A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean Part 30

[105] _Alces America.n.u.s_ (Clinton), still common throughout the region.--E. A. P.

[BD] The moose formerly sent to his Majesty was from that place. A young male was also put on board the s.h.i.+p, but it died on the pa.s.sage, otherwise it is probable they might have propagated in this country.

[BE] Since the above was written, the same Indian that brought all the above-mentioned young moose to the Factory had, in the year 1777, two others, so tame, that when on his pa.s.sage to Prince of Wales's Fort in a canoe, the moose always followed him along the bank of the river; and at night, or on any other occasion when the Indians landed, the young moose generally came and fondled on them, in the same manner as the most domestic animal would have done, and never offered to stray from the tents. Unfortunately, in crossing a deep bay in one of the lakes (on a fine day), all the Indians that were not interested in the safe-landing of those engaging creatures, paddled from point to point; and the man that owned them, not caring to go so far about by himself, accompanied the others, in hopes they would follow him round as usual; but at night the young moose did not arrive; and as the howling of some wolves was heard in that quarter, it was supposed they had been devoured by them, as they were never afterward seen.

[BF] Mr. Du Pratz, in his description of this animal, says, it is never found farther North than Cape Breton and Nova Scotia; but I have seen them in great numbers in the Athapuscow Country, which cannot be much short of 60 North lat.i.tude.

[106] The deer here meant is the Wapati or Canadian Elk, the Cree name of which is Waskasu, or Wewaskasu.

[BG] The Northern Indians make their fis.h.i.+ng-nets with small thongs cut from raw deer-skins; which when dry appear very good, but after being soaked in water some time, grow so soft and slippery, that when large fish strike the net, the hitches are very apt to slip and let them escape. Beside this inconvenience, they are very liable to rot, unless they be frequently taken out of the water and dried.

[BH] It is too common a case with most of the tribes of Southern Indians for the women to desire their husbands or friends, when going to war, to bring them a slave, that they may have the pleasure of killing it; and some of these inhuman women will accompany their husbands, and murder the women and children as fast as their husbands do the men.

When I was at c.u.mberland House, (an inland settlement that I established for the Hudson's Bay Company in the year 1774,) I was particularly acquainted with a very young lady of this extraordinary turn; who, when I desired some Indians that were going to war to bring me a young slave, which I intended to have brought up as a domestic, Miss was equally desirous that one might be brought to her, for the cruel purpose of murdering it. It is scarcely possible to express my astonishment, on hearing such an extraordinary request made by a young creature scarcely sixteen years old; however, as soon as I recovered from my surprise, I ordered her to leave the settlement, which she did, with those who were going to war; and it is therefore probable she might not be disappointed in her request. The next year I was ordered to the command of Prince of Wales's Fort, and therefore never saw her afterward.

[107] The map is very indefinite in this part of his course, and little dependence can be placed on his positions. The place where he came to the Slave (Athapuscow) River must have been some distance south of Great Slave Lake, and as he followed it upwards for forty miles to where it turned to the south, he probably reached some place not far from the rapids at Fort Smith, in lat.i.tude 60 north, which is 15' south of the point indicated on his map as the place where he left the river and struck into the country to the east.

[108] When the geography of the country between Athabasca and Great Slave Lakes becomes known, it may be possible to follow him here, but his map gives no indication of any stream in this vicinity flowing into Lake Clowey. He appears to have thought so little of the small river that he did not take the trouble to map it.

[109] The reference here and on the following pages is certainly to the belt of forest which occurs on the banks of Thelon River and its tributary above its junction with the Dubawnt River. J. W. Tyrrell, who explored and surveyed this river in 1900, refers to it as follows:--

"The investigations of the present expedition have, however, established both the existence and location of such an oasis; but, as predicted by Hearne, the primitive settlers have long since departed, although for some other reasons than lack of fuel.

"In support of Hearne's story, and my belief that his reference was to the valley of the Thelon, it may be noted that some very old choppings were observed, as well as the decayed, moss-grown remains of some very old camps, whilst scarcely any recent signs of habitation exist.

"The wooded, or partially-wooded, banks of the Thelon extend for a distance of about one hundred and seventy miles below the forks of the Hanbury. This distance is not to be understood as a continuous stretch of timber, but over that distance many fine spruce groves, as well as more or less continuous thinly-scattered trees are found. The largest trees measured from twelve to fifteen inches in diameter, but the average diameter would be about six inches." (Append. 26, Pt. III.

Annual Report, Department of the Interior, Canada, 1901, pp. 7, 27.)

[BI] To snare swans, geese, or ducks, in the water, it requires no other process than to make a number of hedges, or fences, project into the water, at right angles, from the banks of a river, lake, or pond; for it is observed that those birds generally swim near the margin, for the benefit of feeding on the gra.s.s, &c. Those fences are continued for some distance from the sh.o.r.e, and separated two or three yards from each other, so that openings are left sufficiently large to let the birds swim through. In each of those openings a snare is hung and fastened to a stake, which the bird, when intangled, cannot drag from the bottom; and to prevent the snare from being wafted out of its proper place by the wind, it is secured to the stakes which form the opening, with tender gra.s.s, which is easily broken.

This method, though it has the appearance of being very simple, is nevertheless attended with much trouble, particularly when we consider the smallness of their canoes, and the great inconveniency they labour under in performing works of this kind in the water. Many of the stakes used on those occasions are of a considerable length and size, and the small branches which form the princ.i.p.al part of the hedges, are not arranged without much caution, for fear of oversetting the canoes, particularly where the water is deep, as it is in some of the lakes; and in many of the rivers the current is very swift, which renders this business equally troublesome. When the lakes and rivers are shallow, the natives are frequently at the pains to make fences from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e.

To snare those birds in their nests requires a considerable degree of art, and, as the natives say, a great deal of cleanliness; for they have observed, that when snares have been set by those whose hands were not clean, the birds would not go into the nest.

Even the goose, though so simple a bird, is notoriously known to forsake her eggs, if they are breathed on by the Indians.

The smaller species of birds which make their nest in the ground, are by no means so delicate, of course less care is necessary to snare them. It has been observed that all birds which build in the ground go into their nest at one particular side, and out of it on the opposite. The Indians, thoroughly convinced of this, always set the snares on the side on which the bird enters the nest; and if care be taken in setting them, seldom fail of seizing their object. For small birds, such as larks, and many others of equal size, the Indians only use two or three hairs out of their head; but for larger birds, particularly swans, geese, and ducks, they make snares of deer-sinews, twisted like packthread, and occasionally of a small thong cut from a parchment deer-skin.

[BJ] The Indians, both Northern and Southern, have found by experience, that by boiling the pesogan in water for a considerable time, the texture is so much improved, that when thoroughly dried, some parts of it will be nearly as soft as spunge.

Some of those funguses are as large as a man's head; the outside, which is very hard and black, and much indented with deep cracks, being of no use, is always chopped off with a hatchet. Besides the two sorts of touchwood already mentioned, there is another kind of it in those parts, that I think is infinitely preferable to either. This is found in old decayed poplars, and lies in flakes of various sizes and thickness; some is not thicker than shammoy leather, others are as thick as a shoe-sole.

This, like the fungus of the birch-tree, is always moist when taken from the tree, but when dry, it is very soft and flexible, and takes fire readily from the spark of a steel; but it is much improved by being kept dry in a bag that has contained gunpowder. It is rather surprising that the Indians, whose mode of life I have just been describing, have never acquired the method of making fire by friction, like the Esquimaux. It is also equally surprising that they do not make use of the skin-canoes.

Probably deer-skins cannot be manufactured to withstand the water;[110]

for it is well known that the Esquimaux use always seal-skins for that purpose, though they are in the habit of killing great numbers of deer.

[110] The Eskimos met with on the banks of the Kasan River in 1894 make their canoes entirely of deer-skin parchment.

[111] The positions of these two lakes are not exactly known, but they doubtless lie near the regular Indian canoe route from the north Bay of Lake Athabasca to Great Slave Lake. The latter lake lies fourteen miles W. or S.W. of Noo-shetht Lake.

[112] On Hearne's map the position of Noo-shetht Whoie or Newstheth tooy Lake in relation to the streams in the country is very indefinite, but on the Pennant map it is shown on a stream which flows northward into Great Slave Lake. In King's "Journey to the Sh.o.r.es of the Arctic Ocean,"

vol. ii. p. 289, a copy of an Indian map of a canoe route northward from Lake Athabasca is published. Most of this route is down the Copper Indian (Yellow Knife or Rock) River, which flows into Great Slave Lake a short distance east of the mouth of Slave River, and one of the lakes there shown is Tazennatooy or Muddy Water Lake, while another is Newstheth tooy, the lake here referred to.

[BK] Though I was a swift runner in those days, I never accompanied the Indians in one of those chaces, but have heard many of them say, that after a long one, the moose, when killed, did not produce more than a quart of blood, the remainder being all settled in the flesh; which, in that state, must be ten times worse tasted, than the spleen or milt of a bacon hog.

[113] Thee-lee-aza River is called Theetinah River (Blue Fish River?) on the Pennant map, and Pet.i.tot speaks of it as a tributary of T'ezus or Snowdrift River, which also empties into the south side of Great Slave Lake.

[114] The lat.i.tude of this lake had been determined by Hearne as 61 30'

north, as previously stated on p. 127, and he had placed it on his map in lat.i.tude 61 15' north. In making the journey to the Coppermine River and back to the lake, he had occupied a little more than a year, having left it on April 18th, 1771, and returned to it on April 29th, 1772.

[115] On the 8th of March 1771 they "lay a little to the E.N.E. of Black Bear Hill" (see p. 125), while now they are three quarters of a mile south of it. As this hill is but a short distance (two days' journey) west of Wholdiah Lake, the two routes laid down on the map are evidently incorrect, for the map shows his route home at this place at least thirty-five miles north of the route out, instead of south of it as indicated by the text.

[BL] As a proof of this a.s.sertion I take the liberty, though a little foreign to the narrative of my journey, to insert one instance, out of many hundreds of the kind that happen at the different Factories in Hudson's Bay, but perhaps no where so frequently as at Churchill. In October 1776, my old guide, Matonabbee, came at the head of a large gang of Northern Indians, to trade at Prince of Wales's Fort; at which time I had the honour to command it. When the usual ceremonies had pa.s.sed, I dressed him out as a Captain of the first rank, and also clothed his six wives from top to toe: after which, that is to say, during his stay at the Factory, which was ten days, he begged seven lieutenants' coats, fifteen common coats, eighteen hats, eighteen s.h.i.+rts, eight guns, one hundred and forty pounds weight of gunpowder, with shot, ball, and flints in proportion; together with many hatchets, ice chissels, files, bayonets, knives, and a great quant.i.ty of tobacco, cloth, blankets, combs, looking-gla.s.ses, stockings, handkerchiefs, &c. besides numberless small articles, such as awls, needles, paint, steels, &c. in all to the amount of upwards of seven hundred beaver in the way of trade, to give away among his followers. This was exclusive of his own present, which consisted of a variety of goods to the value of four hundred beaver more. But the most extraordinary of his demands was twelve pounds of powder, twenty-eight pounds of shot and ball, four pounds of tobacco, some articles of clothing, and several pieces of iron-work, &c. to give to two men who had hauled his tent and other lumber the preceding Winter. This demand was so very unreasonable, that I made some scruple, or at least hesitated to comply with it, hinting that he was the person who ought to satisfy those men for their services; but I was soon answered, that he did not expect to have been _denied such a trifle as that was_; and for the future he would carry his goods where he could get his own price for them. On my asking him where that was? he replied, in a very insolent tone, "To the Canadian Traders." I was glad to comply with his demands; and I here insert the anecdote, as a specimen of an Indian's conscience.

[116] The river down which the party was travelling at this time would appear to have been a tributary of the Dubawnt River from the west.

Unfortunately when I descended the Dubawnt River there were no Chipewyan Indians in the party, so that I was not able to learn the local names of the various lakes and natural features encountered, nor anything of the geography of the country beyond the range of vision, so that doubtless many streams joined the main river without being noticed by me. This is probably one of them.

[117] The north end of Wholdiah Lake of the present maps is in lat.i.tude 60 49' north, whereas the part crossed by Hearne, which he calls A Naw-nee-tha'd Whoie, is placed by him in lat.i.tude 61 50' north. It remains for some future explorer to account for this discrepancy, and give the exact situation of this place. That Hearne's position is much too far north is clear, for they were then in the woods, and the northern limit of the woods crosses the Dubawnt River about lat.i.tude 61 30' N., twenty-three miles south of Hearne's course as indicated on his map.

[BM] All the furrs thus left were properly secured in caves and crevices of the rocks, so as to withstand any attempt that might be made on them by beasts of prey, and were well s.h.i.+elded from the weather; so that, in all probability, few of them were lost.

[118] As they were then on the barren lands, they probably crossed the Kazan River, somewhere about the north end of Ennadai Lake. There is a lake marked on the Mackenzie map as Nipach Lake which may possibly be intended to represent this latter lake. Although there are a few groves of spruce along the banks of this stream, north of the limit of the forest, no attempts seem to have been made by Hearne or his party to camp at them. The date here given is interesting as naming a time when one, at least, of the streams through the barren lands breaks up in spring.

[119] In the text no indication is given of the course which he followed after crossing Kazan River, but his map shows that he followed the route of his journey outwards, crossing Fat, Island, Whiskey Jack, and Baralzoa Lakes. The Cook map, however, shows that he went round to the north of Island Lake, and doubtless he also went round the largest of the other lakes, for he would hardly dare to cross them in the little canoes which he and the Indians were using for crossing the streams.

[BN] Mr. Jeremie is very incorrect in his account of the situation of this River, and its course. It is not easy to guess, whether the Copper or Dog-ribbed Indians be the nation he calls _Platscotez de Chiens_: if it be the former, he is much mistaken; for they have abundance of beaver, and other animals of the furr kind, in their country: and if the latter, he is equally wrong to a.s.sert that they have copper-mines in their country; for neither copper nor any other kind of metal is in use among them.

Mr. Jeremie was not too modest when he said, (see Dobb's Account of Hudson's Bay, p. 19,) "he could not say any thing positively in going farther North;" for in my opinion he never was so far North or West as he pretends, otherwise he would have been more correct in his description of those parts.

The Strait he mentions is undoubtedly no other than what is now called Chesterfield's Inlet, which, in some late and cold seasons, is not clear of ice the whole Summer: for I will affirm, that no Indian, either Northern or Southern, ever saw either Wager Water or Repulse Bay, except the two men who accompanied Captain Middleton; and though those men were selected from some hundreds for their universal knowledge of those parts, yet they knew nothing of the coast so far North as Marble Island.

As a farther proof, that no Indians, except the Esquimaux, ever frequent such high lat.i.tudes, unless at a great distance from the sea, I must here mention, that so late as the year 1763, when Captain Christopher went to survey Chesterfield's Inlet, though he was furnished with the most intelligent and experienced Northern Indians that could be found, they did not know an inch of the land to the North of Whale Cove.

Mr. Jeremie is also as much mistaken in what he says concerning Churchill River, as he was in the direction of Seal River; for he says that no woods were found but in some islands which lie about ten or twelve miles up the river. At the time he wrote, which was long before a settlement was made there, wood was in great plenty on both sides the river; and that within five miles of where Prince of Wales's Fort now stands. But as to the islands of which he speaks, if they ever existed, they have of late years most a.s.suredly disappeared; for since the Company have had a settlement on that river, no one ever saw an island in it that produced timber, or wood of any description, within forty miles of the Fort. But the great number of stumps now remaining, from which, in all probability, the trees have been cut for firing, are sufficient to prove that when Churchill River was first settled, wood was then in great plenty; but in the course of seventy-six years residence in one place, it is natural to suppose it was much thinned near the Settlement. Indeed for some years past common fewel is so scarce near that Factory, that it is the chief employment of most of the servants for upward of seven months in the year, to procure as much wood as will supply the fires for a Winter, and a little timber for necessary repairs.[120]

[120] Mr. Jeremie was in charge of York Factory for six years, from 1708 to 1714, while it was in the hands of the French. His reference to the presence of native copper among the _Plascotez de Chiens_, or Dog Rib Indians, who inhabit the country between the mouth of the Mackenzie and the Coppermine River, is particularly interesting:--

"Ils ont dans leur Pays une _Mine de Cuivre rouge_, si abondante & si pure, que, sans le pa.s.ser par la forge, tel qu'ils le rama.s.sent a la Mine, ils ne font que le frapper entre deux pierres, & en font tout ce qu'ils veulent. J'en ai vu fort souvent, parce que nos Sauvages en apportoient toutes les fois qu'ils alloient en guerre de ces cotez la."

(_Jeremie._ "Relation du Detroit et de la Baie de Hudson," in "Recueil de Voyages au Nord." Par J. F. Bernard. 10 vols. 12mo. Amsterdam. 1724.

Tom. v. p. 404.)

[121] Of the life at Fort Prince of Wales under Moses Norton in 1771, during the year of Hearne's absence on the Coppermine River, we have the following interesting account by Andrew Graham, one of the factors of the Hudson's Bay Company:--

"Prince of Wales Fort. On a peninsula at the entrance of the Churchill River. Most northern settlement of the Company. A stone fort, mounting forty-two cannon [an error, as there are embrasures for only forty cannon in the parapet of the fort], from six to twenty-four pounders.

Opposite, on the south side of the river, Cape Merry Battery, mounting six twenty-four pounders, with lodge-house and powder magazine. The river 1006 yards wide. A s.h.i.+p can anchor six miles above the fort. Tides carry salt water twelve miles up the river. No springs near; drink snow water nine months of the year. In summer keep three draught horses to haul water and draw stones to finish building the forts.

"Staff:--A chief factor and officers, with sixty servants and tradesmen.

The council, with discretionary power, consists of chief factor, second factor, surgeon, sloop and brig masters, and captain of Company's s.h.i.+p when in port. These answer and sign the general letter, sent yearly to directors. The others are accountant, trader, steward, armourer, s.h.i.+p-wright, carpenter, cooper, blacksmith, mason, tailor, and labourers. These must not trade with natives, under penalties for so doing. Council mess together, also servants. Called by bell to duty, work from six to six in summer, eight to four in winter. Two watch in winter, three in summer. In emergencies, tradesmen must work at anything. Killing of partridges the most pleasant duty.

"Company signs contract with servants for three or five years, with the remarkable clause: 'Company may recall them home at any time without satisfaction for the remaining time. Contract may be renewed, if servants or labourers wish, at expiry of term. Salary advanced forty s.h.i.+llings, if men have behaved well in first term. The land and sea officers' and tradesmen's salaries do not vary, but seamen's are raised in time of war.'