NORTHERN DISCOVERIES.

[Sidenote: 1881.]

On New Year’s Day, after the children had given their pretty presents to Uncle Fritz, and after he had shown them his New Year’s cards and other greetings, he asked if they had brought anything to read.

“We are all alive about the Indians,” said Laura. “We have seen Miss La Flesche, who is lovely, and we have heard her talk Indian. She never would have roasted Father Jogues by a slow fire. Is she the same sort as the Iroquois?”

Uncle Fritz sent for the second volume of the Archæologia Americana, and showed them Mr. Gallatin’s map of the United States, and the division of it into nine great Indian families. Fergus said the map was copied in a volume of Bancroft’s History. The children saw that the Massachusetts Indians are Algonkins, or, as Mr. Gallatin says, Algonkin-Lenape. The Iroquois, who were so cruel to the poor Jesuit Father, are of another race.

“I am glad,” said Blanche, “that it was no cousin of my nice Waban who did such awful things.”

Blanche lives on Waban Street, though the sign-painters spell it Wabon.

Uncle Fritz said grimly that he was glad Blanche knew he was “nice.” The children saw that the Algonkin family covered most of the United States north of the Gulf States and east of the Mississippi, excepting New York and most of Pennsylvania, where were Iroquois tribes; and that there were Iroquois tribes west of the Niagara in the peninsula of Canada. They saw that the Algonkins extended far north, half up the side of Hudson’s Bay.

“But, you know,” said Uncle Fritz, “that they are all great wanderers. You may catch a bit of dialect thousands of miles off from the tribe where you first found it. When Mr. Bartlett was on the frontier of Mexico, he happened to notice a sort of ‘click,’ like the Zulu ‘click,’ in the language of the Apaches, the roving horsemen of those regions. Mr. Bartlett is a very accurate linguist, and he remembered that Dr. Richardson said of the Athapescans on the Arctic Ocean that they had such a ‘click.’ He looked in their vocabularies, and he found they used some of the same words the Apaches did. These Apaches had strayed away from them, nobody knows when.”

“Apache sounds like Athapescan,” said Fergus; and Uncle Fritz nodded approval of the bold etymology.

“Well, then,” said Tom Rising, “I suppose any of these people painted yellow on the map, these Chippeways and the rest, can read your Eliot’s Bible, Uncle Fritz.”

“No, my boy, that is asking too much. For the Massachusetts dialect and Eliot’s spelling of it are now two hundred years old, and probably always our Indians differed from the Hudson’s Bay Indians, for instance, as much as Italians from Frenchmen. Still Eliot’s grammar and dictionary are useful now to the missionaries among any Algonkin tribes.”

The children began comparing words in the vocabulary in Mr. Gallatin’s book, and trying to learn them. Here is the Indian for “man,” from one language of each of the nine great Eastern races. Mr. Gallatin gives specimens of forty-four languages, which are all grouped under these nine divisions:--

MAN in a language of

_Eskimaux_ is TUAK. _Athapescans_ is TENNEE. _Algonkins_ is WOSKETOMP.

And, among Algonkins, the children took the Massachusetts language, so as to know what Blanche’s “nice” Waban said.

_Iroquois_ is UNGUOH. _Sioux_ is WONGAHAH. _Catawbas_ is YABRECHA. _Cherokees_ is ASKAYA. _Choctaws_ is HOTTOK NOKNI. _Muskhogees_ is ISTAHOUANUAH.

The _Pawnees_, west of these divisions, called “man” TSAEKSH.

“And now,” said Uncle Fritz, who had been looking among his Arctic books, “if you want to find about your nice Algonkins of Hudson’s Bay and their neighbors, look at my marks in Hearne’s Travels here.”

“I remember in an old atlas the Arctic Ocean was marked ‘Sea seen by Mr. Hearne.’”

“This is that man. On the night between July 17 and July 18, 1771, while your grandfather, Tom, was discussing with other assembly-men here in Boston, how they should circumvent Gov. Hutchinson, Hearne, by the light of a sun which was above the horizon, was making the drawing from which this map which I showed you was made. And I am sorry to say your ‘nice’ Algonkins, who were with him, were destroying some tents they found of Northern Indians.

“Now you will find some curious things in Hearne’s book.”

And the children followed Uncle Fritz’s book-marks and read these passages:--

[Sidenote: 1771.]

When on the northwest side of Seal River I asked Captain Chawchinahaw the distance and probable time it would take before we could reach the main woods, which he assured me would not exceed four or five days’ journey. This put both me and my companions in good spirits, and we continued our course between the west by north and northwest, in daily expectation of arriving at those woods, which we were told would furnish us with everything the country affords. These accounts were so far from being true that, after we had walked double the time here mentioned, no signs of woods were to be seen in the direction we were then steering, but we had frequently seen the looming of woods to the southwest.

The cold being now very intense, our small stock of English provisions all expended, and not the least thing to be got on the bleak hills, we had for some time been walking on; it became necessary to strike more to the westward, which we accordingly did, and the next evening arrived at some small patches of low, scrubby woods, where we saw the tracks of several deer and killed a few partridges. The road we had traversed for many days before was in general so rough and stony that our sledges were daily breaking, and to add to the inconveniency the land was so barren as not to afford us materials for repairing them; but the few woods we now fell in with amply supplied us with necessaries for those repairs, and as we were then enabled each night to pitch proper tents, our lodging was much more comfortable than it had been for many nights before while we were on the barren grounds, where, in general, we thought ourselves well off if we could scrape together as many shrubs as would make a fire. But it was scarcely ever in our power to make any other defence against the weather than by digging a hole in the snow down to the moss, wrapping ourselves up in our clothing and lying down in it, with our sledges set up edgeways to windward.... By this time I found that Captain Chawchinahaw had not the prosperity of the undertaking at heart; he often painted the difficulties in the worst colors, took every method to dishearten me and my European companions, and several times hinted his desire of our returning back to the factory. But, finding I was determined to proceed he took such methods as he thought would be most likely to answer his end; one of which was that of not administering toward our support, so that we were a considerable time without any other subsistence but what our two home-guard Indians procured, and the little that I and the two European men could kill, which was very disproportionate to our wants, as we had to provide for several women and children who were with us. Chawchinahaw finding that this kind of treatment was not likely to complete his design, and that we were not to be starved into compliance, at length influenced several of the best Northern Indians to desert in the night, who took with them several bags of my ammunition, some pieces of iron-work, such as hatchets, ice-chisels, files, etc., as well as several other useful articles. When I became acquainted with this piece of villany, I asked Chawchinahaw the reason of such behavior. To which he answered that he knew nothing of the affair, but as that was the case it would not be prudent, he said, for us to proceed any farther, adding that he and all the rest of his countrymen were going to strike off another way in order to join the remainder of their wives and families; and, after giving us a short account of how to steer our course for the nearest part of Seal River, which he said would be our best way homeward, he and his crew delivered me most of the things they had in charge, packed up their awls, and set out toward the southwest, making the woods ring with laughter, and left us to consider our unhappy situation, near two hundred miles from Prince of Wales’s fort, all heavily laden, and our strength and spirits greatly reduced by hunger and fatigue. Our situation at that time, though very alarming, would not permit us to spend much time in reflection, so we loaded our sledges to the best advantage, but were obliged to throw away some bags of shot and ball, and immediately set out on our return. In the course of the day’s walk we were fortunate enough to kill several partridges, for which we were all very thankful, as it was the first meat we had had for several days; indeed, for the five preceding days we had not killed as much as amounted to half a partridge for each man, and some days had not a single mouthful. While we were in this distress the Northern Indians were by no means in want, for as they always walked foremost they had ten times the chance to kill partridges, rabbits, or any other thing which was to be met with than we had. Besides this advantage they had great stocks of flour, oatmeal, and other English provisions, which they had embezzled out of my stock during the early part of the journey, and as one of my home Indians, called Mackachy, and his wife, who is a Northern Indian woman, always resorted to the Northern Indians’ tents, where they got amply supplied with provisions when neither I nor my men had a single mouthful, I have great reason to suspect they had a principal hand in the embezzlement; indeed, both the man and his wife were capable of committing any crime, however diabolical. In our course down Seal River we met a stranger, a Northern Indian, on a hunting excursion, and though he had not met with any success that day yet he kindly invited us to his tent, saying he had plenty of venison at my service, and told the Southern Indians that as there were two or three beaver-houses near his tent, he should be glad of their assistance in taking them, for there was only one man with three women at the tent.

Though we were at that time far from being in want of provisions, yet we accepted his offer, and set off with our new guide for his tent, which, by a comparative distance, he told us, was not above five miles from the place where we met him, but we found it to be nearer fifteen, so that it was the middle of the night before we arrived at it. When we drew near the tent the usual signal for the approach of strangers was given by firing a gun or two, which was immediately answered by the man at the tent. On our arrival at the door the good man of the house came out, shook me by the hand, and welcomed us to his tent, but as it was too small to contain us all he ordered his women to assist us in pitching our tent, and in the mean time invited me and as many of my crew as his little habitation could contain, and regaled us with the best in the house. The pipe went round pretty briskly, and the conversation naturally turned on the treatment we had received from Chawchinahaw and his gang, which was always answered by our host with “Ah! if I had been there, it should not have been so!” But, notwithstanding his hospitality on the present occasion, he would most assuredly have acted the same part as the others had done, if he had been of the party....

When the Indians design to impound deer they look out for one of the paths in which a number of them have trod, and which is observed to be still frequented by them. When these paths cross a lake, a wide river, or a barren plain, they are found to be much the best for the purpose, and if the path run through a cluster of woods capable of affording materials for building a pound, it adds considerably to the commodiousness of the situation. The pound is built by making a strong fence with brushy trees, without observing any degree of regularity, and the work is continued to any extent, according to the pleasure of the builders. I have seen some that were not less than a mile round, and am informed that there are others still more extensive. The door, or entrance of the pound, is not larger than a common gate, and the inside is so crowded with small counter-hedges as very much to resemble a maze, in every opening of which they set a snare, made with thongs of parchment deer-skins well twisted together, which are amazingly strong. One end of the snare is usually made fast to a growing pole, but if no one of a sufficient size can be found near the place where the snare is to be set, a loose pole is substituted in its room, which is always of such size and length that a deer cannot drag it far before it gets entangled among the other woods, which are all left standing except what is found necessary for making the fence, hedges, etc.

The pound being thus prepared, a row of small brushwood is stuck up in the snow on each side the door or entrance, and these hedge-rows are continued along the open part of the lake, river, or plain, where neither stick nor stump besides is to be seen, which makes them the more distinctly observed. These poles, or brushwood, are generally placed at the distance of fifteen or twenty yards from each other, and ranged in such a manner as to form two sides of a long acute angle, growing gradually wider in proportion to the distance they extend from the entrance of the pound, which sometimes is not less than two or three miles; while the deer’s path is exactly along the middle, between the two rows of brushwood. Indians employed on this service always pitch their tent on or near an eminence that affords a commanding prospect of the path leading to the pound, and when they see any deer going that way, men, women, and children walk along the lake or riverside under cover of the woods till they get behind them, then step forth to open view, and proceed towards the pound in the form of a crescent. The poor timorous deer, finding themselves pursued and at the same time taking the two rows of brushy poles to be two ranks of people stationed to prevent their passing on either side, run straight forward in the path till they get into the pound. The Indians then close in and block up the entrance with some bushy trees that have been cut down and lie at hand for that purpose. The deer being thus enclosed the women and children walk round the pound to prevent them from breaking or jumping over the fence, while the men are employed spearing such as are entangled in the snares, and shooting with bows and arrows those which remain loose in the pound....

Agreeably to my instructions, I smoked my calumet of peace with the Copper Indians, who seemed highly pleased on the occasion; and, from a conversation held on the subject of my journey, I found they were delighted with the hopes of having a European settlement in the neighborhood, and seemed to have no idea that any impediment could prevent such a scheme from being carried into execution. Climates and seasons had no weight with them, nor could they see where the difficulty lay in getting there; for though they acknowledged that they had never seen the sea at the mouth of the Copper River clear of ice, yet they could see nothing that should hinder a ship from approaching it, and they innocently enough observed that the water was always so smooth between the ice and shore that even small boats might get there with great ease and safety. How a ship was to get between the ice and the shore never once occurred to them.

Whether from hospitality, or from the great advantages which they expected to reap by my discoveries, I know not; but I must confess that their civility far exceeded what I could expect from so uncivilized a tribe, and I was exceedingly sorry that I had nothing of value to offer them. However, such articles as I had I distributed among them, and they were thankfully received by them. Though they have some European commodities among them, which they purchase from the Northern Indians, the same articles from the hands of an Englishman were more prized. As I was the first whom they had ever seen, and in all probability might be the last, it was curious to see how they flocked about me, and expressed as much desire to examine me from top to toe as a European naturalist would a nondescript animal. They, however, found and pronounced me to be a perfect human being, except in the color of my hair and eyes; the former, they said, was like the stained hair of a buffalo’s tail, and the latter, being light, were like those of a gull. The whiteness of my skin also was, in their opinion, no ornament, as they said it resembled meat which had been sodden in water till all the blood was extracted. On the whole, I was viewed as so great a curiosity in this part of the world that during my stay there, whenever I combed my head, some or other of them never failed to ask for the hairs that came off, which they carefully wrapped up, saying, “When I see you again, you shall see your hair.”...

When a friend for whom they have a particular regard is, as they suppose, dangerously ill, they have recourse to another extraordinary superstition, which is no less than that of pretending to swallow hatchets, ice-chisels, 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. 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 tent the patient is laid, and is soon followed by the conjuror or conjurors. 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 and begin to 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 necessary precaution, as hard and compact bodies, such as iron and steel, would be very hard 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.

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 conference with the 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 tied 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 back and forth before the conjuring-house for a short time, when he feigned to be greatly distressed 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 for some time, produced the bayonet, which apparently he hauled out of his mouth, to the no small surprise of all present. He then looked round with an air of exultation and strutted into the house, where he renewed his incantations, and continued them without intermission twenty-four hours. Though I was not close to his elbow when he performed the above feat, yet I thought myself near enough 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.

Not long after this sleight-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 southwest.[17]...

I do not remember to have met with any travellers into high northern latitudes who remarked their having heard the Northern Lights make any noise in the air as they vary their colors or position, which may probably be owing to the want of perfect silence at the time they made their observations. I can positively affirm that in still nights I have frequently heard them make a rustling sound and crackling noise, like the waving of a large flag in a fresh gale of wind. This is not peculiar to the place of which I am now writing, as I have heard the same noise very plain at Churchill River, and in all probability it is only for want of attention that it has not been heard in every part of the northern hemisphere where they have been known to shine with any degree of lustre....

The beaver being so plentiful the attention of my companions was chiefly engaged on them, as they not only furnished delicious food, but their skins proved a valuable acquisition, being a principal article of trade as well as a serviceable one for clothing, etc. The situation of the beaver-houses is various. Where the beavers are numerous they are found to inhabit lakes, ponds, and rivers, as well as those narrow creeks which connect the numerous lakes with which this country abounds, but the two latter are generally chosen by them when the depth of water and other circumstances are suitable, as they have then the advantage of a current to convey wood and other necessaries to their habitations, and because, in general, they are more difficult to be taken than those that are built in standing water.

There is no one particular part of a lake, pond, river, or creek, of which the beavers make choice for building their houses on, in preference to another, for they sometimes build on points, sometimes in the hollow of a bay, and often on small islands; they always choose, however, those parts that have such a depth of water as will resist the frost in winter and prevent it from freezing to the bottom. The beavers that build their houses in small rivers or creeks, in which the water is liable to be drained off when the back supplies are dried up by the frost, are wonderfully taught by instinct to provide against that evil by making a dam quite across the river, at a convenient distance from their houses. This I look upon as the most curious piece of workmanship that is performed by the beaver; not so much for the neatness of the work as for its strength and real service, and at the same time it discovers such a degree of sagacity and foresight in the animal of approaching evils as is little inferior to that of the human species, and is certainly peculiar to those animals.

The beaver-dams differ in shape according to the nature of the place in which they are built. If the water in the river or creek have but little motion the dam is almost straight, but when the current is more rapid it is always made with a considerable curve, convex toward the stream. The materials made use of in those dams are drift-wood, green willows, birch, and poplars, if they can be got, also mud and stones intermixed in such a manner as must evidently contribute to the strength of the dam, but in these dams there is no other order or method observed, except that of the work being carried on with a regular sweep, and all the parts being made of equal strength. In places which have long been frequented by beavers undisturbed, their dams by frequent repairing become a solid bank, capable of resisting a great force both of water and ice, and as the willow, poplar, and birch generally take root and shoot up, they by degrees form a kind of regular-planted hedge, which I have seen in some places so tall that birds have built their nests among the branches.

Though the beaver which build their houses in lakes and other standing waters may enjoy a sufficient quantity of their favorite element without the assistance of a dam, the trouble of getting wood and other necessaries to their habitations without the help of a current must, in some measure, counterbalance the other advantages which are reaped from such a situation, for it must be observed that the beaver which build in rivers and creeks always cut their wood above their houses so that the current, with little trouble, conveys it to the place required.

The beaver-houses are built of the same materials as their dams and are always proportioned in size to the number of inhabitants, which seldom exceed four old and six or eight young ones; though, by chance I have seen above double that number. These houses, though not altogether unworthy of admiration, fall very short of the general description of them; for, instead of order or regulation being observed in rearing them, they are of a much ruder structure than their dams.

Those who have undertaken to describe the inside of beaver-houses as having several apartments appropriated to various uses, such as eating, sleeping, store-houses for provisions, etc., must have been very little acquainted with the subject, or, which is still worse, guilty of attempting to impose on the credulous by representing the greatest falsehoods as facts. Many years residence among the Indians, during which I had an opportunity of seeing hundreds of these houses, has enabled me to affirm that everything of the kind is entirely void of truth; for, notwithstanding the sagacity of those animals, it has never been observed that they aim at any other conveniences in their houses than to have a dry place to lie on, and there they usually eat their victuals which they occasionally take out of the water. It frequently happens that some of the large houses are found to have one or more partitions, if they deserve that appellation, but that is no more than a part of the main building left by the sagacity of the beaver to support the roof. On such occasions it is common for those different apartments, as some are pleased to call them, to have no communication with each other except by water; so that in fact they may be called double or treble houses rather than different apartments of the same house. I have seen a large beaver-house built in a small island that had near a dozen apartments under one roof; and, two or three of these only excepted, none of them had any communication with each other but by water. As there were beaver enough to inhabit each apartment it is more than probable that each family knew its own, and always entered at their own door, without having any further connection with their neighbors than a friendly intercourse, and to join their united labors in erecting their separate habitations and building their dams where required. It is difficult to say whether their interest on other occasions was anyways reciprocal.

Travellers who assert that the beaver have two doors to their houses, one on the land side and the other next the water, seem to be less acquainted with those animals than others who assign them an elegant suite of apartments. Such a proceeding would be quite contrary to their manner of life, and at the same time would render their houses of no use, either to protect them from their enemies or guard them against the extreme cold of winter.

The quiquepatches or wolverines are great enemies to the beaver, and if there were a passage into their houses on the land side would not leave one of them alive wherever they came. I cannot refrain from smiling when I read the accounts of different authors who have written on the economy of these animals, as there seems to be a contest between them who shall most exceed in fiction. But the “Compiler of Wonders of Nature and Art” seems, in my opinion, to have succeeded best in this respect, as he has not only collected all the fictions into which other writers on the subject have run, but has so greatly improved on them that little remains to be added to his account of the beaver, beside a vocabulary of their language, a code of their laws, and a sketch of their religion, to make it the most complete natural history of that animal that can possibly be offered to the public.... To deny that the beaver is possessed of a very considerable degree of sagacity would be as absurd in me as it is in those authors who think they cannot allow them too much. I shall willingly grant them their full share, but it is impossible for any one to conceive how, or by what means, a beaver, whose whole height when standing erect does not exceed two feet and a half, or three feet at most, and whose fore-paws are not much larger than a half-crown piece, can “drive stakes as thick as a man’s leg into the ground, three or four feet deep.” Their “wattling those stakes with twigs” is equally absurd, and their “plastering the inside of their houses with a composition of mud and straw, and swimming with mud and straw on their tails” are still more incredible. The form and size of the animal, notwithstanding all its sagacity, will not admit of its performing such feats, and it would be as impossible for a beaver to use its tail as a trowel, except on the surface of the ground on which it walks, as it would have been for Sir James Thornhill to have painted the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral without the assistance of a scaffolding. The joints of their tail will not admit of their turning it over on their backs on any occasion whatever, as it has a natural inclination to bend downwards, and it is not without some considerable exertion that they can keep it from trailing on the ground. This being the case they cannot sit erect, like a squirrel, which is their common posture, particularly when eating, or when they are cleaning themselves as a cat or squirrel does, without having their tails bent forward between their legs, and which may not improperly be called their trencher.

So far are the beaver from driving stakes into the ground when building their houses, that they lay most of the wood crosswise, and nearly horizontal, and without any other order than that of leaving a hollow or cavity in the middle; when any unnecessary branches project inward they cut them off with their teeth, and throw them in among the rest, to prevent the mud from falling through the roof. It is a mistaken notion that the wood-work is first completed and then plastered; for the whole of their houses, as well as their dams, are from the foundation one mass of wood and mud, mixed with stones, if they can be procured. The mud is always taken from the edge of the bank, or the bottom of the creek or pond, near the door of the house; and though their fore-paws are so small, yet it is held close up between them, under their throat, that they carry both mud and stones, while they always drag the wood with their teeth. All their work is executed in the night, and they are so expeditious in completing it that in the course of one night I have known them to have collected as much mud at their houses as to have amounted to some thousands of their little handfuls, and when any mixture of grass or straw has appeared in it, it has been, most assuredly, mere chance, owing to the nature of the ground from which they had taken it. As to their designedly making a composition for that purpose, it is entirely void of truth.... As they are seen to walk over their work and sometimes to give a flap with their tail, particularly when plunging into the water, this has, without doubt, given rise to the vulgar opinion that they use their tails as a trowel, with which they plaster their houses, whereas that flapping of the tail is no more than a custom, which they always preserve, even when they become tame and domestic, and more particularly so when they are startled....

When the beaver which are situated in a small river or creek are to be taken the Indians sometimes find it necessary to stake the river across to prevent them from passing, after which they endeavor to find out all their holes or places of retreat in the banks. This requires much practice and experience to accomplish, and is performed in the following manner: Every man being furnished with an ice-chisel, lashes it to the end of a small staff about four or five feet long; he then walks along the edge of the banks and keeps knocking his chisels against the ice. Those who are well acquainted with that kind of work well know by the sound of the ice when they are opposite to any of the beaver’s holes or vaults. As soon as they suspect any they cut a hole through the ice big enough to admit an old beaver, and in this manner proceed till they have found out all their places of retreat, or at least as many of them as possible. While the principal men are thus employed, some of the understrappers and the women and children are busy in breaking open the house, which at times is no easy task, for I have known these houses to be five and six feet thick, and one in particular was more than eight feet thick on the crown. When the beaver find that their habitations are invaded they fly to the holes in the banks for shelter, and on being perceived by the Indians, which is easily done by attending to the motion of the water, they block up the entrance with stakes of wood, and then haul the beaver out of its hole, either by hand, if they can reach it, or with a large hook made for that purpose, which is fastened to the end of a long stick.

The beaver cannot keep under water long at a time, so that when their houses are broken open, and all their places of retreat discovered, they have but one choice left, as it may be called, either to be taken in their houses or their vaults. In general they prefer the latter; for where one beaver is taken in the house many thousands are taken in their vaults in the banks....

On the eleventh of January, as some of my companions were hunting, they saw the track of a strange snow-shoe, which they followed, and at a considerable distance came to a little hut where they discovered a young woman sitting alone. As they found that she understood their language, they brought her with them to the tents. On examination she proved to be one of the Western Dog-ribbed Indians, who had been taken prisoner by the Athapuscow Indians in the summer of 1770, and in the following summer, when they were near this part, she had eloped from them with an intent to return to her own country; but the distance being so great, and having, after she was taken prisoner, been carried in a canoe the whole way, the turnings and windings of the rivers and lakes were so numerous that she forgot the track, so she built the hut in which we found her to protect her from the weather during the winter, and here she had lived from the first setting in of the fall.

From her account of the moons past since her elopement, it appeared that she had been near seven months without seeing a human face, during all which time she had supported herself very well by snaring partridges, rabbits, and squirrels; she had also killed two or three beaver and some porcupines. The methods practised by this poor creature to procure a livelihood were truly admirable, and are great proofs that necessity is the real mother of invention. When the few deer-sinews that she had an opportunity of taking with her were all expended in making snares and sewing her clothing, she had nothing to supply their place but the sinews of the rabbits’ legs and feet; these she twisted together for the purpose with great dexterity and success. The rabbits, etc., which she caught in those snares not only furnished her with a comfortable subsistence, but of the skins she made a suit of neat and warm clothing for the winter. It is scarcely possible to conceive that a person in her forlorn situation could be so composed as to be capable of contriving or executing anything that was not absolutely necessary to her existence; but there were sufficient proofs that she had extended her care much farther, as all her clothing, besides being calculated for real service, showed great taste, and exhibited no little variety of ornament. The materials, though rude, were very curiously wrought, and so judiciously placed as to make the whole of her garb have a very pleasing, though rather romantic appearance.

Her leisure hours from hunting had been employed in twisting the inner rind or bark of willows into small lines, like net-twine, of which she had some hundred fathoms by her; with this she intended to make a fishing-net as soon as the spring advanced. Five or six inches of an iron hoop made into a knife, and the shank of an arrow-head of iron, which served her as an awl, were all the metals this poor woman had with her when she eloped, and with these implements she had made herself complete snow-shoes and several other articles. Her method of making a fire was equally singular and curious, having no other materials for that purpose than two hard, sulphurous stones. These, by long friction and hard knocking, produced a few sparks, which at length communicated to some touchwood; but as this method was attended with great trouble, and not always with success, she did not suffer her fire to go out all winter.

The singularity of the circumstance, the comeliness of her person, and her accomplishments, occasioned a contest between several of the Indians of my party who should have her for a wife, and the poor girl was actually won and lost at wrestling by near half a score of them the same evening....

From the middle to the latter end of March, and, again, in the beginning of April, though the thaw was not general, yet in the middle of the day it was very considerable. It commonly froze hard in the nights, and the young men took the advantage of the mornings, when the snow was hard crusted over, and ran down a good many moose; for in those situations a man with a good pair of snow-shoes will scarcely make any impression on the snow, while the moose, and even the deer, will break through it at every step up to the belly. Notwithstanding this, however, it is very seldom that the Indians attempt to run deer down. The moose are so tender-footed and so short-winded that a good runner will generally tire them in less than a day, and very frequently in six or eight hours; though I have known some of the Indians continue the chase for two days before they could come up with and kill the game. On those occasions the Indians, in general, only take with them a knife or bayonet, and a little bag containing a set of fire-tackle, and are as lightly clothed as possible; some of them will carry a bow and two or three arrows, but I never knew any of them to take a gun, except such as had been blown or bursted, and the barrels cut quite short, which, when reduced to the least possible size to be capable of doing any service, must be too great a weight for a man to run with in his hand for so many hours together.

When the poor moose are incapable of making farther speed they stand and keep their pursuers at bay with their head and forefeet, in the use of which they are very dexterous, especially the latter, so that the Indians who have neither a bow or arrows, nor a short gun with them, are generally obliged to lash their knives or bayonets to the end of a long stick and stab the moose at a distance. For want of this necessary precaution some of the boys and foolhardy young men who have attempted to rush in upon them have frequently received such unlucky blows from their forefeet as to render their recovery very doubtful....

When two parties of Indians meet, the ceremonies which pass between them are quite different from those made use of in Europe on similar occasions; for when they advance within twenty or thirty yards of each other they make a full halt, and in general lie or sit down on the ground, and do not speak for some minutes. At length one of them, generally an elderly man, if any be in company, breaks silence by acquainting the other party with every misfortune that has befallen him and his companions from the last time they had seen or heard of each other, and also of all deaths and other calamities that have befallen any other Indians during the same period, at least as many particulars as have come to his knowledge. When the first has finished his oration another aged orator, if there be any, belonging to the other party, relates, in like manner, all the bad news that has come to his knowledge, and both parties never fail to plead poverty and famine on all occasions. If these orations contain any news that in the least affect the other party it is not long before some of them begin to sigh and sob, and soon after break out into a loud cry, which is generally accompanied by most of the grown persons of both sexes, and sometimes it is common to see them all, men, women, and children, in one universal howl. The young girls in particular are often very obliging on those occasions, for I never remember to have seen a crying match but the greatest part of the company assisted, although some of them had no other reason for it but that of seeing their companions do the same. When the first transports of grief subside they advance by degrees, and both parties mix with each other, the men always associating with the men and the women with the women. If they have any tobacco among them, the pipes are passed round pretty freely, and the conversation soon becomes general. As they are on their first meeting acquainted with all the bad news, they have by this time nothing left but good, which in general has so far the predominance over the former that in less than half an hour nothing but smiles and cheerfulness are to be seen on every face, and if they be not really in want small presents of provisions, ammunition, and other articles often take place, sometimes by way of a gift, but more frequently by way of trying whether they cannot get a greater present. They have but few diversions; the chief is shooting at a mark with bow and arrows, and another out-door game, called Holl, which in some measure resembles playing with quoits, only it is done with short clubs, sharp at one end. They also amuse themselves with dancing, which is always performed in the night. Besides these diversions they have another simple indoor game, which is that of taking a bit of wood, a button, or any other small thing, and after shifting it from hand to hand several times, asking their antagonist, “Which hand is it in?” When playing at this game, which only admits of two persons, each of them have ten, fifteen, or twenty small chips of wood like matches, and when one of the players guesses right he takes one of his antagonist’s sticks and lays it to his own, and he that first gets all the sticks from the other in that manner is said to win the game, which is generally for a single load of powder and shot, an arrow, or some other thing of inconsiderable value.