculture. It was impossible to study the
manners and customs of the aborigines, since we had no time to
observe them closely. They have their legends and traditions and
remnants of ceremonies, much of which is upon record, and they
cherish, especially, some very curious beliefs. One, in particular,
we were told, obtained amongst them, namely, that the mastodon
still exists in the fastnesses of the Upper Mackenzie. They describe
it as a monster many times larger than the buffalo, and they
dread going into the parts it is supposed to haunt. This singular
opinion may be the survival of a very old tradition regarding that
animal, but is more likely due to the presence of its remains in
the shape of tusks and bones found here and there throughout the
Mackenzie River district and the Yukon.
[A similar belief, it is said, exists amongst the Indians of the
Yukon. The remains of the primeval elephant are exceedingly abundant
in the tundras of Siberia, and a considerable trade in mammoth ivory
has been carried on between that region and England for many years.
It is supposed that the Asian elephant advanced far to the North
during the interglacial period and perished in the recurrent glacial
epoch. Its American congener, the mastodon, found its way from Asia
to this continent during the Drift period, when, it is believed,
land communication existed in what is now Bering's Strait, and
perished in a like manner. It was not a sudden but a gradual
extinction in their native habitats, due to natural causes, such
as encroaching ice and other material changes in the animals'
environment. This, I believe, is the accepted scientific opinion of
to-day. But the fact that these animals are at times exposed entire
by the falling away of ice-cliffs or ledges, their flesh being quite
fresh and fit food for dogs, and even men, opens up a very
interesting field of inquiry and conjecture. In the bowels of a
mammoth recently revealed in North-Eastern Siberia vegetable food
was found, probably tropical, at all events unknown to the botany of
to-day. The foregoing facts seem to be at variance with the doctrine
of Uniformity, or with anything like a slow process. The entombment
of these animals must have been very sudden, and due, one would
naturally think, to a tremendous cataclysm followed by immediate
freezing, else their flesh would have become tainted. A recent
English writer predicts another deluge owing to the constant
accumulation of ice at the Antarctic Pole, which for untold ages has
been attracting and freezing the waters of the Northern Hemisphere.
A lowering process, he says, has thus been going on in the ocean
levels to the north through immeasurable time, its record being the
ancient water-marks now high up on the mountain sides of British
Columbia and elsewhere. It is certainly not unthinkable that, if
subject to such a displacement of its centre of gravity, our planet
at some inconceivably remote period capsized, so that what were
before the Tropics became the Poles, and that such a catastrophe is
not only possible but is certain to happen again. As a conjecture it
may be unscientific; but how many of the accepted theories of science
have ceased to be! As a matter of fact, she has been very busy
burying her dead, particularly of late years, and her theory of the
extinction of the primeval elephant may yet prove to be one of them.]
On the 9th the steamer _Grahame_ arrived from Smith's Landing,
bringing with her about 120 baffled Klondikers, returning to
the United States, there being still some sixty more, they
said, down the Mackenzie River, who intended to make their
way out, if possible, before winter. They had a solitary woman
with them who had discarded a duffer husband, and who looked
very self-reliant, indeed, being girt about with bowie-knife
and revolver, but otherwise not alarming.
It was certainly a motley crowd, and some of its members by no
means honest. Chief-factor Camsell, who had just come from Fort
Simpson, told me they had stolen from every house where they had
a chance, and mentioned, amongst other things, a particularly
ungrateful theft of a whip-saw from a native's cabin shortly
after an Indian had, with much pains, overtaken them with a similar
one, which they had lost on the trail. Their departure, therefore,
was not lamented, and the natives were glad to get rid of them.
We ourselves boarded the steamer for Fort McMurray on the 11th, but,
owing to bad weather, did not get off till midday, and even then the
lake was so rough that we had to anchor for a while in the lee of an
island. Colin Fraser had started ahead of us with his big scow and
cargo of furs, valued at $15,000, and kept ahead with his fine crew
of ten expert trackers. When the weather calmed we steamed across to
the entrance of one of the various channels connecting the Athabasca
River with the lake, and soon found ourselves skirting the most
extensive marshes and feeding-grounds for game in all Canada; a
delta renowned throughout the North for its abundance of waterfowl,
far surpassing the St. Clair flats, or any other region in the East.
Next morning, upon rounding a point, three full-grown moose were
seen ahead, swimming across the river. An exciting, and even hazardous,
scene ensued on board, the whole Klondike crowd firing, almost at
random, hundreds of shots without effect. Two of the noble brutes
kept on, and reached the shore, disappearing in the woods; but the
third, a three year-old bull moose, foolishly turned, and lost its
life in consequence. It was hauled on deck, bled and flayed, and
was a welcome addition to the steamer's table.
That night a concert was improvised on deck, in which the music-hall
element came to the front. But one speedily tired of the "Banks of
the Wabash," and other ditties; in fact, we were burning to get to
Fort McMurray, where we expected letters and papers from the outer
world and home, and nothing else could satisfy us. By evening we
had passed Burnt Point, also Poplar Point, where the body of an
unfortunate, called Patterson, who had been drowned in one of the
rapids above, was recovered in spring by some Indians, the body
being completely enclosed in a transparent coffin of ice. On the
following day we passed Little Red River, and next morning reached
the fort, where, to our infinite joy, we received the longed-for
letters and papers--our first correspondence from the far East.
Fort McMurray consisted of a tumble-down cabin and trading-store
on the top of a high and steep bank, which had yet been flooded
at times, the people seeking shelter on an immense hill which
overlooked it. Above an island close by is the discharge of the
Clearwater River, the old canoe route by which the supplies for the
district used to come, via Isle a la Crosse. At McMurray we left
the steamer and took to our own boats, our Commission occupying one,
and Mr. Laird and party the other. The trackers got into harness at
once, and made very good time for some miles, the current not being
too swift just here for fast traveling.