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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:40:17 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:40:17 -0700 |
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diff --git a/12569-h/12569-h.htm b/12569-h/12569-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..08d0892 --- /dev/null +++ b/12569-h/12569-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4885 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> +<style type="text/css"> +<!-- +h1, h2, h3, h4 { text-align: center } +h1 {margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em} +p.chapsumm {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; text-indent: -2em } +p.dedication {text-align: center; margin-bottom: 4em; margin-top: 4em; line-height: 1.5} +h4.cont-num {margin-bottom: 0.5em; letter-spacing: 0.5ex} +h4.cont-title {margin-top: 0em} +h3.chap-num {margin-top: 4em} +span.footnote {font-size: smaller } + --> +</style> +<title>Through the Mackenzie Basin by Charles Mair</title> +</head> + +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12569 ***</div> + +<h1>Through the Mackenzie Basin</h1> + +<h2>A Narrative of the Athabasca and Peace River Treaty Expedition of 1899</h2> + +<h2>By Charles Mair</h2> + +<p class="dedication"> +To the Hon. David Laird<br> +Leader of the Treaty Expedition of 1899<br> +This Record is Cordially Inscribed<br> +By His Old Friend the Author</p> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + +<h4><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></h4> + +<p class="chapsumm">Important events of the year 1857—The <i>Nor'-Wester</i> newspaper—The +Duke of Newcastle and the Hudson's Bay Co.'s Charter—The +"Anglo-International Financial Association"—The New Hudson's Bay +Company—Offers of American capitalists to purchase the Company's +interests—Bill providing for purchase of the same introduced into +the United States Congress—Senator Sumner's memorandum to Secretary +Fish—Various efforts to arouse public interest in the Hudson's Bay +Territories—Former Treaties with the Indians—Motives for treating +with the Indians of Athabasca—Rush of miners and prospectors into +the district—The Indian Treaty and Half-breed Commission—The Royal +North-West Mounted Police Contingent—Special stipulations with the +Indians provided for.</p> + +<h4 class="cont-num"><a href="#chap01">Chapter I</a></h4> +<h4 class="cont-title">From Edmonton To Lesser Slave Lake</h4> + +<p class="chapsumm">Arrival of Treaty and Half-breed Commissions at Edmonton—Departure +for Athabasca Landing—Tawutináow peat beds, etc.—Arrival at the +Landing—The gas well there—Boats and trackers—Mr. d'Eschambault +and Pierre Cyr—Non-arrival of trackers—Police contingent volunteers +to track a boat to Lesser Slave Lake—Nature of country, burnt +forests, muskegs, etc.—Tracking; its difficulties—The old Indian +tracker Peokus—Forest and river scenery—Placer mining—Absence of +life along the river—Fertile soil.</p> + +<h4 class="cont-num"><a href="#chap02">Chapter II</a></h4> +<h4 class="cont-title">Lesser Slave River And Lesser Slave Lake</h4> + +<p class="chapsumm">Lesser Slave River—Its proper name—Migration of the great Algic +race—Bishop Grouard's service in the wilderness—Returning +Klondikers—The rapids; poling—Accident to Peokus—Celebration of +Père Lacombe's fiftieth year of missionary labors—Arrival of +half-breed trackers from Lesser Slave Lake—Great hay meadows on the +Lesser Slave River—The island in Lesser Slave Lake—Trackers' +gambling games—Swan River—A dangerous squall—Chief Factor Shaw—A +free-traders' village.</p> + +<h4 class="cont-num"><a href="#chap03">Chapter III</a></h4> +<h4 class="cont-title">Treaty At Lesser Slave Lake</h4> + +<p class="chapsumm">The Treaty point at last—Our camp at Lesser Slave Lake—The Treaty +ground and assembly—"Civilized" Indians—Keenooshayo and Moostoos—The +Treaty proceedings—The Treaty Commissioners separate—Vermilion and +Fort Chipewyan treaties—Indian chief asks for a railway—Wahpoośkow +Treaty—McKenna and Ross set out for Home—Commission issued to J. A. +Macrae—Numbers of Indians treated with.</p> + +<h4 class="cont-num"><a href="#chap04">Chapter IV</a></h4> +<h4 class="cont-title">The Half-Breed Scrip Commission</h4> + +<p class="chapsumm">The half-breeds collect at Lesser Slave Lake—They decide upon cash, +scrip or nothing—Honesty of the half-breeds and Indians—Ease +of parturition amongst their women—Cree family names and their +significance—Catherine Bisson—Native traits—The mongrel dog—Gambling +and dancing—The "Red River jig".</p> + +<h4 class="cont-num"><a href="#chap05">Chapter V</a></h4> +<h4 class="cont-title">Resources Of Lesser Slave Lake Region</h4> + +<p class="chapsumm">Indian lunatics: The Weeghteko—Treatment of lunatics in old Upper +Canada—Lesser Slave Lake fisheries—Stock-raising at the lake—Prairies +of the region—The region once a buffalo country—Quality of the +soil—Wheat and roots and vegetables—Unwise to settle in large numbers +in the country at present—The "blind pig"—A native row.</p> + +<h4 class="cont-num"><a href="#chap06">Chapter VI</a></h4> +<h4 class="cont-title">On The Trail To Peace River</h4> + +<p class="chapsumm">On the trail to Peace River—The South Heart River—Good farming +lands—The Little Prairie—Peace River Crossing—The vast banks of +the Peace a country in themselves—Wild fruits—Prospectors from +the Selwyn Mountains—The Poker Flat Mining Camp—Buffalo paths and +wallows—Magnificent prairies between Peace River Landing and Fort +Dunvegan—Fort Dunvegan—Sir George Simpson and Colin Fraser—Some +townships blocked here—The Roman Catholic Mission—Baffled miners +returning—The natives of Dunvegan—Relics of the old régime—Large +families the rule—The Church missions—Back to Peace River +Crossing—Tepees, tents and trading stores—Mr. Alexander Mackenzie—The +sites of old fur posts—Indian names of the Peace River—Description +of the agricultural and other resources of the Upper Peace River—The +Chinook winds—Grand Prairie—Rainfall scanty on prairies throughout the +River—Lack of waggon roads and trail facilities.</p> + +<h4 class="cont-num"><a href="#chap07">Chapter VII</a></h4> +<h4 class="cont-title">Down The Peace River</h4> + +<p class="chapsumm">The descent of the Peace River—Wolverine Point—A good farming +country—Paddle River and Keg of Rum River prairies—Heavy spruce +forests here—Vermilion settlement—The Lawrence family and +farm—Extensive wheat fields—Cattle and hog raising—Locusts—Symptoms +of volcanic action—Old Lizotte and old King Beaulieu—The Chutes of +Peace River—The Red River; its rich soil and prairies—Peace Point—A +wild goose chase—The Gargantuan feasts of Peace River—The Quatre +Fourches—Athabasca Lake.</p> + +<h4 class="cont-num"><a href="#chap08">Chapter VIII</a></h4> +<h4 class="cont-title">Fort Chipewyan To Fort McMurray</h4> + +<p class="chapsumm">Fort Chipewyan and Athabasca Lake—Colin Fraser's trading-post—The +Barren Ground reindeer—Feathered land game—The Indians of Fond du +Lac—Mineral resources—First companies formed to prospect the Great +Slave Lake minerals—The Helpman party—The Yukon Valley Prospecting +and Mining Company—Assays of copper ore—A great mineral country—A +railway required from Chesterfield Inlet to develop it—Moss of +the Banner Lands—Lake Athabasca the rallying place of the Déné +race—Meaning of Indian generic names—"Mackenzie's country"—Its +first traders—The North-West Company—The original Indians—The +mastodon believed by the natives to exist—Return of Klondikers from +Mackenzie River—Their bad conduct—By steamer <i>Grahame</i> to Fort +McMurray—Killing a moose—Fort McMurray.</p> + +<h4 class="cont-num"><a href="#chap09">Chapter IX</a></h4> +<h4 class="cont-title">The Athabasca River Region</h4> + +<p class="chapsumm">The tar-banks—Characteristic features of the river—The rapids of +the Athabasca—The cut-banks—A freshet—A fine camp—The "Indian +lop-stick"—The natural gas springs—Grand Rapids—Coal abundant—Good +farming country—The Point at House River—The Joli Fou Rapid—Bad +tracking—Pelican Portage—Spouting gas well—Matcheese, the Indian +runner.</p> + +<h4 class="cont-num"><a href="#chap10">Chapter X</a></h4> +<h4 class="cont-title">The Trip To Wahpoośkow</h4> + +<p class="chapsumm">The Pelican River—Poling and paddling—Character of the river +and country—Great hay meadows—An Indian runner—The Pelican +Mountains—Muskegs and rich soil—Pelican Lake the height of +land—Abundance of fish—The first Wahpoośkow Lake—The second +lake—Mission of Rev. C.R. Weaver—Other missions of the C.M.S.—Mission +of the Rev. Father Giroux—Other Roman Catholic missions—Indians and +half-breeds—The crows and the fish—A ball at Wahpoośkow—Farming land +and muskeg in the district—Superstitions of the Indians—Polygamy and +polyandry—The changing woods—The <i>fœx populi</i>—A little +beauty—Calling River—Another ancient woman and her memories—Our +return to Athabasca Landing.</p> + +<h4><a href="#conclusion">Conclusion</a></h4> + +<hr> + +<h3 id="intro">Introduction</h3> + +<blockquote> + The important events of A.D. 1857, and the negotiations which led + to the Transfer of the Hudson's Bay Territories—Former Treaties + and the Treaty Commission of 1899.</blockquote> + +<p>The terms upon which Canada obtained her great possessions in the +West are generally known, and much has been written regarding the +tentative steps by which, after long years of waiting, she acquired +them. The distinctively prairie, or southern, portion of the +country and its outliers, constituting "Prince Rupert's Land," +had been claimed by the Hudson's Bay Company since May, 1670, as +an absolute freehold. This and the North-West Territories, in +which, under terminable lease from the Crown, the Company exercised, +as in British Columbia, exclusive rights to trade only, were, as +the reader knows, transferred to Canada by Imperial sanction at +the same time. It is not the author's intention, therefore, to +cumber his pages with trite or irrelevant matter; yet certain +transactions which preceded this primordial and greatest treaty +of all not unfittingly may be set forth, though in the briefest +way, as a pardonable introduction to the following record.</p> + +<p>The year 1857 was an eventful one in the annals of "The North-West," +the name by which the Territories were generally known in Canada. +<span class="footnote">[An important event in Red River was begot of the stirring +incidents of this year, namely, the starting at Fort Garry, in +December, 1859, by two gentlemen from Canada, Messrs. Buckingham +and Caldwell, of the first newspaper printed in British territory +east of British Columbia and west of Lake Superior. It was called +the <i>Nor'-Wester</i>, but, having few advertisements, and only a limited +circulation, the originators sold out to Dr. (afterwards Sir John) +Schultz, who, at his own expense, published the paper, almost down +to the Transfer, as an advocate of Canadian annexation, immigration +and development.]</span> In that year two expeditions were set afoot to +explore the country; one in charge of Captain Palliser, <span class="footnote">[Strange +to say, Captain Palliser reported that he considered a line of +communication entirely through British territory, connecting the +Eastern Provinces and British Columbia, out of the question, as +the Astronomical Boundary adopted isolated the prairie country +from Canada. Professor Hind, on the other hand, in the same year, +standing on an eminence on the Qu'Appelle, beheld in imagination +the smoke of the locomotive ascending from the train speeding +over the prairies on its way through Canada from the Atlantic to +the Pacific.]</span> equipped by the Imperial Government, and the other, +under Professor Hind, at the expense of the Government of Canada. +An influential body of Red River settlers, too, at this time +petitioned the Canadian Parliament to extend to the North-West +its government and protection; and in the same year the late Chief +Justice Draper was sent to England to challenge the validity of the +Hudson's Bay Company's charter; and to urge the opening up of the +country for settlement. But, above all, a committee of the British +House of Commons took evidence that year upon all sorts of questions +concerning the North-West, and particularly its suitability for +settlement, much of which was valueless owing to its untruth. +Nevertheless, the Imperial Committee, after weighing all the evidence, +reported that the Territories were fit for settlement, and that it +was desirable that Canada should annex them, and hoped that the +Government would be enabled to bring in a bill to that end at the +next session of Parliament. Five years later, the Duke of Newcastle, +who became Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1859, and +accompanied the Prince of Wales to Canada as official adviser +in 1860, having in his possession the petition of the Red River +settlers, as printed by order of the Canadian Legislature, brought +the matter up in a vigorous speech in the House of Lords, in which +he expressed his belief that the Hudson's Bay Company's charter +was invalid, though, he added, "it would be a serious blow to the +rights of property to meddle with a charter two hundred years old. +But it might happen," he continued, "in the inevitable course of +events, that Parliament would be asked to annul even such a charter +as this, in order, as set forth in the Queen's Speech, that all +obstacles to an unbroken chain of loyal settlements, stretching +from ocean to ocean, should be removed." British Columbia, which +had become a Province in 1858, has now urging the Imperial Government +with might and main to furnish a waggon-road and telegraph line +to connect her, not only with the Territories and Canada, but +with the United Empire. She was met by the stiffest of opposition, +the opposition of a very old corporation strongly entrenched in +the governing circles of both parties. But the clamour of British +Columbia was in the air, and her suggestions, hotly opposed by +the Company, had been brought before the House of Lords by +another peer. In the discussion which followed, the Duke of +Newcastle declared that "it seemed monstrous that any body of +gentlemen should exercise fee-simple rights which precluded +the future colonization of that territory, as well as the +opening of lines of communication through it." The Minister's +idea at the time seemed to be to cancel the charter, and to +concede proprietary rights around fur posts only, together +with a certain money payment, considerably less, it appears, +than what was ultimately agreed upon.</p> + +<p>The Hudson's Bay Company, alarmed at the outlook and the attitude +of the Colonial Secretary, offered their entire interests and +belongings, trade and territorial, to the Imperial Government +for a million and a half pounds sterling, an offer which the +Duke was disposed to accept, but which was unfortunately declined +by Mr. Gladstone, then Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Duke, +who had resigned his office in 1864, died in October following, +and in the meantime a change of a startling character had come +over the time-honoured company, which sold out to a new company +in 1863, being merged into, or rather merging into itself, +an organization known as "The Anglo-International Financial +Association," which included several prominent American capitalists. +The old name was retained, but everything else was to be changed. +The policy of exclusion was to cease, immigration was to be +encouraged, and a telegraph line built through the Territories +to the Pacific coast. The wire for this was actually shipped, +and lay in Rupert's Land for years, until made use of by the +Mackenzie Administration in the building of the Government +telegraph line, which followed the railway route defined by +Sir Sandford Fleming. The old Hudson's Bay Company's shares, +of a par value of half a million pounds sterling, were increased +to a million and a half under the new adjustment, and were thrown +upon the market in shares of twenty pounds sterling each. Sir +Edmund Head, an old ex-Governor of Canada, was made Governor +of the new company. The Stock Exchange was not altogether +favourable, and the remaining shares were only sold in the +Winnipeg land boom of 1881.</p> + +<p>The alien element in the new company seemed to inspire the +politicians of the United States with surpassing hopes and +ideas. An offer to purchase its territorial interests was made +in January, 1866, by American capitalists, which was not +unfavourably glanced at by the directorate. It was capped later +on. The corollary of the proposal was a bill, actually introduced +into the United States Congress in July following, and read twice, +"providing for the admission of the States of Nova Scotia, New +Brunswick, Canada East and Canada West, and for the organization +of the Territories of Selkirk, Saskatchewan and Columbia." The +bill provided that "The United States would pay ten millions of +dollars to the Hudson's Bay Company in full of all claims to +territory or jurisdiction in North America, whether founded on +the Charter of the Company, or any treaty, law, or usage." The +grandiosity, to use a mild phrase, of such a measure needs no +comment. But though it seems amusing to the Canadian of to-day, +it was by no means a joke forty years ago. As a matter of fact, +the then most uninhabited Territories, cut off from the centres +of Canadian activity by a wilderness of over a thousand miles, +would have been invaded by Fenians and filibusters but for the +fact that they were a part of the British Empire. An attempt +at this was indeed made at a later date. This possibility was +afterwards formulated, evidently as a threat, by Senator Charles +Sumner during the "Alabama Claims" discussion, in his astonishing +memorandum to Secretary Fish. "The greatest trouble, if not +peril," he said, "is from Fenianism, which is excited by the +British flag in Canada. Therefore, the withdrawal of the British +flag cannot be abandoned as a preliminary of such a settlement +as is now proposed. To make the settlement complete the withdrawal +should be from this hemisphere, including provinces and islands." +A refreshing proposition, truly!</p> + +<p>It was the Imperial Government, of course, which figured most +prominently throughout the "North-West" question. But, it may +be reasonably asked, what was Canada doing, with her deeper +interests still, to further them in those long years of +discussion and delay. With the exception of the Hind Expedition, +the Draper mission, the printing and discussion of the Red +River settlers' petition and consequent Commission of Inquiry, +certainly not much was done by Parliament. More was done +outside than in the House to arouse public interest; for +example, the two admirable lectures delivered in Montreal +in 1858 by the late Lieutenant-Governor Morris, followed by +the powerful advocacy of the Hon. William Macdougall and +others, aided by the Toronto <i>Globe</i>, a small portion of the +Canadian press, and the circulation, limited as it was, of +the Red River newspaper, the <i>Nor'-Wester</i>, in Ontario.</p> + +<p>An unseen, but adverse, parliamentary influence had all along +hampered the Cabinet; an influence adverse not only to the +acquisition of the Territories, but even to closer connection +by railway with the Maritime Provinces. <span class="footnote">[<i>Vide</i> a series of articles +contributed to the Toronto Week, in July, 1896, by Mr. Malcolm +McLeod, Q.C., of Ottawa, Ont.]</span> This sinister influence was only +overcome by the great Conferences which resulted in the passage +of the British North America Act in 1867, which contained a clause +(Article 11, Sec. 146), inserted at the instance of Mr. Macdougall, +providing for the inclusion of Rupert's Land and the North-West +Territories upon terms to be defined in an address to the Queen, +and subject to her approval. In pursuance of this clause, Mr. +Macdougall in 1867 introduced into the first Parliament of the +Dominion a series of eight resolutions, which, after much opposition, +were at length passed, and were followed by the embodying address, +drafted by a Special Committee of the House, and which was duly +transmitted to the Imperial Government. This was followed by +the mission of Messrs. Cartier and Macdougall to London, to +treat for the transfer of the Territories, which, through the +mediation of Lord Granville, was finally effected. The date +fixed upon for the transfer was the first of December, 1869. +Unfortunately for Lieutenant-Governor Macdougall, owing to the +outbreak of armed rebellion at Red River, it was postponed +without his knowledge, and it was not until the 15th of July, +1870, that the whole country finally became a part of the +Dominion of Canada. With the latter date the annals of Prince +Rupert's Land and the North-West Territory end, and the history +of Western Canada begins.</p> + +<p>But whilst the Hudson's Bay Company's territorial rights and +those of Great Britain had been at last transferred to the +Dominion, there remained inextinguished the most intrinsic +of all, viz., the rights of the Indians and their collaterals +to their native and traditional soil. The adjustment of these +rights was assumed by the Canadian Parliament in the last but +one of the resolutions introduced by Mr. Macdougall, and no +time was lost after the transfer in carrying out its terms, +"in conformity with the equitable principles which have uniformly +governed the Crown in its dealings with the aborigines."</p> + +<p><span class="footnote">[In the foregoing brief sketch, the author, for lack of space, omits +all reference to the Red River troubles, which preceded the actual +transfer, as also to the military expedition under Col. Wolseley, the +threatened recall of which from Prince Arthur's Landing, in July, +1870, was blocked by the bold and vigorous action of the Canada +First Party in Toronto.]</span></p> + +<h4>Former Treaties.</h4> + +<p>Before passing on to my theme, a glance at the treaties made +in Manitoba and the organized Territories may be of interest +to the unfamiliar reader.</p> + +<p>The first treaty, in what is now a part of Manitoba, was made in +pursuance of a purchase of the old District of Assiniboia from the +Hudson's Bay Company in 1811 by Lord Selkirk, who in that year sent +out the first batch of colonists from the north of Scotland to Red +River. The Indian title to the land, however, was not conveyed by +the Crees and Saulteaux until 1817, when Peguis and others of their +chiefs ceded a portion of their territory for a yearly payment of +a quantity of tobacco. The ceded tract extended from the mouth +of the Red River southward to Grand Forks, and, westward, along +the Assiniboine River to Rat Creek, the depth of the reserve being +the distance at which a white horse could be seen on the plains, +though this matter is not very clear. The British boundary at that +time ran south of Red Lake, and would still so run but for the +indifference of bygone Commissioners. This purchase became the +theatre of Lord Selkirk's far-seeing scheme of British settlement +in the North-West, with whose varying fortunes and romantic history +the average reader is familiar.</p> + +<p>The first Canadian treaties were those effected by Mr. Weemys Simpson +in 1871, first at Stone Fort, Man., covering the old purchase from +Peguis and others, and a large extent of territory in addition, +the stipulated terms of payment being afterwards greatly enlarged. +These treaties are known as Nos. 1 and 2, and were followed by the +North-West Angle Treaty, effected by Lieutenant-Governor Morris, in +1873, with the Ojibway Saulteaux. In 1874 the Qu'Appelle Treaty, +after prolonged discussion and inter-tribal jealousy and disturbance, +was concluded by Lieutenant-Governor Morris, the Hon. David Laird, +then Minister of the Interior, and Mr. W. J. Christie, of the +Hudson's Bay Company. Treaty No. 5 followed, with the cession of +100,000 square miles of territory, covering the Lake Winnipeg region, +etc., after which the Great Treaty (No.6), at Forts Carlton and +Pitt, in 1876, covering almost all the country drained by the two +Saskatchewans, was partly effected by Mr. Morris and his associates, +the recalcitrants being afterwards induced by Mr. Laird to adhere +to the treaty, with the exception of the notorious Big Bear, the +insurgent chief who figured so prominently in the Rebellion of 1885. +The final treaty, or No. 7, made with the Assiniboines and Blackfeet, +the most powerful and predatory of all our Plain Indians, was +concluded by Mr. Laird and the late Lieut.-Colonel McLeod in 1877. +By this last treaty had now been ceded the whole country from Lake +Winnipeg to the Rocky Mountains, and from the international boundary +to the District of Athabasca. But there remained in native hands +still that vast northern anticlinal, which differs almost entirely in +its superficial features from the prairies and plains to the south; +and it was this region, enormous in extent and rich in economic +resources, which, it was decided by Government, should now be placed +by treaty at the disposal of the Canadian people. To this end it was +determined that at Lesser Slave Lake the first conference should be +held, and the initial steps taken towards the cession of the whole +western portion of the unceded territory up to the 60th parallel of +north latitude.</p> + +<p>The more immediate motive for treating with the Indians of Athabasca +has been already referred to, viz., the discovery of gold in the +Klondike, and the astonishing rush of miners and prospectors, in +consequence, to the Yukon, not only from the Pacific side, but, +east of the mountains, by way of the Peace and Mackenzie rivers. Up +to that date, excepting to the fur-traders and a few missionaries, +settlers, explorers, geologists and sportsmen, the Peace River +region was practically unknown; certainly as little known to the +people of Ontario, for example, as was the Red River country thirty +years before. It was thought to be a most difficult country to +reach—a <i>terra incognita</i>—rude and dangerous, having no allurements +for the average Canadian, whose notions about it, if he had any, were +limited, as usual, to the awe-inspiring legend of "barbarous Indians +and perpetual frost."</p> + +<p>There is a lust, however, the unquenchable lust for gold, which +seems to arouse the dullest from their apathy. This is the <i>primum +mobile</i>; from earliest days the sensational mover of civilized man, +and not unlikely to remain so until our old planet capsizes again, +and the poles become the equator with troglodites for inhabitants. +No barriers seem insurmountable to this rampant spirit; and, +urged by it, the gold-seekers, chiefly aliens from the United +States, plunged into the wilderness of Athabasca without +hesitation, and without as much as "by your leave" to the +native. Some of these marauders, as was to be expected, +exhibited on the way a congenital contempt for the Indian's +rights. At various places his horses were killed, his dogs shot, +his bear-traps broken up. An outcry arose in consequence, which +inevitably would have led to reprisals and bloodshed had not the +Government stepped in and forestalled further trouble by a prompt +recognition of the native's title. Hitherto he had been content +with his lot in these remote wildernesses, and well might he be! +One of the vast river systems of the Continent, perhaps the +greatest of them all, considering the area drained, teeming +with fish, and alive with fur and antler, was his home—a +region which furnished him in abundance with the means of life, +not to speak of such surplus of luxuries as was brought to his +doors by his old and paternal friend, "John Company." His wants +were simple, his life healthy, though full of toil, his appetite +great—an appetite which throve upon what it fed, and gave rise +to fabulous feats of eating, recalling the exploits of the +beloved and big-bellied Ben of nursery lore.</p> + +<p>But the spirit of change was brooding even here. The moose, the +beaver and the bear had for years been decreasing, and other +fur-bearing animals were slowly but surely lessening with them. +The natives, aware of this, were now alive, as well, to concurrent +changes foreign to their experience. Recent events had awakened +them to a sense of the value the white man was beginning to +place upon their country as a great storehouse of mineral and +other wealth, enlivened otherwise by the sensible decrease of +their once unfailing resources. These events were, of course, +the Government borings for petroleum, the formation of parties +to prospect, with a view to developing, the minerals of Great Slave +Lake, but, above all, the inroad of gold-seekers by way of Edmonton. +The latter was viewed with great mistrust by the Indians, the +outrages referred to showing, like straws in the wind, the +inevitable drift of things had the treaties been delayed. For, +as a matter of fact, those now peaceable tribes, soured by +lawless aggression, and sheltered by their vast forests, might +easily have taken an Indian revenge, and hampered, if not +hindered, the safe settlement of the country for years to come. +The Government, therefore, decided to treat with them at once +on equitable terms, and to satisfy their congeners, the half-breeds, +as well, by an issue of scrip certificates such as their fellows +had already received in Manitoba and the organized Territories. +To this end adjustments were made by the Hon. Clifford Sifton, +then Minister of the Interior and Superintendent-General of +Indian Affairs, during the winter of 1898-9, and a plan of +procedure and basis of treatment adopted, the carrying out +of which was placed in the hands of a double Commission, one +to frame and effect the Treaty, and secure the adhesion of +the various tribes, and the other to investigate and extinguish +the half-breed title. At the head of the former was placed the +Hon. David Laird, a gentleman of wide experience in the early +days in the North-West Territories, whose successful treaty +with the refractory Blackfeet and their allies is but one of many +evidences of his tact and sagacity. <span class="footnote">[The Hon. David Laird is a native +of Prince Edward Island. His father emigrated from Scotland to that +Province early in the last century, and ultimately became a member of +its Executive Council. After leaving college his son David began life +as a journalist, but later on took to politics, and being called, +like his father, to the Executive Council, was selected as one of +the delegates to Ottawa to arrange for the entrance of the Island +into the Canadian Confederation. He was subsequently elected to the +Dominion House of Commons, and became Minister of the Interior in +the Mackenzie Administration. After three years' occupancy of this +department he was made Lieut.-Governor of the North-West Territories, +an office which he filled without bias and to the satisfaction of +both the foes and friends of his own party. He returned to the Island +at the close of his official term, but was called thence by the +Laurier Administration to take charge of Indian affairs in the West, +with residence in Winnipeg, which is now his permanent home.]</span> A +nature in which fairness and firmness met was, of all dispositions, +the most suited to handle such important negotiations with the +Indians as parting with their blood-right. Fortunately these +qualities were pre-eminent in Mr. Laird, who had administered the +government of the organized Territories, at a primitive stage in +their history, in the wisest manner, and, at the close of his +official career, returned to his home in Prince Edward Island +leaving not an enemy behind him.</p> + +<p>The other Treaty Commissioners were the Hon. James Ross, Minister +of Public Works in the Territorial Government, and Mr. J. A. +McKenna, then private secretary to the Superintendent-General +of Indian Affairs, and who had been for some years a valued +officer of the Indian Department. With them was associated, in +an advisory capacity, the Rev. Father Lacombe, O.M.I., Vicar-General +of St. Albert, Alta., whose history had been identified for fifty +years with the Canadian North-West, and whose career had touched +the currents of primitive life at all points.</p> + +<p><span class="footnote">[Father Lacombe is by birth a French Canadian, his native parish +being St. Sulpice, in the Island of Montreal, where he was born in +the year 1827. On the mother's side he is said to draw his descent +from the daughter of a habitant on the St. Lawrence River called +Duhamel, who was stolen in girlhood by the Ojibway Indians, and +subsequently taken to wife by their chief, to whom she bore two +sons. By mere accident, her uncle, who was one of a North-West +Company trading party on Lake Huron, met her at an Indian camp on +one of the Manitoulin islands, and having identified her as his +niece, restored her and her children to her family. Father Lacombe +was ordained a priest by Bishop Bourget, of Montreal, and in 1849 +set out for Red River, where he became intimately associated with +the French half-breeds, accompanying them on their great buffalo +hunts, and ministering not only to the spiritual but to the temporal +welfare of them and their descendants down to the present day. In +1851 he took charge of the Lake Ste. Anne Mission, and subsequently +of St. Albert, the first house in which he helped to build; and from +these Missions he visited numbers of outlying regions, including +Lesser Slave Lake. His principal missionary work, however, for +twenty years was pursued amongst the Blackfeet Indians on the Great +Plains, during which he witnessed many a perilous onslaught in the +constant warfare between them and their traditional enemies, the +Crees. Being now over eighty years of age, he has retired from +active duty, and is spending the remainder of his days at Pincher +Creek, Alta., where, it is understood, he is preparing his memoirs +for publication at an early date.]</span></p> + +<p>Not associated with the Commission, but travelling with it as a +guest, was the Right Rev. E. Grouard, O.M.I., the Roman Catholic +Bishop of Athabasca and Mackenzie rivers, who was returning, after +a visit to the East, to his headquarters at Fort Chipewyan, where +his influence and knowledge of the language, it was believed, +would be of great service when the treaty came under consideration +there. The secretaries of the Commission were Mr. Harrison Young, a +son-in-law of the Rev. George McDougall, the distinguished missionary +who perished so unaccountably on the plains in the winter of 1876, +and Mr. I. W. Martin, an agreeable young gentleman from Goderich, +Ont. Connected with the party in an advisory capacity, like Father +Lacombe, and as interpreter, was Mr. Pierre d'Eschambault, who +had been for over thirty years an officer in the Hudson's Pay +Company's service. The camp-manager was Mr. Henry McKay, of an +old and highly esteemed North-West family. Such was the personnel, +official and informal, of the Treaty Commission, to which was also +attached Mr. H. A. Conroy, as accountant, robust and genial, and +well fitted for the work.</p> + +<p>The Half-breed Scrip Commission, whose duties began where the +treaty work ended, was composed of Major Walker, a retired +officer of the Royal North-West Mounted Police, who had seen +much service in the Territories and was in command of the force +present at the making of the Fort Carlton Treaty in 1876; and +Mr. J. A. Coté, an experienced officer of the Land Department at +Ottawa. The secretaries were Mr. J. F. Prudhomme, of St. Boniface, +Man., and the writer.</p> + +<p>Our transport arrangements, from start to finish, had been placed +entirely in the hands of a competent officer of the Hudson's Bay +Company, Mr. H. B. Round, an old resident of Athabasca; and to +the Commission was also annexed a young medical man, Dr. West, +a native of Devonshire, England, whose services were appreciated +in a region where doctors were almost unknown. But not the least +important and effective constituent of the party was the detachment +of the Royal North-West Mounted Police, which joined us at Edmonton, +minus their horses, of course; picked men from a picked force; +sterling fellows, whose tenacity and hard work in the tracking-harness +did yeoman service in many a serious emergency. This detachment +consisted of Inspector Snyder, Sergeant Anderson, Corporals +Fitzgerald and McClelland, and Constables McLaren, Lett, Burman, +Lelonde, Burke, Vernon and Kerr. The conduct of these men, it +is needless to say, was the admiration of all, and assisted +materially, as will be seen hereafter, in the successful progress +of the expedition.</p> + +<p>Whilst it had been decided that the proposed adjustments should +be effected, if possible, upon the same terms as the previous +treaties, it was known that certain changes will be necessary +owing to the peculiar topographic features of the country itself. +For example, in much of it arable reserves, such as many of the +tribes retained in the south, were unavailable, and special +stipulations were necessary, in such case, so that there should +be no inequality of treatment. But where good land could be had, +a novel choice was offered, by which individual Indians, if they +wished, could take their inalienable shares in severalty, rather +than be subject to the "band," whereby many industrious Indians +elsewhere had been greatly hampered in their efforts to improve +their condition. But, barring such departures as these, the proposed +treaties were to be effected, as I have said, according to precedent. +The Commission, then, resting its arguments on the good faith and +honour of the Government and people of Canada in the past, looked +forward with confidence to a successful treaty in Athabasca, the +record of travel and intercourse, to that end, beginning with +the following narrative.</p> + +<h1>Through the Mackenzie Basin</h1> + +<h3 class="chap-num" id="chap01">Chapter I</h3> +<h3>From Edmonton To Lesser Slave Lake.</h3> + +<p>Mr. Laird, with his staff, left Winnipeg for Edmonton by the +Canadian Pacific express on the 22nd of May, two of the +Commissioners having preceded him to that point. The train +was crowded, as usual, with immigrants, tourists, globe-trotters +and way-passengers. Parties for the Klondike, for California +or Japan—once the far East, but now the far West to us—for +anywhere and everywhere, a C.P.R. express train carrying the +same variety of fortunates and unfortunates as the ocean-cleaving +hull. Calgary was reached at one a.m. on the Queen's birthday, +and the same morning we left for Edmonton by the C. & E. +Railway. Every one was impressed favourably by the fine country +lying between these two cities, its intermediate towns and +villages, and fast-growing industries. But one thing especially +was not overlooked, viz., the honour due to our venerable Queen, +alas, so soon to be taken from us.</p> + +<p>In the evening we arrived at Strathcona, and found it thronged with +people celebrating the day. Crossing the river to Edmonton, we +got rooms with some difficulty in one of its crowded hotels, but +happily awoke next morning refreshed and ready to view the town. +It is needless to describe what has been so often described. +Enough to say Edmonton is one of the doors to the great North, +an outfitter of its traders, an emporium of its furs. And +there is something more to be said. It has an old fort, or, +rather, portions of one, for the vandalism which has let disappear +another, and still more historic, stronghold, is manifest here as +well. And truly, what savage scenes have been enacted on this +very spot! What strife in the days of the rival companies! +Edmonton is a city still marked by the fine savour of the +"Old-Timers," who meet once a year to renew associations, and +for some fleeting but glorious hours recall the past on the +great river. Age is thinning them out, and by and by the +remainder man will shake his "few, sad, last gray hairs," +and slip out, too. But the tradition of him, it is to be hoped, +will live, and bind his memory forever to the soil he trod, +when all this Western world was a wilderness, each primitive +settlement a happy family, each unit an unsophisticated, +hospitable soul.</p> + +<p>To our mortification we found that our supplies, seasonably shipped +at Winnipeg, would not arrive for several days; a delay, to begin +with, which seemed to prefigure all our subsequent hindrances. +Then rain set in, and it was the afternoon of the 29th before Mr. +Round could get us off. Once under way, however, with our thirteen +waggons, there was no trouble save from their heavy loads, which +could not be moved faster than a walk. Our first camp was at +Sturgeon River—the Namáo Sepe of the Crees—a fine stream in a +defile of hills clothed with poplar and spruce, the former not +quite in leaf, for the spring was backward, though seeding and +growth in the Edmonton District was much ahead of Manitoba. The +river flat was dotted with clumps of russet-leaved willows, to +the north of which our waggons were ranged, and soon the quickly +pitched tents, fires and sizzling fry-pans filled even the +tenderfoot with a sense of comfort.</p> + +<p>Next morning our route lay through a line of low, broken hills, +with scattered woods, largely burnt and blown down by the wind; a +desolate tract, which enclosed, to our left, the Lily Lake—Ascútamo +Sakaigon—a somewhat marshy-looking sheet of water. Some miles +farther on we crossed Whiskey Creek, a white man's name, of course, +given by an illicit distiller, who throve for a time, in the old +"Permit days," in this secluded spot. Beyond this the long line of +the Vermilion Hills hove in sight, and presently we reached the +Vermilion River, the Wyamun of the Crees, and, before nightfall, +the Nasookamow, or Twin Lake, making our camp in an open besmirched +pinery, a cattle shelter, with bleak and bare surroundings, +neighboured by the shack of a solitary settler. He had, no doubt, +good reasons for his choice; but it seemed a very much less inviting +locality than Stony Creek, which we came to next morning, approaching +it through rich and massive spruce woods, the ground strewn with +anemones, harebells and violets, and interspersed with almost +startlingly snow-white poplars, whose delicate buds had just opened +into leaf.</p> + +<p>Stony Creek is a tributary of a larger stream, called the +Tawutináow, which means "a passage between hills." This is +an interesting spot, for here is the height of land, the +"divide" between the Saskatchewan and the Athabasca, between +Arctic and Hudson Bay waters, the stream before us flowing +north, and carrying the yellowish-red tinge common to the +waters on this slope. A great valley to the left of the trail +runs parallel with it from the Sturgeon to the Tawutináow, +evidently the channel of an ancient river, whose course it would +now be difficult to determine without close examination. At all +events, it stretches almost from the Saskatchewan to the Athabasca, +and indicates some great watershed in times past. Hay was +abundant here, and much stock, it was evident, might be raised +in the district.</p> + +<p>Towards evening we reached the Tawutináow bridge, some eighteen +miles from the Landing, our finest camp, dry and pleasant, with +sward and copse and a fine stream close by. Here is an extensive +peat bed, which was once on fire and burnt for years—a great +peril to freighters' ponies, which sometimes grazed into its +unseen but smouldering depths. The seat of the fire was now an +immense grassy circle, with a low wall of blackened peat all +around it.</p> + +<p>In the morning an endless succession of small creeks was passed, +screened by deep valleys which fell in from hills and muskegs +to the south, and at noon, jaded with slow travel, we reached +Athabasca Landing. A long hill leads down to the flat, and from +its brow we had a striking view of the village below and of the +noble river, which much resembles the Saskatchewan, minus its +prairies. We were now fairly within the bewildering forest of +the north, which spreads, with some intervals of plain, to the +69th parallel of north latitude; an endless jungle of shaggy +spruce, black and white poplar, birch, tamarack and Banksian pine. +At the Landing we pitched our tents in front of the Hudson's Bay +Company's post, where had stood, the previous year, a big canvas +town of "Klondikers." Here they made preparation for their +melancholy journey, setting out on the great stream in every +species of craft, from rafts and coracles to steam barges. +Here was begun an episode of that world-wide craze, which has +run through all time, and almost every country, in which were +enacted deeds of daring and suffering which add a new chapter +to the history of human fearlessness and folly.</p> + +<p>The Landing was a considerable hamlet for such a wilderness, +being the shipping point to Mackenzie River, and, via the Lesser +Slave Lake, to the Upper Peace. It consisted of the Hudson's Bay +Company's establishment, with large storehouses, a sawmill, the +residence and church of a Church of England bishop, and a Roman +Catholic station, with a variety of shelters in the shape of +boarding-houses, shacks and tepees all around. From the number +of scows and barges in all stages of construction, and the high +timber canting-tackles, it had quite a shipyard-like look, the +population being mainly mechanics, who constructed scows, small +barges, called "sturgeons," and the old "York," or inland boat, +carrying from four to five tons. Here, hauled up on the bank, was +the Hudson's Bay Company's steamer, the <i>Athabasca</i>, a well-built +vessel about 160 feet long by 28 feet beam. This vessel, it was +found, drew too much water for the channel; so there she lay, +rotting upon her skids. It was a tantalizing sight to ourselves, +who would have been spared many a heart-break had she been fit +for service. A more interesting feature of the Landing, however, +was the well sunk by the Government borer, Mr. Fraser, for oil, +but which sent up gas instead. The latter was struck at a +considerable depth, and, when we were there, was led from the +shaft under the river bank by a pipe, from which it issued +aflame, burning constantly, we were told, summer and winter. +Standing at the gateway of the unknown North, and looking +at this interesting feature, doubly so from its place and +promise, one could not but forecast an industrial future, +and "dream on things to come."</p> + +<p>Shortly after our arrival at the Landing, news, true or false, +reached us that the ice was still fast on Lesser Slave Lake. At +any rate, the boat's crew expected from there did not turn up, +and a couple of days were spent in anxious waiting. Some freight +was delayed as well, and a thunderstorm and a night of rain set +the camp in a swim. The non-arrival of our trackers was serious, +as we had two scows and a York boat, with a party all told of some +fifty souls, and only thirteen available trackers to start with. +It seemed more than doubtful whether we could reach Lesser Slave +Lake on treaty-schedule time, and the anxiety to push on was great. +It was decided to set out as we were and trust to the chapter of +accidents. We did not foresee the trials before us, the struggle +up a great and swift river, with contrary winds, rainy weather, +weak tracking lines and a weaker crew. The chapter of accidents +opened, but not in the expected manner.</p> + +<p>The York boat and one of the scows were fitted up amidships with +an awning, which could be run down on all sides when required, +but were otherwise open to the weather, and much encumbered with +lading; but all things being in readiness, on the 3rd of June we +took to the water, and, a photograph of the scene having been +taken, shoved off from the Landing. The boats were furnished +with long, cumbrous sweeps, yet not a whit too heavy, since numbers +of them snapped with the vigorous strokes of the rowers during +the trip. A small sweep, passed through a ring at the stern, +served as a rudder, by far the best steering gear for the +"sturgeons," but not for a York boat, which is built with a +keel and can sail pretty close to the wind. Ordinarily the +only sail in use is a lug, which has a great spread, and moves +a boat quickly in a fair wind. In a calm, of course, sweeps have +to be used, and our first step in departure was to cross the +river with them, the boatmen rising with the oars and falling +back simultaneously to their seats with perfect precision, and +handling the great blades with practised ease. When the opposite +shore was reached, the four trackers of each boat leaped into +the water, and, splashing up the bank, got into harness at +once, and began, with changes to the oars, the unflagging pull +which lasted for two weeks. This harness is called by the +trackers "otapanápi"—a Cree word—and it must be borne in mind +that scarcely any language was spoken throughout this region other +than Cree. A little English or French was occasionally heard; but +the tongue, domestic, diplomatic, universal, was Cree, into which +every half-breed in common talk lapsed, sooner or later, with +undisguised delight. It was his mother tongue, copious enough +to express his every thought and emotion, and its soft accents, +particularly in the mouth of woman, are certainly very musical. +Emerson's phrase, "fossil poetry," might be applied to our Indian +languages, in which a single stretched-out word does duty for +a sentence.</p> + +<p>But to the harness. This is simply an adjustment of leather +breast-straps for each man, tied to a very long tracking line, +which, in turn, is tied to the bow of the boat. The trackers, +once in it, walk off smartly along the bank, the men on board +keeping the boats clear of it, and, on a fair path, with good +water, make very good time. Indeed, the pull seems to give an +impetus to the trackers as well as to the boat, so that a loose +man has to lope to keep up with them. But on bad paths and +bad water the speed is sadly pulled down, and, if rapids occur, +sinks to the zero of a few miles a day. The "spells" vary +according to these circumstances, but half an hour is the +ordinary pull between "pipes," and there being no shifts in +our case, the stoppages for rest and tobacco were frequent. +At this rate we calculated that it would take eight or ten +days to reach the mouth of Lesser Slave River. Mr. d'Eschambault +and myself, having experienced the crowded state of the first +and second boats, and foregathered during the trip, decided to +take up our quarters on the scow, which had no awning, but +which offered some elbow room and a tolerably cozy nook amongst +the cases, bales and baggage with which it was encumbered.</p> + +<p>We had a study on board, as well, in our steersman, Pierre Cyr, +which partly attracted me—a bronzed man, with long, thin, yet +fine weather-beaten features, frosty moustache and keenly-gazing, +dry, gray eyes—a tall, slim and sinewy man, over seventy +years of age, yet agile and firm of step as a man of thirty. +Add the semi-silent, inward laugh which Cooper ascribes to +his Leather-Stocking, and you have Pierre Cyr, who might +have stood for that immortal's portrait. That he had a history +I felt sure when I first saw him seated amongst his boatmen at +the Landing, and, on seeking his acquaintance, was not surprised +to learn that he had accompanied Sir John Richardson on his +last journey in Prince Rupert's Land, and Dr. Rae on his eventful +expedition to Repulse Bay, in 1853, in search of Franklin. He +looked as if he could do it again—a vigorous, alert man, ready +and able to track or pole with the best—a survivor, in fact, +of the old race of Red River voyageurs, whose record is one +of the romances of history.</p> + +<p>Another attraction was my companion, Mr. d'E. himself—a man +stout in person, quiet by disposition, and of few words; a man, +too, with a lineage which connected him with many of the oldest +pioneer families of French Canada. His ancestor, Jacques Alexis +d'Eschambault, originally of St. Jean de Montaign, in Poictou, +came to New France in the 17th century, where, in 1667, he married +Marguerite Rene Denys, a relative of the devoted Madame de la +Peltrie, and thus became brother-in-law to M. de Ramezay, the +owner of the famous old mansion in Montreal, now a museum. Jacques +d'Eschambault's son married a daughter of Louis Joliet, the +discoverer of the Mississippi, and became a prominent merchant +in Quebec, distinguishing himself, it is said, by having the +largest family ever known in Canada, viz., thirty-two children. +Under the new <i>régime</i> my companion's grandfather, like many another +French Canadian gentleman, entered the British army, but died +in Canada, leaving as heir to his seigneurie a young man whose +friendship for Lord Selkirk led him to Red River as a companion, +where he subsequently entered the Hudson's Bay Company's service, +and died, a chief-factor, at St. Boniface, Man. His son, my +companion, also entered the service, in 1857, at his father's +post of Isle a la Crosse, served seven years at Cumberland, nine +at other distant points, and, finally, fifteen years as trader +at Reindeer Lake, a far northern post bordering on the Barren Lands, +and famous for its breed of dogs. My friend had some strange +virtues, or defects, as the ungodly might call them; he had never +used tobacco or intoxicants in his life, a marvellous thing +considering his environment. He possessed, besides, a fine +simplicity which pleased one. Doubled up in the Edmonton hotel +with a waggish companion, he was seen, so the latter affirmed, +to attempt to blow out the electric light, a thing which, greatly +to his discomfiture, was done by his bed-fellow with apparent +ease. Being a man of scant speech, I enjoyed with him betimes +the luxury of it. But we had much discourse for all that, and +I learnt many interesting things from this old trader, who seemed +taciturn in our little crowd, but was, in reality, a tower of +intelligent silence beat about by a flood of good-humoured chaff +and loquacity.</p> + +<p>At our first night's camp we were still in sight of the Landing, +which looked absurdly near, considering the men's hard pull; and +from there messengers were sent to Baptiste Lake, the source of +Baptiste Creek, which joins the Athabasca a few miles up, and +where there was a settlement of half-breed fishermen and hunters, +to procure additional trackers if possible. On their unsuccessful +return, at eleven a.m., we started again—newo pishawuk, as they +call it, "four trackers to the line," as before and early in the +afternoon were opposite Baptiste Creek, and, weather compelling, +rowed across, and camped there that evening. It rained dismally +all night, and morning opened with a strong head wind and every +symptom of bad weather. A survey party from the Rocky Mountains, +in a York boat, tarried at our camp, bringing word that the +ice-jam was clear in Lesser Slave Lake, which was cheering, but +that we need scarcely look for the expected assistance. They +also gave a vague account of the murder of a squaw by her +husband for cannibalism, which afterwards proved to be groundless, +and, with this comforting information, sped on.</p> + +<p>It is ridiculously easy to go down the Athabasca compared with +ascending it. The previous evening a Baptiste Lake hunter, bound +for the Landing, set on from our camp at a great rate astride +of a couple of logs, which he held together with his legs, and +disappeared round the bend below in a twinkling. A priest, too, +with a companion, arrived about dusk in a canoe, and set off +again, intending to beach at the Landing before dark.</p> + +<p>Of course, several surmises were current regarding the non-arrival +of our trackers, the most likely being Bishop Grouard's, that, +as the R. C. Mission boats and men had not come down either, +the Indians and half-breeds were too intent upon discussing +the forthcoming treaty to stir.</p> + +<p>So far it had been the rain and consequent bad tracking which +had delayed us; but still we were too weak-handed to make headway +without help, and it was at this juncture that the Police +contingent stepped manfully into the breach, and volunteered +to track one of the boats to the lake. This was no light matter +for men unaccustomed to such beastly toil and in such abominable +weather; but, having once put their hands to the rope, they +were not the men to back down. With unfaltering "go" they +pulled on day after day, landing their boat at its destination +at last, having worked in the harness and at the sweeps, +without relief, from the start almost to the finish.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile all enjoyed good health and spirits in spite of the +weather. There were fair grounds for the belief that Mr. Ross, +who had set out by trail from Edmonton, would reach the lake in +time to distribute to the congregated Indians and half-breeds +the Government rations stored there for that purpose, and, +therefore, our anxiety was not so great as it would otherwise +have been.</p> + +<p>Our trackers being thus reinforced, the outlook was more +satisfactory, not so much in increased speed as in the certainty +of progress. The rain had ceased, and though the sky was still +lowering, the temperature was higher. Tents were struck, and +the boats got under way at once, taking chances on the weather, +which, instead of breaking up in another deluge, improved. +Eight men were now put to each line, Peokus, a remarkable old +Blackfoot Indian, captured and adopted in boyhood by the Crees, +and who afterwards attracted the attention of us all, being +detailed to lead the Police gang, who, raw and unused to the +work, required an experienced tracker at their head.</p> + +<p>The country passed through hitherto was rolling, hilly, and +densely forested, but, alas, with prostrate trunks and fire-blasted +"rampikes," which ranged in all directions in desolate profusion. +The timber was Banksian pine, spruce, poplar and birch, much of +it merchantable, but not of large size. It was pitiful to see +so much wealth destroyed by recent fires, and that, too, at the +possible opening of an era of real value in the near future. +The greatest destruction was evidently on the north side of the +river, but the south had not escaped.</p> + +<p>As regards the soil in these parts, it was, so far, impossible +to speak favourably. The hunters described the inland country +as a wilderness of sand-hills, surrounded by quaking-bogs, +muskegs and soft meadows. Judging by exposures on the river +bank, there are, here and there, fertile areas which may yet +be utilized; but probably the best thing that could happen to +that part of the country would be a great clearing fire to +complete the destruction of its dead timber and convert its +best parts into prairie and a summer range for cattle.</p> + +<p>We were now approaching a portion of the river where the difficulties +of getting on were great. The men had to cope with the swift current, +bordered by a series of steep gumbo slides, where the tracking was +hazardous; where great trees slanted over the water, tottering to +their fall, or deep pits and fissures gaped in the festering clay, +into which the men often plunged to their arm-pits. It was horrible +to look upon. The chain-gang, the galley-slaves, how often the idea +of them was recalled by that horrid pull! Yet onward they went, +with teeth set and hands bruised by the rope, surmounting difficulty +after difficulty with the pith of lions.</p> + +<p>At last a better region was reached, with occasionally a better +path. Here the destruction by fire had been stayed, the country +improved, and the forest outlines became bold and noble. Hour by +hour we crept along a like succession of majestic bends of the +river, not yet flushed by the summer freshet, but flowing with +superb volume and force. Fully ten miles were made that day, +the men tracking like Trojans through water and over difficult +ground, but fortunately free from mosquitoes, the constant head +winds keeping these effectually down. The cool weather in like +manner kept the water down, for it is in this month that the +freshet from the Rocky Mountains generally begins, filling the +channel bank-high, submerging the tracking paths, and bearing +upon its foaming surface such a mass of uprooted trees and river +trash that it is almost impossible to make head against it.</p> + +<p>The next morning opened dry and pleasant, but with a milky and +foreboding sky. Again the boats were in motion, passing the +Pusquatenáo, or Naked Hill, beyond which is the Echo Lake—Katoó +Sakaígon—where a good many Indians lived, having a pack-trail +thereto from the river.</p> + +<p>The afternoon proved to be hot, the clouds cumulose against a +clear, blue sky, with occasional sun-showers. The tracking became +better for a time, the lofty benches decreasing in height as we +ascended. Innumerable ice-cold creeks poured in from the forest, +all of a reddish-yellow cast, and the frequent marks on trees, +informing passing hunters of the success of their friends, and +the number of stages along the shore for drying meat, indicated +a fine moose country.</p> + +<p>The next day was treaty day, and we were still a long way from +the treaty post. The Police, not yet hardened to the work, felt +fagged, but would not own up, a nephew of Sir William Vernon +Harcourt bringing up the rear, and all slithering, but hanging +to it with dogged perseverance. Nothing, indeed, can be imagined +more arduous than this tracking up a swift river, against constant +head winds in bad weather. Much of it is in the water, wading up +"snies," or tortuous shallow channels, plunging into numberless +creeks, clambering up slimy banks, creeping under or passing the +line over fallen trees, wading out in the stream to round long +spits of sand or boulders, floundering in gumbo slides, tripping, +crawling, plunging, and, finally, tottering to the camping-place +sweating like horses, and mud to the eyes—but never grumbling. +After a whole day of this slavish work, no sooner was the bath +taken, supper stowed, and pipes filled, than laughter began, +and jokes and merriment ran round the camp-fires as if such +things as mud and toil had never existed.</p> + +<p>The old Indian, Peokus, heading the Police line, was a study. +His garb was a pair of pants toned down to the colour of the +grime they daily sank in, a shirt and corduroy vest to match, +a faded kerchief tied around his head, an Assomption sash, and +a begrimed body inside of all—a short, squarely built frame, +clad with rounded muscles—nothing angular about <i>him!</i>—but the +nerves within tireless as the stream he pulled against. On the +lead, in harness, his long arms swung like pendulums, his whole +body leant forward at an acute angle, the gait steady, and the +step solid as the tramp of a gorilla. Some coarse black hairs +clung here and there to his upper lip; his fine brown eyes were +embedded in wrinkles, and his swarthy features, though clumsy, +were kindly—a good-humoured face, which, at a cheerful word +or glance, lit up at once with the grotesque grin of an animated +gargoyle. This was the typical old-time tracker of the North; the +toiler who brought in the products of man's art in the East, and +took out Nature's returns—the Indian's output—ever since the +trade first penetrated these endless solitudes.</p> + +<p>The forest scenery now became very striking; primeval masses of +poplar and birch foliage, which spread away and upward in smoothest +slopes, like vast lawns, studded with the sombre green of the pine +tops which towered above them. Here and there the bends of the +river crossed at such angles as to enclose a lake-like expanse +of water. The river also took a fine colouring from its tributaries, +a sort of greenish-yellow tinge, and now became flecked with +bubbles and thin foam, so that we feared the freshet, which would +have been disastrous.</p> + +<p>At mid-day we reached Shoal Island—Pakwáo Ministic—and here the +poles were got out and the trackers took the middle of the river +for nearly a mile, until deep water was reached. Placer miners +had evidently been at work here, but with poor results, we +were told. Below Baptiste Creek, however, the yield had been +satisfactory, and several miners had made from $2.00 to $2.50 a +day over their living expenses. Above the Baptiste there was +nothing doing; indeed, we did not pass a single miner at work +on the whole route, and it was the best time for their work. +The gold is flocculent, its source as mysterious as that of the +Saskatchewan, if the theory that the latter was washed out of +the Selkirks before the upheaval of the Rockies is astray.</p> + +<p>A fresh moose head, seen lying on the bank, indicated a hunting +party, but no human life was seen aside from our own people. +Indeed, the absence of life of any kind along the river, excepting +the song-birds, which were in some places numerous, was surprising. +No deer, no bears, not even a fox or a timber wolf made one's +fingers itch for the trigger. A few brent, which took wing afar +off, and a high-flying duck or two, were the sole wildings observed, +save a big humble-bee which droned around our boat for an instant, +then darted off again. Even fish seemed to be anything but plentiful.</p> + +<p>That night's camp was hurriedly made in a hummocky fastness of +pine and birch, where we found few comfortable bedding-places. +In the morning we passed several ice-ledges along shore, the +survivals of the severe winter, and, presently, met a canoe +with two men from Peace River, crestfallen "Klondikers," who +had "struck it rich," they said, with a laugh, and who reported +good water. Next morning a very early start was made, and after +some long, strong pulls, and a vigorous spurt, the mouth of the +Lesser Slave River opened at last on our sight.</p> + +<p>We had latterly passed along what appeared to be fertile soil, +a sandy clay country, which improved to the west and south-west +at every turn. It had an inviting look, and the "lie," as well, +of a region foreordained for settlement. It was irritating not +to be able to explore the inner land, but our urgency was too +great for that. From what we saw, however, it was easy to +predict that thither would flow, in time, the stream of pioneer +life and the bustle of attending enterprise and trade.</p> + +<h3 class="chap-num" id="chap02">Chapter II</h3> +<h3>Lesser Slave River And Lesser Slave Lake.</h3> + +<p>It is unnecessary to inform the average reader that the Lesser +Slave River connects the Lesser Slave Lake with the Athabasca; +any atlas will satisfy him upon that point. But its peculiar +colouring he will not find there, and it is this which gives +the river its most distinctive character. Once seen, it is easy +to account for the hue of the Athabasca below the Lesser Slave +River; for the water of the latter, though of a pale yellow colour +in a glass, is of a rich burnt umber in the stream, and when blown +upon by the wind turns its sparkling facets to the sun like the +smile upon the cheek of a brunette. Its upward course is like +a continuous letter S with occasional S's side by side, so that +a point can be crossed on foot in a few minutes which would +cost much time to go around. Its proper name, too, is not to +be found in the atlases, either English or French. There it +is called the Lesser Slave River, but in the classic Cree its +name is Iyaghchi Eennu Sepe, or the River of the Blackfeet, +literally the "River of the Strange People." The lake itself +bears the same name, and even now is never called Slave Lake +by the Indians in their own tongue. This fact, to my mind, +casts additional light upon an obscure prehistoric question, +namely, the migration of the great Algic, or Algonquin, race. +Its early home was, perhaps, in the far south, or south-west, +whence it migrated around the Gulf of Florida, and eastward +along the Atlantic coast, spreading up its bays and inlets, +and along its great tributary rivers, finally penetrating by +the Upper Ottawa to James's, and ultimately to the shores of +Hudson Bay. I know there is strong adverse opinion as to the +starting-point of this migration, and I only offer my own as +a suggestion based upon the facts stated, and as, therefore, +worthy of consideration. Sir Alexander Mackenzie speaks of the +Blackfeet "travelling north-westward," and that the Crees were +"invaders of the Saskatchewan from the eastward." Indeed, he says +the latter were called by the Hudson's Bay Company's officers at +York Factory "their home-guards." One thing seems certain, viz., +that the Crees got their firearms from the English at Hudson +Bay in the 17th century. Thence that great tribe, called by +themselves the Nahéowuk, but by the Ojibway Saulteaux the +Kinistineaux, and by the voyageurs Christineaux, or, more +commonly, the Crees—a word derived, some think, from the first +syllable of the latter name, or perhaps from the French <i>crier</i>, +to shout—descended upon the Blackfeet, who probably at that +time occupied this region, and undoubtedly the Saskatchewan, +and drove them south along a line stretching to the Rocky +Mountains.</p> + +<p>The tradition of this expulsion is still extant, as also of the +great raids made by the Blackfeet and their kindred in times +past into their ancient domain. I remember visiting, with my +old friend Attakacoop—Star-Blanket—the deceased Cree chief, +twenty years ago, the triumphal pile of red deer horns raised +by the Blackfeet north of Shell River, a tributary of the North +Saskatchewan. It is called by the Crees Ooskunaka Assustakee, +and the chief described its great size in former days, and the +tradition of its origin as told to him in his boyhood. Be all +this as it may, and this is not the place to pursue the inquiry, +the stream in question is, to the Crees who live upon it, not +the River of the Slaves, but the "River of the Blackfeet." How +it came by its white name is another question. Possibly some +captured Indians of the tribe called the Slaves to this day, reduced +to servitude by the Crees, were seen by the early voyageurs, and +gave rise to the French name, of which ours is a translation. +Slavery was common enough amongst the Indians everywhere. A +thriving trade was done at the Detroit in the 18th century in +Pawnees, or Panis, as they were called, captured by Indian +raiders on the western prairies and sold to the white settlers +along the river. I have seen in Windsor, Ont., an old bill of +sale of one of these Pani slaves, the consideration being, if +I recollect aright, a certain quantity of Indian corn.</p> + +<p>To return to the river. The distance from Athabasca Landing to +the Lesser Slave is called sixty-five miles, but this must have +been ascertained by measuring from point to point, for, following +the shore up stream, as boats must, it is certainly more. To the +head of the river is an additional sixty miles, and thence to +the head of the lake seventy-five more. The Hudson's Bay Company +had a storehouse at the Forks, and an island was forming where +the waters meet, the finest feature of the place being an echo, +which reverberated the bugler's call at <i>reveille</i> very grandly.</p> + +<p>A spurt was made in the early morning, the trackers first following +a bank overgrown with alders and sallows, all of a size, which +looked exactly like a well-kept hedge, but soon gave way to the +usual dense line of poplar and spruce, rooted to the very edges +of the banks, which are low compared with those of the Athabasca. +After ascending it for some distance, it being Sunday, we camped +for the day upon an open grassy point, around which the river +swept in a perfect semi-circle, the dense forest opposite towering +in one equally perfect, and glorious in light and shade and +harmonious tints of green, from sombre olive to the lightest +pea. The point itself was covered with strawberry vines and +dotted with clumps of saskatoons all in bloom.</p> + +<p>It was a lovely and lonely spot, which was soon converted into +a scene of eating and laughter, and a drying ground for wet +clothes. Towards evening Bishop Grouard and Father Lacombe held +a well-attended service, which in this profound wilderness was +peculiarly impressive. Listening, one thought how often the same +service, these same chants and canticles, had awakened the sylvan +echoes in like solitudes on the St. Lawrence and Mississippi in +the old days of exploration and trade, and of missionary zeal and +suffering. It recalled, too, the thought of man's evanescence and +the apparent fixedness of his institutions.</p> + +<p>Shortly after our tents were pitched a boat drifted past +with five jaded-looking men aboard—more baffled Klondikers +returning from Peace River. We had heard of numbers in the +interior who could neither go on nor return, and expected to +meet more castaways before we reached the lake. In this we +were not astray, and several days after in the upper river +we met a York boat loaded with them, alert and unmistakable +Americans, but with the worn features of disappointed men.</p> + +<p>We were now constantly encountering the rapids, which extended +for about twenty-five miles, and very difficult and troublesome +they proved to be to our heavily-loaded craft. Most of them were +got over slowly by combined poling and tracking, the line often +breaking with the strain, and the boats being kept in the channel +only by the most strenuous efforts of the experienced men on board. +If a monias (a greenhorn) took the bow pole, as was sometimes the +case, the orders of our steersman, Cyr, were amusing to listen to. +"Tughkenay asswayegh tamook!" (Be on your guard!) "Turn de oder way! +Turn yourself! Turn your pole—Hell!" Then, of course, came the +customary rasp on the rocks, but, if not, the cheery cry followed +to the trackers ashore, "Ahchipitamook!" (Haul away!) and on we +would go for a few yards more. Once, towards the end of this dreary +business, when we were all crowded into the Commissioner's boat, +where we took our meals, in the first really stiff rapid the keel +grated as usual upon the rocks. With a better line we might have +pulled through, but it broke, and the boat at once swung broadside +to the current and listed on the rocks immovably, though the men +struggling in the water did their best to heavy her off. The +third boat then came up, and shortly afterwards the Police boat. +But getting their steering sweeps fouled and lines entangled, it +was nearly an hour before Cyr's boat, being first lightened, could +swing to starboard of the York, and take off the passengers. +The York boat was then shouldered off the rocks by main force, +and all got under way again. At this juncture our old Indian, +Peokus—or Pehayokusk, to give him his right name, to wit, "The +giblets of a bird"—met with a serious accident, which, much to +our regret, laid him up for several days. In his eagerness to +help he slipped from a sunken log, and the bruise knocked the +wind out of him completely. We took off his wet clothes and rubbed +him, and laid him by the fire, where the doctor's care and a +liberal dram of spirits soon fetched him to rights. A look of +pleased wonder passed over his clumsy features as the latter +did its work. Caliban himself could not have been more curiously +surprised.</p> + +<p>This was not our last stick: there were other awkward rapids +near by; but by dint of wading, shouldering, pulling and tracking, +we got over the last of them and into a deep channel for good, +having advanced only five miles after a day of incessant toil, +most of it in the water.</p> + +<p>Our camp that night was a memorable one. The day was the fiftieth +anniversary of Father Lacombe's ministration as a missionary in +the North-West, and all joined in presenting him with a suitable +address, handsomely engrossed by Mr. Prudhomme on birch bark, +and signed by the whole party. A poem, too, composed by Mr. +Coté, a gentleman of literary gifts and taste, also written on +bark, was read and presented at the same time. <span class="footnote">[The poem, the text +of which was secured from the author too late for insertion here, +<a href="#cotespoem">will be found in the Appendix</a>, p. 490.]</span> Père Lacombe made a touching +impromptu reply, which was greatly appreciated. Many of us were not +of the worthy Father's communion, yet there was but one feeling, +that of deep respect for the labours of this celebrated missionary, +whose life had been a continuous effort to help the unbefriended +Indian into the new but inevitable paths of self-support, and to +shield him from the rapacity of the cold incoming world now surging +around him. After the presentation, over a good cigar, the Father +told some inimitable stories of Indian life on the plains in the +old days, which to my great regret are too lengthy for inclusion +here. One incident, however, being <i>apropos</i> of himself, must find +place. Turning the conversation from materialism, idealism, and the +other "isms" into which it had drifted, he spoke of the fears so +many have of ghosts, and even of a corpse, and confessed that, from +early training, he had shared this fear until he got rid of it in an +incident one winter at Lac Ste. Anne. He had been sent for during +the night to administer extreme unction to a dying half-breed girl +thirteen miles away. Hitching his dogs to their sled he sped on, +but too late, for he was met on the trail by the girl's relatives, +bringing her dead body wrapped in a buffalo skin, and which +they asked him to take back with him and place in his chapel +pending service. He tremblingly assented, and the body was +duly tied to his sled, the relatives returning to their homes. +He was alone with the corpse in the dense and dark forest, and +felt the old dread, but reflecting on his office and its duties, +he ran for a long distance behind the sled until, thoroughly +tired, he stepped on it to rest. In doing this he slipped and +fell upon the corpse in a spasm of fear, which, strange to say, +when he recovered from it, he felt no more. The shock cured him, +and, reaching home, he placed the girl's body in the chapel +with his own hands. It reminded him, he said, of a Community +at Marseilles whose Superior had died, but whose money was +missing. The new Superior sent a young priest who had a great +dread of ghosts down to the crypt below the church to open the +coffin and search the pockets of the dead. He did so, and found +the money; but in nailing on the coffin lid again, a part of +his soutane was fastened down with it. The priest turned to go, +advanced a step, and, being suddenly held, dropped dead with +fright. These gruesome stories were happily followed by an hour +or two of song and pleasantry in Mr. McKenna's tent, ending in +"Auld Lang Syne" and "God Save the Queen." It was a unique occasion +in which to wind up so laborious a day; and our camp itself was +unique—on a lofty bluff overlooking the confluence of the +Saulteau River with the Lesser Slave—a bold and beautiful +spot, the woods at the angle of the two rivers, down to the +water's edge, showing like a gigantic V, as clean-cut as if +done by a pair of colossal shears.</p> + +<p>Next morning rowing took the place of poling and tracking for a +time, and, presently, the great range of lofty hills called, to +our right, the Moose Watchi, and to our left, the Tuskanatchi—the +Moose and Raspberry Mountains—loomed in the distance. Here, and +when only a few miles from the lake, a York boat came tearing down +stream full of lithe, young half-breed trackers—our long-expected +assistants from the Hudson's Bay Company's post, as we would have +welcomed much more warmly had they come sooner, for we had little +but the lake now to ascend, up which a fair breeze would carry us +in a single night.</p> + +<p>Doubtless it would have done so if it had come; but the same +head-winds and storms which had thwarted us from the first +dogged us still. We had camped near the mouth of Muskeg Creek, +a good-sized stream, and evidently the cause hitherto of the +Lesser Slave's rich chocolate colour; for, above the forks, the +latter took its hue from the lake, but with a yellowish tinge +still. From this point the river was very crooked, and lined by +great hay meadows of luxuriant growth. Skirting these, reinforced +as we were, we soon pulled up to the foot of the lake, where stood +a Hudson's Bay Company's solitary storehouse. There some change of +lading was made, in order to reach "the Island," some seven miles +up, and the only one in the lake, sails being hoisted for the first +time to an almost imperceptible wind.</p> + +<p>The island, where we were to camp simply for the night—as we +fondly thought—was found to be a sprawling jumble of water-worn +pebbles, boulders and sand, with a long narrow spit projecting +to the east, much frequented by gulls, of whose eggs a large +number were gathered. To the south, on the mainland, is the +site of the old North-West Company's post, near to which stood +that of the Hudson's Bay Company, for they always planted +themselves cheek by jowl in those days of rivalry, so that +there should be no lack of provocation. A dozen half-breed +families had now their habitat there, and subsisted by fishing +and trapping. On the island our Cree half-breeds enjoyed the +first evening's camp by playing the universal button-hiding +game called Pugasawin, and which is always accompanied by a +monotonous chant and the tom-tom, anything serving for that +hideous instrument if a drum is not at hand. They are all +inveterate gamblers in that country, and lose or win with +equal indifference. Others played a peculiar game of cards +called Natwawáquawin, or "Marriage," the loser's penalty +being droll, but unmentionable. These amusements, which +often spun out till morning, were broken up by another +rattling storm, which lasted all night and all the next day. +We had lost all count of storms by this time, and were stolidly +resigned. The day following, however, the wind was fresh and +fair, and we made great headway, reaching the mouth of Swan +River—Naposéo Sepe—about mid-day.</p> + +<p>This stream is almost choked at its discharge by a conglomeration +of slimy roots, weeds and floatwood, and the banks are "a +melancholy waste of putrid marshes." It is a forbidding entrance +to a river which, farther up, waters a good farming country, +including coal in abundance.</p> + +<p>The wind being strong and fair, we spun along at a great rate, +and expected to reach the treaty point before dark, reckoning, +as usual, without our host. The wind suddenly wheeled to the +south-west, and a dangerous squall sprang up, which forced us +to run back for shelter fully five miles. There was barely time +to camp before the gale became furious, raging all night, and +throwing down tents like nine-pins. About one a.m. a cry arose +from the night-watch that the boats were swamping. All hands +turned out, lading was removed, and the scows hauled up on the +shingle, the rollers piling on shore with a height and fury +perfectly astonishing for such a lake. By morning the tempest +was at its height, continuing all day and into the night. The +sunset that evening exhibited some of the grandest and wildest +sky scenery we had ever beheld. In the west a vast bank of +luminous orange cloud, edged by torn fringes of green and gray; +in the south a sea of amethyst, and stretching from north to +east masses of steel gray and pearl, shot with brilliant shafts +and tufts of golden vapour. The whole sky streamed with rich +colouring in the fierce wind, as if possessed at once by the +genii of beauty and storm. The boatmen, noting its aspect, +predicted worse weather; but, fortunately, morning belied the +omens—our trials were over.</p> + +<p>We were now nearing Shaw's Point, a long willowed spit of land, +called after a whimsical old chief-factor of the Hudson's Bay +Company who had charge of this district over sixty years before. +He appears to have been a man of many eccentricities, one +of which was the cultivation <i>a la Chinois</i> of a very long +finger-nail, which he used as a spoon to eat his egg. But of +him anon. By four p.m. we had rounded his Point, and come into +view of Wyaweekamon—"The Outlet"—a rudimentary street with +several trading stores, a billiard saloon and other accessories +of a brand-new village in a very old wilderness.</p> + +<p>Here we were at the treaty point at last, safe and sound, with +new interests and excitements before us; with wild man instead +of wild weather to encounter; with discords to harmonize and +suspicions to allay by human kindness, perhaps by human firmness, +but mainly by the just and generous terms proffered by Government +to an isolated but highly interesting and deserving people.</p> + +<h3 class="chap-num" id="chap03">Chapter III</h3> +<h3>Treaty At Lesser Slave Lake.</h3> + +<p>On the 19th of June our little fleet landed at Willow Point. +There was a rude jetty, or wharf, at this place, below the +little trading village referred to, at which loaded boats +discharged. Formerly they could ascend the sluggish and shallow +channel connecting the expansion of the Heart River, called +Buffalo Lake, with the head of Lesser Slave Lake, a distance +of about three miles, and as far as the Hudson's Bay Company's +post, around which another trading village had gathered. This +temporary fall in the water level partly accounted for the growth +of the village at Willow Point, where sufficient interests had +arisen to cause a jealousy between the two hamlets. Once upon +a time Atawaywé Kamick was supreme. This is the name the +Crees give to the Hudson's Bay Company, meaning literally "the +Buying House." But now there were many stores, and "free +trade" was rather in the ascendant. In the middle was safety, +and therefore the Commissioners decided to pitch camp on a +beautiful flat facing the south and fronting the channel, and +midway between the two opposing points of trade. A <i>feu de joie</i> +by the white residents of the region, of whom there were some +seventy or eighty, welcomed the arrival of the boats at the +wharf, and after a short stay here, simply to collect baggage, +a start was made for the camping ground, where our numerous +tents soon gave the place the appearance of a village of our own.</p> + +<p>Tepees were to be seen in all directions from our camp—the +lodges of the Indians and half-breeds. But no sooner was the +treaty site apparent than a general concentration took place, +and we were speedily surrounded by a bustling crowd, putting +up trading tents and shacks, dancing booths, eating-places, +etc., so that with the motley crowd, including a large number +of women and children, and a swarm of dogs such as we never +dreamt of, amounting in a short space by constant accessions +to over a thousand, we were in the heart of life and movement +and noise.</p> + +<p>Mr. Ross, as already stated, had gone on by trail from Edmonton, +partly in order to inspect it, and managed to reach the lake +before us, which was fortunate, since Indians and half-breeds +had collected in large numbers, and women thus able to allay +their irritation and to distribute rations pending the arrival +of the other members of the Commission. During the previous +winter, upon the circulation in the North of the news of the +coming treaty, discussion was rife, and every cabin and tepee +rang with argument. The wiseacre was not absent, of course, +and agitators had been at work for some time endeavouring to +jaundice the minds of the people—half-breeds, it was said, +from Edmonton, who had been vitiated by contact with a low +class of white men there—and, therefore, nothing was as yet +positively known as to the temper and views of the Indians. +But whatever evil effect these tamperings might have had upon +them, it was felt that a plain statement of the proposals of +the Government would speedily dissipate it, and that, when +placed before them in Mr. Laird's customary kind and lucid +manner, they would be accepted by both Indians and half-breeds +as the best obtainable, and as conducing in all respects to +their truest and most permanent interests.</p> + +<p>On the 20th the eventful morning had come, and, for a wonder, +the weather proved to be calm, clear and pleasant. The hour +fixed upon for the beginning of negotiations was two p.m., up +to which time much hand-shaking had, of course, to be undergone +with the constant new arrivals of natives from the forest and +lakes around. The Church of England and Roman Catholic clergy, +the only missionary bodies in the country, met and dined with +our party, after which all adjourned to the treaty ground, where +the people had already assembled, and where all soon seated +themselves on the grass in front of the treaty tent—a large +marquee—the Indians being separated by a small space from the +half-breeds, who ranged themselves behind them, all conducting +themselves in the most sedate and orderly manner.</p> + +<p>Mr. Laird and the other Commissioners were seated along the open +front of the tent, and one could not but be impressed by the +scene, set as it was in a most beautiful environment of distant +mountains, waters, forests and meadows, all sweet and primeval, +and almost untouched by civilized man. The whites of The region +had also turned out to witness the scene, which, though lacking +the wild aspect of the old assemblages on the plains in the early +'seventies, had yet a character of its own of great interest, +and of the most hopeful promise.</p> + +<p>The crowd of Indians ranged before the marquee had lost all +semblance of wildness of the true type. Wild men they were, +in a sense, living as they did in the forest and on their great +waters. But it was plain that these people had achieved, without +any treaty at all, a stage of civilization distinctly in advance +of many of our treaty Indians to the south after twenty-five +years of education. Instead of paint and feathers, the scalp-lock, +the breech-clout, and the buffalo-robe, there presented itself a +body of respectable-looking men, as well dressed and evidently +quite as independent in their feelings as any like number of +average pioneers in the East. Indeed, I had seen there, in my +youth, many a time, crowds of white settlers inferior to these +in sedateness and self-possession. One was prepared, in this +wild region of forest, to behold some savage types of men; +indeed, I craved to renew the vanished scenes of old. But, +alas! one beheld, instead, men with well-washed, unpainted +faces, and combed and common hair; men in suits of ordinary +"store-clothes," and some even with "boiled" if not laundered +shirts. One felt disappointed, almost defrauded. It was not +what was expected, what we believed we had a right to expect, +after so much waggoning and tracking and drenching, and river +turmoil and trouble. This woeful shortcoming from bygone days +attended other aspects of the scene. Instead of fiery oratory and +pipes of peace—the stone calumets of old—the vigorous arguments, +the outbursts of passion, and close calls from threatened violence, +here was a gathering of commonplace men smoking briar-roots, +with treaty tobacco instead of "weed," and whose chiefs replied +to Mr. Laird's explanations and offers in a few brief and sensible +statements, varied by vigorous appeals to the common sense and +judgment, rather than the passions, of their people. It was a +disappointing, yet, looked at aright, a gratifying spectacle. +Here were men disciplined by good handling and native force out +of barbarism—of which there was little to be seen—and plainly +on the high road to comfort; men who led inoffensive and honest +lives, yet who expressed their sense of freedom and self-support +in their speech, and had in their courteous demeanour the +unmistakable air and bearing of independence. If provoked +by injustice, a very dangerous people this; but self-respecting, +diligent and prosperous in their own primitive calling, and +able to adopt agriculture, or any other pursuit, with a fair +hope of success when the still distant hour for it should arrive.</p> + +<p>The proceedings began with the customary distribution of tobacco, +and by a reference to the competent interpreters who had been +appointed by the Commission, men who were residents, and well +known to the Indians themselves, and who possessed their confidence. +The Indians had previously appointed as spokesman their Chief and +head-man, Keenooshayo and Moostoos, a worthy pair of brothers, +who speedily exhibited their qualities of good sense and judgment, +and, Keenooshayo in particular, a fine order of Indian eloquence, +which was addressed almost entirely to his own people, and which +is lost, I am sorry to say, in the account here set down.</p> + +<p>Mr. Laird then rose, and having unrolled his Commission, and +that of his colleagues, from the Queen, proceeded with his +proposals. He spoke as follows:</p> + +<p>"Red Brothers! we have come here to-day, sent by the Great Mother +to treat with you, and this is the paper she has given to us, and +is her Commission to us signed with her Seal, to show we have +authority to treat with you. The other Commissioners, who are +associated with me, and who are sitting here, are Mr. McKenna +and Mr. Ross and the Rev. Father Lacombe, who is with us to +act as counsellor and adviser. I have to say, on behalf of the +Queen and the Government of Canada, that we have come to make +you an offer. We have made treaties in former years with +all the Indians of the prairie, and from there to Lake Superior. +As white people are coming into your country, we have thought +it well to tell you what is required of you. The Queen wants +all the whites, half-breeds and Indians to be at peace with +one another, and to shake hands when they meet. The Queen's +laws must be obeyed all over the country, both by the whites +and the Indians. It is not alone that we wish to prevent Indians +from molesting the whites, it is also to prevent the whites from +molesting or doing harm to the Indians. The Queen's soldiers +are just as much for the protection of the Indians as for the +white man. The Commissioners made an appointment to meet you +at a certain time, but on account of bad weather on river and +lake, we are late, which we are sorry for, but are glad to meet +so many of you here to-day.</p> + +<p>"We understand stories have been told you, that if you made a +treaty with us you would become servants and slaves; but we wish +you to understand that such is not the case, but that you will +be just as free after signing a treaty as you are now. The treaty +is a free offer; take it or not, just as you please. If you +refuse it there is no harm done; we will not be bad friends +on that account. One thing Indians must understand, that if they +do not make a treaty they must obey the laws of the land—that +will be just the same whether you make a treaty or not; the +laws must be obeyed. The Queen's Government wishes to give the +Indians here the same terms as it has given all the Indians all +over the country, from the prairies to Lake Superior. Indians +in other places, who took treaty years ago, are now better off +than they were before. They grow grain and raise cattle like +the white people. Their children have learned to read and write.</p> + +<p>"Now, I will give you an outline of the terms we offer you. If you +agree to take treaty, every one this year gets a present of $12.00. +A family of five, man, wife and three children, will thus get $60.00; +a family of eight, $96.00; and after this year, and for every year +afterwards, $5.00 for each person forever. To such chiefs as you +may select, and that the Government approves of, we will give +$25.00 each year, and the counsellors $15.00 each. The chiefs +also get a silver medal and a flag, such as you see now at our +tent, right now as soon as the treaty is signed. Next year, as +soon as we know how many chiefs there are, and every three years +thereafter, each chief will get a suit of clothes, and every +counsellor a suit, only not quite so good as that of the chief. +Then, as the white men are coming in and settling in the country, +and as the Queen wishes the Indians to have lands of their own, +we will give one square mile, or 640 acres, to each family of +five; but there will be no compulsion to force Indians to go +into a reserve. He who does not wish to go into a band can get +160 acres of land for himself, and the same for each member of +his family. These reserves are holdings you can select when you +please, subject to the approval of the Government, for you might +select lands which might interfere with the rights or lands of +settlers. The Government must be sure that the land which you +select is in the right place. Then, again, as some of you may +want to sow grain or potatoes, the Government will give you +ploughs or harrows, hoes, etc., to enable you to do so, and +every spring will furnish you with provisions to enable you to +work and put in your crop. Again, if you do not wish to grow +grain, but want to raise cattle, the Government will give you +bulls and cows, so that you may raise stock. If you do not +wish to grow grain or raise cattle, the Government will furnish +you with ammunition for your hunt, and with twine to catch fish. +The Government will also provide schools to teach your children +to read and write, and do other things like white men and their +children. Schools will be established where there is a sufficient +number of children. The Government will give the chiefs axes +and tools to make houses to live in and be comfortable. Indians +have been told that if they make a treaty they will not be allowed +to hunt and fish as they do now. This is not true. Indians who +take treaty will be just as free to hunt and fish all over as +they now are.</p> + +<p>"In return for this the Government expects that the Indians will +not interfere with or molest any miner, traveller or settler. +We expect you to be good friends with every-one, and shake hands +with all you meet. If any whites molest you in any way, shoot +your dogs or horses, or do you any harm, you have only to report +the matter to the police, and they will see that justice is done +to you. There may be some things we have not mentioned, but these +can be mentioned later on. Commissioners Walker and Coté are +here for the half-breeds, who later on, if treaty is made with +you, will take down the names of half-breeds and their children, +and find out if they are entitled to scrip. The reason the +Government does this is because the half-breeds have Indian +blood in their veins, and have claims on that account. The +Government does not make treaty with them, as they live as +white men do, so it gives them scrip to settle their claims at +once and forever. Half-breeds living like Indians have the +chance to take the treaty instead, if they wish to do so. They +have their choice, but only after the treaty is signed. If +there is no treaty made, scrip cannot be given. After the +treaty is signed, the Commissioners will take up half-breed +claims. The first thing they will do is to give half-breed +settlers living on land 160 acres, if there is room to do so; +but if several are settled close together, the land will be +divided between them as fairly as possible. All, whether settled +or not, will be given scrip for land to the value of $240.00, +that is, all born up to the date of signing the treaty. They +can sell that scrip, that is, all of you can do so. They can +take, if they like, instead of this scrip for 240 acres, lands +where they like. After they have located their land, and got +their title, they can live on it, or sell part, or the whole +of it, as they please, but cannot sell the scrip. They must +locate their land, and get their title before selling.</p> + +<p>"These are the principal points in the offer we have to make +to you. The Queen owns the country, but is willing to acknowledge +the Indians' claims, and offers them terms as an offset to all +of them. We shall be glad to answer any questions, and make clear +any points not understood. We shall meet you again to-morrow, +after you have considered our offer, say about two o'clock, or +later if you wish. We have other Indians to meet at other places, +but we do not wish to hurry you. After this meeting you can go +to the Hudson's Bay fort, where our provisions are stored, and +rations will be issued to you of flour, bacon, tea and tobacco, +so that you can have a good meal and a good time. This is a free +gift, given with goodwill, and given to you whether you make a +treaty or not. It is a present the Queen is glad to make to you. +I am now done, and shall be glad to hear what any one has to say."</p> + +<p>KEENOOSHAYO (The Fish): "You say we are brothers. I cannot understand +how we are so. I live differently from you. I can only understand +that Indians will benefit in a very small degree from your offer. +You have told us you come in the Queen's name. We surely have also +a right to say a little as far as that goes. I do not understand +what you say about every third year."</p> + +<p>MR. MCKENNA: "The third year was only mentioned in connection with +clothing."</p> + +<p>KEENOOSHAYO: "Do you not allow the Indians to make their own +conditions, so that they may benefit as much as possible? Why I +say this is that we to-day make arrangements that are to last as +long as the sun shines and the water runs. Up to the present I +have earned my own living and worked in my own way for the Queen. +It is good. The Indian loves his way of living and his free life. +When I understand you thoroughly I will know better what I shall +do. Up to the present I have never seen the time when I could not +work for the Queen, and also make my own living. I will consider +carefully what you have said."</p> + +<p>MOOSTOOS (The Bull): "Often before now I have said I would carefully +consider what you might say. You have called us brothers. Truly +I am the younger, you the elder brother. Being the younger, if +the younger ask the elder for something, he will grant his request +the same as our mother the Queen. I am glad to hear what you have +to say. Our country is getting broken up. I see the white man +coming in, and I want to be friends. I see what he does, but it +is best that we should be friends. I will not speak any more. +There are many people here who may wish to speak."</p> + +<p>WAHPEEHAYO (White Partridge): "I stand behind this man's back" +(pointing to Keenooshayo). "I want to tell the Commissioners +there are two ways, the long and the short. I want to take the +way that will last longest."</p> + +<p>NEESNETASIS (The Twin): "I follow these two brothers, Moostoos and +Keenooshayo. When I understand better I shall be able to say more."</p> + +<p>MR. LAIRD: "We shall be glad to hear from some of the Sturgeon Lake +people."</p> + +<p>THE CAPTAIN (an old man): "I accept your offer. I am old and +miserable now. I have not my family with me here, but I accept +your offer."</p> + +<p>MR. LAIRD: "You will get the money for all your children under age, +and not married, just the same as if they were here."</p> + +<p>THE CAPTAIN: "I speak for all those in my part of the country."</p> + +<p>MR. LAIRD: "I am sorry the rest of your people are not here. +If here next year their claims will not be overlooked."</p> + +<p>THE CAPTAIN: "I am old now. It is indirectly through the Queen +that we have lived. She has supplied in a manner the sale shops +through which we have lived. Others may think I am foolish for +speaking as I do now. Let them think as they like. I accept. When +I was young I was an able man and made my living independently. +But now I am old and feeble and not able to do much."</p> + +<p>MR. ROSS: "I will just answer a few questions that have been put. +Keenooshayo has said that he cannot see how it will benefit you +to take treaty. As all the rights you now have will not be +interfered with, therefore anything you get in addition must +be a clear gain. The white man is bound to come in and open +up the country, and we come before him to explain the relations +that must exist between you, and thus prevent any trouble. You +say you have heard what the Commissioners have said, and how +you wish to live. We believe that men who have lived without +help heretofore can do it better when the country is opened +up. Any fur they catch is worth more. That comes about from +competition. You will notice that it takes more boats to +bring in goods to buy your furs than it did formerly. We think +that as the rivers and lakes of this country will be the principal +highways, good boatmen, like yourselves, cannot fail to make a +good living, and profit from the increase in traffic. We are +much pleased that you have some cattle. It will be the duty +of the Commissioners to recommend the Government, through the +Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs, to give you cattle +of a better breed. You say that you consider that you have a +right to say something about the terms we offer you. We offer +you certain terms, but you are not forced to take them. You +ask if Indians are not allowed to make a bargain. You must +understand there are always two to a bargain. We are glad you +understand the treaty is forever. If the Indians do as they are +asked we shall certainly keep all our promises. We are glad to +know that you have got on without any one's help, but you must +know times are hard, and furs scarcer than they used to be. +Indians are fond of a free life, and we do not wish to interfere +with it. When reserves are offered you there is no intention +to make you live on them if you do not want to, but, in years +to come, you may change your minds, and want these lands to +live on. The half-breeds of Athabasca are being more liberally +dealt with than in any other part of Canada. We hope you will +discuss our offer and arrive at a decision as soon as possible. +Others are now waiting for our arrival, and you, by deciding +quickly, will assist us to get to them."</p> + +<p>KEENOOSHAYO: "Have you all heard? Do you wish to accept? All who +wish to accept, stand up!"</p> + +<p>WENDIGO: "I have heard, and accept with a glad heart all I have heard."</p> + +<p>KEENOOSHAYO: "Are the terms good forever? As long as the sun shines +on us? Because there are orphans we must consider, so that there +will be nothing to be thrown up to us by our people afterwards. We +want a written treaty, one copy to be given to us, so we shall know +what we sign for. Are you willing to give means to instruct children +as long as the sun shines and water runs, so that our children +will grow up ever increasing in knowledge?"</p> + +<p>MR. LAIRD: "The Government will choose teachers according to the +religion of the band. If the band are pagans the Government will +appoint teachers who, if not acceptable, will be replaced by others. +About treaties lasting forever, I will just say that some Indians +have got to live so like the whites that they have sold their +lands and divided the money. But this only happens when the Indians +ask for it. Treaties last forever, as signed, unless the Indians +wish to make a change. I understand you all agree to the terms of +the Treaty. Am I right? If so, I will have the Treaty drawn up, +and to-morrow we will sign it. Speak, all those who do not agree!"</p> + +<p>MOOSTOOS: "I agree."</p> + +<p>KEENOOSHAYO: "My children, all who agree, stand up!"</p> + +<p>The Reverend Father Lacombe then addressed the Indians in substance +as follows: He reminded them that he was an old friend, and came +amongst them seven years ago, and, being now old, he came again to +fulfil another duty, and to assist the Commission to make a treaty. +"Knowing you as I do, your manners, your customs and language, I +have been officially attached to the Commission as adviser. To-day +is a great day for you, a day of long remembrance, and your children +hereafter will learn from your lips the events of to-day. I consented +to come here because I thought it was a good thing for you to take +the Treaty. Were it not in your interest I would not take part +in it. I have been long familiar with the Government's methods +of making treaties with the Saulteaux of Manitoba, the Crees of +Saskatchewan, and the Blackfeet, Bloods and Piegans of the Plains, +and advised these tribes to accept the offers of the Government. +Therefore, to-day, I urge you to accept the words of the Big Chief +who comes here in the name of the Queen. I have known him for +many years, and, I can assure you, he is just and sincere in +all his statements, besides being vested with authority to deal +with you. Your forest and river life will not be changed by +the Treaty, and you will have your annuities, as well, year +by year, as long as the sun shines and the earth remains. +Therefore I finish my speaking by saying, Accept!"</p> + +<p>The chiefs and counsellors stood up, and requested all the +Indians to do so also as a mark of acceptance of the Government's +conditions. Father Lacombe was thanked by several for having come +so far, though so very old, to visit them and speak to them, +after which the meeting adjourned until the following day.</p> + +<p>At three p.m. on Wednesday, the 21st, the discussion was resumed +by Mr. Laird, who, after a few preliminary remarks read the +Treaty, which had been drafted by the Commissioners the previous +evening. Chief Keenooshayo arose and made a speech, followed by +Moostoos, both assenting to the terms, when suddenly, and to the +surprise of all, the chief, who had again begin to address the +Indians, perceiving gestures of dissent from his people, suddenly +stopped and sat down. This looked critical; but, after a somewhat +lengthy discussion, everything was smoothed over, and the chief +and head men entered the tent and signed the Treaty after the +Commissioners, thus confirming, for this portion of the country, +the great Treaty which is intended to cover the whole northern +region up to the sixtieth parallel of north latitude. The +satisfactory turn of the Lesser Slave Lake Treaty, it was felt, +would have a good effect elsewhere, and that, upon hearing of +it at the various treaty points to the west and north, the Indians +would be more inclined to expedite matters, and to close with +the Commissioner's proposals. <span class="footnote">[The foregoing report of the Treaty +discussions is necessarily much abridged, being simply a transcript +of brief notes taken at the time. The utterances particularly of +Keenooshayo, but also of his brother, were not mere harangues +addressed to the "groundlings," but were grave statements marked by +self-restraint, good sense and courtesy, such as would have done no +discredit to a well-bred white man. They furthered affairs greatly, +and in two days the Treaty was discussed and signed, in singular +contrast with treaty-making on the plains in former years.]</span></p> + +<p>The text of the Treaty itself, which may be of interest to +the reader, will be found in full in the Appendix, page 471.</p> + +<p>The first and most important step having been taken, the other +essential adhesions had now to be effected. To save time and +wintering in the country, the Treaty Commission separated, +Messrs. Ross and McKenna leaving on the 22nd for Fort Dunvegan +and St. John, whilst Mr. Laird set out shortly afterwards for +Vermilion and Fond du Lac, on Lake Athabasca. He reached Peace +River Crossing on the 30th, and met there, next day, a few Beaver +Indians and the Crees of the region. The Beaver chief, who was +present, did not adhere, saying that his band was at Fort Dunvegan, +and that he could not get there in time. The date of the St. John +Treaty had been fixed for the 21st of June, but, owing to the +detentions described, the appointment could not be kept, and word +was therefore sent to the Indians to stay where they were until +they could be met. But when the Commissioners were within twenty-five +miles of the Fort they got a letter from the Hudson's Bay Company's +agent telling them that the Indians had eaten up all the provisions +there, and had left for their hunting-grounds, with no hope of +their coming together again that season. They therefore returned +to Fort Dunvegan, and took the adhesion of some Beaver Indians, +and then left for Lower Peace River. On the 8th July, Mr. Laird +secured the adhesion of the Crees and Beavers at Fort Vermilion, +and Messrs. Ross and McKenna of those at Little Red River, the +headman there refusing to sign at first because, he said, "he +had a divine inspiration to the contrary"! This was followed by +adhesions taken by the latter Commissioners, on the 13th, from +the Crees and Chipewyans at Fort Chipewyan.</p> + +<p>"Here it was," Mr. McKenna writes me, "that the chief asked for +a railway—the first time in the history of Canada that the red +man demanded as a condition of cession that steel should be laid +into his country. He evidently understood the transportation +question, for a railway, he said, by bringing them into closer +connection with the market, would enhance the value of what they +had to sell, and decrease the cost of what they had to buy. He +had a striking object-lesson in the fact that flour was $12 +a sack at the Fort. These Chipewyans lost no time in flowery +oratory, but came at once to business, and kept us, myself +in particular, on tenterhooks for two hours. I never felt so +relieved as when the rain of questions ended, and, satisfied +by our answers, they acquiesced in the cession."</p> + +<p>Next morning these Commissioners left for Smith's Landing, and, +on the 17th, made treaty with the Indians of Great Slave Lake. +Meanwhile Mr. Laird had proceeded to Fond du Lac, at the eastern +end of Lake Athabasca, and there, on the 27th, the Chipewyans +adhered, whilst Messrs. Ross and McKenna, in order to treat +with the Indians at Fort McMurray and Wahpoośkow, separated. +The latter secured the Chipewyans and Crees at the former post, +and Mr. Ross the Crees at Wahpoośkow, both adjustments, by a +coincidence, being made on the same day.</p> + +<p>This completed the Treaty of 1899, known as No. 8, the most +important of all since the Great Treaty of 1876.</p> + +<p>The work of the Commission being now over, its members prepared +to leave the country. Messrs. Ross and McKenna set out for Athabasca +Landing, whilst Mr. Laird accompanied us to Pelican Rapids, but left +us there and pushed on, like the others, for home.</p> + +<p>There were, of course, many Indians who did not or could not turn +up at the various treaty points that year, viz., the Beavers of St. +John, the Crees of Sturgeon Lake, the Slaves of Hay River, who should +have come to Vermilion, and the Dog-Ribs, Yellow-Knives, Slaves, +and Chipewyans, who should have been treated with at Fort Resolution, +on Great Slave Lake.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, a special commission was issued to Mr. J. A. Macrae, +of the Indian Office in Ottawa, who met the Indians the following +year at the points named, and in May, June, and July, secured +the adhesion of over 1,200 souls, making, with subsequent adhesions, +a total of 3,568 souls to the 30th June, 1906.</p> + +<p>The largest numbers were at Forts Resolution, Vermilion, Fond +du Lac, and Lesser Slave Lake, the latter ranking fourth in +the list. Of course, there are still to be treated with the +Indians of the Mackenzie River and the Esquimaux of the Arctic +coast. But Treaty Eight covers the most valuable portions of +the Northern Anticlinal, though this is a conjecture, as the +resources of the lower Mackenzie Basin, and even of the Barren +Lands, are only now becoming known, and may yet prove to be of +great value. Bishop Grouard told me that at their Mission at +Fort Providence, potatoes, turnips and barley ripened, and also +wheat when tried, though this, he thought, was uncertain. I have +also heard Chief-factor Camsell speak quite boastfully of his +tomatoes at Fort Simpson. As a matter of fact, little is known +practically as to the bearing of the climate and long summer +sunshine on agriculture in the Mackenzie District. But be that +region what it may, there has been already ceded an empire in +itself, extending, roughly speaking, from the 54th to the 60th +parallel of north latitude, and from the 106th to the 130th degree +of west longitude. In this domain there is ample room for millions +of people; and, as I must now return to the Half-breed Commission +on Lesser Slave Lake, I shall give, as we go, as fair a picture +as I can of its superficial features and the inducements it +offers to the immigrant.</p> + +<h3 class="chap-num" id="chap04">Chapter IV</h3> +<h3>The Half-Breed Scrip Commission.</h3> + +<p>The adjustment with the half-breeds depended, of course, upon +a successful treaty with the Indians, and, this having been +concluded, the latter at once, upon receipt of their payments, +left for their forests and fisheries, leaving the half-breeds +in full possession of the field.</p> + +<p>It was estimated that over a hundred families were encamped around +us, some in tepees, some in tents, and some in the open air, the +willow copses to the north affording shelter, as well, to a few +doubtful members of Slave Lake society, and to at least a thousand +dogs. The "scrip tent," as it was called, a large marquee fitted +up as an office, had been pitched with the other tents when the +camp was made, and in this the half-breeds held a crowded meeting +to talk over the terms, and to collate their own opinions as to +the form of scrip issue they most desired. In this they were +singularly unanimous, and, in spite of advice to the contrary +urged upon them in the strongest manner by Father Lacombe, they +agreed upon "the bird in the hand"—viz., upon cash scrip or +nothing. This could be readily turned into money, for in the +train of traders, etc., who followed up the treaty payments, +there were also buyers from Winnipeg and Edmonton, well supplied +with cash, to purchase all the scrip that offered, at a great +reduction, of course, from face value. Whether the half-breeds +were wise or foolish it is needless to say. One thing was plain, +they had made up their minds. Under the circumstances it was +impossible to gainsay their assertion that they were the best +judges of their own needs. All preliminaries having at last been +settled, the taking of declarations and evidence began on the +23rd of June, and, shortly afterwards, the issue of convertible +scrip certificates, or scrip certificates for land as required, +took place to the parties who had proved their title.</p> + +<p>This was a slow process, involving in every case a careful search +of the five elephant folios containing the records of the bygone +issues of scrip in Manitoba and the organized Territories.</p> + +<p>It was necessary in order to prevent the issue of scrip to parties +who had already received it elsewhere. But to the credit of the +Lesser Slave Lake community, few efforts were made to "come in" +again, not one in fact which was a clear attempt at fraud, or +which could not be accounted for by false agency. Indeed, a high +tribute might well be paid here to the honesty, not only of this +but of all the communities, both Indian and half-breed, throughout +these remote territories. We found valuable property exposed, +everywhere, evidently without fear of theft. There was a looser +feeling regarding debts to traders, which we were told were sometimes +ignored, partly, perhaps, owing to the traders' heavy profits, but +mainly through failure in the hunt and a lack of means. But theft +such as white men practice was a puzzle to these people, amongst +whom it was unknown.</p> + +<p>The most noticeable feature of the scrip issue was the never-ending +stream of applicants, a surprising evidence of the growth of +population in this remote wilderness. Its most interesting +feature lay in the peculiarities and manners of the people +themselves. They were unquestionably half-breeds, and had +received Christian names, and most of them had houses of their +own, and, though hunters, fishermen and trippers, their families +lived comparatively settled lives. Yet the glorious instinct +of the Indian haunted them. As a rule they had been born on the +"pitching-track," in the forest, or on the prairies—in all +sorts of places, they could not say exactly where—and when +they were born was often a matter of doubt as well. <span class="footnote">[With reference +to these nondescript birthplaces, the wonderful ease of parturition +among Indian women may be referred to here. This is common, probably, +to all primitive races, but is perhaps more marked amongst Indian +mothers than any other. The event may happen in a canoe, on the +trail, at any place, or at any moment, without hindering the ordinary +progress of a travelling party, which is generally overtaken by the +mother in a few hours. But nothing I heard here equalled in grotesque +circumstances occurrences, whose truth I can vouch for, many years +ago on the Saskatchewan River. In 1874, if I remember aright, a great +spring freshet in the North Branch was accompanied by a tremendous +ice-jam, which backed the water up, and flooded the river bank so +suddenly that many Indians were drowned. On an island below Prince +Albert, a woman, to save her life, had to climb a neighbouring tree, +and gave birth to a child amongst the branches. The jam broke, and, +wonderful to say, both mother and child got down to firm ground +alive. Another case, even more gruesome, happened on the Lower +Saskatchewan not so many years ago. A woman and her husband were +hastening on snowshoes from their winter camp to the river, in order +to share in the usual Christmas bounty and festivities at the +Hudson's Bay Company's post. The woman was seized with incipient +labour, and darting from her husband, with whom she had been +quarrelling on the way, pushed on, and, in a frozen marsh, amongst +bulrushes, on a bitterly cold night, was delivered of a child. +Grumous as she was, she picked herself up, and, with incredible +nerve, walked ten miles to the Pas, carrying her live infant with +her, wrapped in a rabbit-skin robe.]</span> It was not in February, but in +<i>Meeksuo pésim</i>, "The month when the eagles return"; not in August, +but in Oghpáho pésim, "The month when birds begin to fly." When +called upon they could give their Christian names and answer to +William or Magloire, to Mary or Madaline, but, in spite of priest or +parson, their home name was a Cree one. In many cases the white +forefather's name had been dropped or forgotten, and a Cree surname +had taken its place, as, for example, in the name Louis Maskegósis, +or Madeline Noóskeyah. Some of the Cree names were in their meaning +simply grotesque. Mishoóstiquan meant "The man who stands with the +red hair"; Waupunékapow, "He who stands till morning." One of the +applicants was Kanawatchaguáyo, or "The ghost-keeper."</p> + +<p><span class="footnote">[It may be mentioned here that this half-breed's "inner" name, so to +speak, meant "The Ghost-Keeper," for the name he gave, following +an Indian usage, was not the real one. Kanawatchaguáyo was the one +given by the interpreter, but accompanied by the translation of +the inner name, to wit, "The Ghost-Keeper." This curious custom is +more fully referred to in a forthcoming work on Indian folk-lore, +traditions, legends, usages, methods and manner of life, etc., by +Mrs. F. H. Paget, of Ottawa. This lady is an expert Cree scholar, +and her work, which I have had the pleasure of hearing her read, is +the result of diligent research and of ample knowledge of Indian +life and character.]</span></p> + +<p>But others were strikingly poetical, particularly the female +names. Payúcko geesigo, "One in the Skies"; Pesawakoona kapesisk, +"The silent snow in falling forming signs or symbols"; Matyatse +wunoguayo, or rather, for this is a doubtful name, Powástia ka +nunaghquánetungh, "Listener to the unseen rapids"; Kese koo +ápeoo, "She sits in heaven," were all the names of applicants +for scrips, and many others could be added of like tenor. In a +word, the Christian or baptismal names have not displaced the +native ones, as they did in Wales and elsewhere, and amongst +some of our far Eastern Indians. But there were terrifying and +repulsive names as well, such as Sese kenápik kaow apeoo, "She +sits like a rattle-snake"; and one individual rejoiced in the +appalling surname of "Grand Bastard." These instances serve +to illustrate the tendency of half-breed nomenclature at the +lake towards the mother's side. Here, too, there was no reserve +in giving the family name; it was given at once when asked for, +and there was no shyness otherwise in demeanour. There was a +readiness, for example, to be photographed which was quite +distinctive. In this connection it may interest the reader +to recall some of the names of girls given by the same race +thousands of miles away in the East. Take those recorded by +Mrs. Jameson <span class="footnote">["Winter Studies and Summer Rambles," 1835.]</span> +during her visit to Mrs. McMurray and the Schoolcrafts, on the +Island of Mackinac, over seventy years ago: Oba baumwawa geezegoquay, +"The Sounds which the stars make rushing through the skies"; Zaga +see goquay, "Sunbeams breaking through a cloud"; Wah́sagewanoquay, +"Woman of the bright foam." The people so far apart, yet their home +names so similarly figurative! The education of the Red Indian +lies in his intimate contact with nature in all her phases—a good +education truly, which serves him well. But, awe-struck always by +the mysterious beauty of the world around him, his mind reflects it +instinctively in his Nature-worship and his system of names.</p> + +<p>In speaking of the "Lakers" I refer, of course, to the primitive +people of the region, and not to half-breed incomers from Manitoba or +elsewhere. There were a few patriarchal families into which all the +others seemed to dovetail in some shape or form. The Noóskeyah family +was one of these, also the Gladu, the Cowitoreille, <span class="footnote">[A corruption, +no doubt, of "Courtoreille."]</span> and the Calahaisen. The collateral +branches of these families constituted the main portion of the native +population, and yet inbreeding did not seem to have deteriorated the +stock, for a healthier-looking lot of young men, women and children +it would be hard to find, or one more free from scrofula. There +were instances, too, among these people, of extreme old age; one +in particular which from confirmatory evidence, particularly the +declarations of descendants, seemed quite authentic. This was a woman +called Catherine Bisson—the daughter of Baptiste Bisson and an +Indian woman called Iskwao—who was born on New Year's Day, 1793, at +Lesser Slave Lake, and had spent all her life there since. She had a +numerous progeny which she bore to Kisiśkakápo, "The man who stands +still." She was now blind, and was partly led, partly carried into +our tent—a small, thin, wizened woman, with keen features and a +tongue as keen, which cackled and joked at a great rate with the +crowd around her. It was almost awesome to look at this weird piece +of antiquity, who was born in the Reign of Terror, and was a young +woman before the war of 1812. She was quite lively yet, so far as her +wits went, and seemed likely to go on living. <span class="footnote">[This very old woman +died, I believe, at Lesser Slave Lake only last spring (1908). The +date of her birth was correct, and we had good reason to believe it, +she must have been far over 100 years old when she died.]</span></p> + +<p>There were many good points in the disposition of the "Lakers" +generally, both young and old. Their kindness and courtesy to +strangers and to each other was marked, and profanity was unknown. +Indeed, if one heard bad language at all it was from the lips of +some Yankee or Canadian teamster, airing his superior knowledge +of the world amongst the natives.</p> + +<p>The place, in fact, surprised one—no end of buggies, buckboards and +saddles, and brightly dressed women, after a not altogether antique +fashion; the men, too, orderly, civil, and obliging. Infants were +generally tucked into the comfortable moss-bag, but boys three or +four years old were seen tugging at their mothers' breasts, and all +fat and generally good-looking. The whole community seemed well fed, +and were certainly well clad—some girls extravagantly so, the love +of finery being the ruling trait here as elsewhere. One lost, indeed, +all sense of remoteness, there was such a well-to-do, familiar air +about the scene, and such a bustle of clean-looking people. How all +this could be supported by fur it was difficult to see, but it must +have been so, for there was, as yet, little or no farming amongst the +old "Lakers." It was, of course, a great fur country, and though +the fur-bearing animals were sensibly diminishing, yet the prices +of peltries had risen by competition, whilst supplies had been +correspondingly cheapened. It was a good marten country, and, as this +fur was the fad of fashion, and brought an extravagant price, the +animal, like the beaver, was threatened with extinction, the more so +as the rabbits were then in their period of scarcity.</p> + +<p>There were other aspects of Lake life which there is neither +space nor inclination to describe. If some features of "advanced +civilization" had been anticipated there, it was simply another +proof that extremes meet.</p> + +<p>Whatever else was hidden, however, there was one thing omnipresent, +namely, the mongrel dog. It was hopeless to explore the origin of an +animal which seemed to draw from all sources, including the wolf and +fox, and whose appetite stopped at nothing, but attacked old shirts, +trousers, dunnage-bags, fry-pans, and even the outfit of a geologist, +to appease the sacred rage of hunger.</p> + +<p>It was believed that over a thousand of these dogs, mainly used +in winter to haul fish, surrounded our tent, and when it is said +that an ordinary half-breed family harboured from fifteen to twenty +of the tribe, there is no exaggeration in the estimate. They were +of all shapes, sizes and colours, and, though very civil to man, +from whom they got nothing but kicks and stones, they kept up a +constant row amongst themselves.</p> + +<p>To see a scrimmage of fifty or sixty of them on land or in the +water, where they went daily to fish, was a scene to be remembered. +They did not bark, but loped through the woods, which were the camp's +latrines, as scavengers by day, and howled in unison at regular +intervals by night; for there was a sort of horrible harmony in +the performance, and when the tom-toms of the gamblers accompanied +it on all sides, and the pounding of dancers' feet—for in this +enchanted land nobody ever seemed to go to bed—the saturnalia +was complete.</p> + +<p>It was indeed a gala time for the happy-go-lucky Lakers, and the +effects of the issue and sale of scrip certificates were soon +manifest in our neighbourhood. The traders' booths were thronged +with purchasers, also the refreshment tents where cigars and ginger +ale were sold; and, in tepees improvised from aspen saplings, the +sporting element passed the night at some interesting but easy +way of losing money, illuminating their game with guttering +candles, minus candlesticks, and presenting a picture worthy +of an impressionist's pencil.</p> + +<p>But the two dancing floors were the chief attraction. These also +had been walled and roofed with leafy saplings, their fronts open +to the air, and, thronged as they generally were, well repaid a +visit. Here the comely brunettes, in moccasins or slippers, their +luxuriant hair falling in a braided queue behind their backs, +served not only as tireless partners, but as foils to the young +men, who were one and all consummate masters of step-dancing, an +art which, I am glad to say, was still in vogue in these remote +parts. "French-fours" and the immortal "Red River Jig" were +repeated again and again, and, though a tall and handsome young +half-breed, who had learned in Edmonton, probably, the airs and +graces of the polite world, introduced cotillions and gave "the +calls" with vigorous precision, yet his efforts were not thoroughly +successful. Snarls arose, and knots and confusion, which he did +his best to undo. But it was evident that the hearts of the dancers +were not in it. No sooner was the fiddler heard lowering his +strings for the time-honoured "Jig" than eyes brightened, and +feet began to beat the floor, including, of course, those of +the fiddler himself, who put his whole soul into that weird and +wonderful melody, whose fantastic glee is so strangely blended +with an indescribable master-note of sadness. The dance itself +is nothing; it might as well be called a Rigadoon or a Sailor's +Hornpipe, so far as the steps go. The tune is everything; it is +amongst the immortals. Who composed it? Did it come from Normandy, +the ancestral home of so many French Canadians and of French +Canadian song? Or did some lonely but inspired voyageur, on the +banks of Red River, sighing for Detroit or Trois Rivières—for +the joys and sorrows of home—give birth to its mingled chords in +the far, wild past?</p> + +<p>As I looked on, many memories recurred to me of scenes like this in +which I had myself taken part in bygone days—<i>Eheu! fugaces</i>—in +old Red River and the Saskatchewan; and, with these in my heart, +I retired to my tent, and gradually fell asleep to the monotonous +sound of the familiar yet inexplicable air.</p> + +<h3 class="chap-num" id="chap05">Chapter V</h3> +<h3>Resources Of Lesser Slave Lake Region.</h3> + +<p>It was expected that the sergeant of the Mounted Police stationed +at the Lake would have set out by boat on the 3rd for Athabasca +Landing, taking with him the witnesses in the Weeghteko case—a +case not common amongst the Lesser Slave Lake Indians, but which +was said to be on the increase. One Pahaýo—"The Pheasant"—had +gone mad and threatened to kill and eat people. Of course, this +was attributed by his tribe to the Weeghteko, by which he was +believed to be possessed, a cannibal spirit who inhabits the +human heart in the form of a lump of ice, which must be got rid +of by immersion of the victim in boiling water, or by pouring +boiling fat down his throat. This failing, they destroy the man-eater, +rip him up to let out the evil spirit, cut off his head, and then +pin his four quarters to the ground, all of which was done by his +tribe in the case of Pahaýo. Napesósus—"The Little Man"—struck +the first blow, Moośtoos followed, and the poor lunatic was soon +dispatched. Arrests were ultimately made, and a boatload of +witnesses was about to leave for Athabasca Landing, <i>en route</i> to +attend the trial at Edmonton, the first of its kind, I think, +on record.</p> + +<p>There can be no doubt that such slayings are effected to safeguard +the tribe. Indians have no asylums, and, in order to get a dangerous +lunatic out of the way, can only kill him. There would therefore be +no hangings. But, now that the Indians and ourselves were coming +under treaty obligations, it was necessary that an end should be +put to such proceedings.</p> + +<p>Yet the reader must not be too severe upon the Indian for his +treatment of the Weeghteko. He attributes the disease to the evil +spirit, acts accordingly, and slays the victim. But an old author, +Mrs. Jameson, tells us that in her day in Upper Canada lunatics were +allowed to stray into the forest to roam uncared for, and perish +there, or were thrust into common jails. One at Niagara, she says, +was chained up for four years.</p> + +<p>Aside from such cases of madness, which have often resulted in the +killing and eating of children, etc., and which arouse the most +superstitious horror in the minds of all Indians, the "savages" of +this region are the most inoffensive imaginable. They have always +made a good living by hunting and trapping and fishing, and I believe +when the time comes they will adapt themselves much more readily and +intelligently to farming and stock-raising than did the Indians to +the south. The region is well suited to both industries, and will +undoubtedly attract white settlers in due time.</p> + +<p>The fisheries in Lesser Slave Lake have always been counted the best +in all Athabasca. The whitefish, to be sure, are diminishing towards +the head of the lake, but it is possible that this is owing to some +deficiency in their usual supply of food in that quarter. Just as +birds and wild-fowl return, if not disturbed, to their accustomed +breeding-places, so, it is said, the fishes, year by year, drop and +impregnate their spawn upon the same gravelly shallows. The food of +the whitefish in the lake is partly the worms bred from the eggs of +a large fly resembling the May-fly of the East. This worm has probably +decreased in the upper part of the lake, and therefore the fish go +farther down for food. There they are exceedingly numerous, an +evidence of which is the fact that the Roman Catholic Mission alone +secured 17,000 fine whitefish the previous fall. Properly protected +this lake will be a permanent source of supply to natives and incomers +for many years to come.</p> + +<p>Stock-raising was already becoming a feature of the region. Some +three miles above the Heart River is Buffalo Lake, an enlargement +of that stream, and around and above this, as also along the +Wyaweekamon, or "Passage between the Lakes," are immense hay +meadows, capable of winter feeding thousands of cattle. The view +of these vast meadows from the Hudson's Bay post, or from the +Roman Catholic Mission close by, is magnificent.</p> + +<p>These buildings are situated above Buffalo Lake, upon a lofty +bank, with the Heart River in the foreground; and the great +meadows, threaded by creeks and inlets, stretching for miles +to the south of them, are one of the finest sights of the kind +in the country.</p> + +<p>In the far south was the line of forest, and to the eastward a +flat-topped mountain, called by the Crees Waskahékum Kahassástakee— +"The House Butte." Near this mountain is the Swan River, which joins +the Lesser Slave Lake below the Narrows, and upon which, we were +told, were rich and extensive prairies, and abundance of coal of a +good quality. To the west were the prairies of the Salt River, well +watered by creeks, with a large extent of good land now being settled +on, and where wheat ripens perfectly.</p> + +<p>There are other available areas of open country on Prairie River, +which enters Buffalo Lake at its south-western end, and on which +also there is coal, so that prairie land is not entirely lacking.</p> + +<p>Though emphatically <i>now</i> a region of forest, there is reason to +believe that vast areas at present under timber were once prairies, +fed over by innumerable herds of buffalo, whose paths and wallows +can still be traced in the woods. Indeed, very large trees are +found growing right across those paths, and this fact, not to speak +of the recollections, or traditions, of very old people, points to +extensive prairies at one time rather than to an entirely wooded +country.</p> + +<p>Much of the forest soil is excellent, and the land has only to +be cleared to furnish good farms. Indeed, it needs no stretch of +imagination to foresee in future years a continuous line of them +from Edmonton to the lake, along the three hundred miles of country +intersected by the trail laid out by the Territorial Government.</p> + +<p>As for the wheat problem, it is not at all likely that the Roman +Catholic Mission would put up a flour mill, as they were then doing, +if it was not a wheat country. Bishop Clût assured me that potatoes +in their garden reached three and a half pounds' weight in some +instances, and turnips twenty-five pounds.</p> + +<p>The kind people of both this and the Church of England Mission +generously supplied our table with vegetables and salads, and we +craved no better. Chives, lettuce, radishes, cress and onions +were full flavoured, fresh and delicious, and quite as early +as in Manitoba. Being a timber country, lumber was, of course, +plentiful, there being two sawmills at work cutting lumber, +which sold, undressed, at $25 to $30 a thousand.</p> + +<p>The whole country has a fresh and attractive look, and one could +not desire a finer location than can be had almost anywhere +along its streams and within its delightful and healthy borders. +And yet this region is but a portal to the vaster one beyond, to +the Unjigah, the mighty Peace River, to be described hereafter.</p> + +<p>The make-weight against settlement may be almost summed up in the +words transport and markets. The country is there, and far beyond +it, too; but so long as there is abundance of prairie land to the +south, and no railway facilities, it would be unwise for any large +body of settlers, especially with limited means, to venture so far. +The small local demand for beef and grain might soon be overtaken, +and though stock can be driven, yet three hundred miles of forest +trail is a long way to drive. Still, pioneers take little thought +of such conditions, and already they were dropping in in twos and +threes as they used to do in the old days in Red River Settlement, +lured by the wilderness perhaps to privation, but entering a +country much of which is suited by nature for the support of man.</p> + +<p>The best reflection is that there is a really good country to +fall back upon when the prairies to the south are taken up. +Swamps and muskegs abound, but good land also abounds, and the +time will come when the ring of the Canadian axe will be heard +throughout these forests, and when multitudes of comfortable +homes will be hewn out of what are the almost inaccessible +wildernesses of to-day.</p> + +<p>By the end of the first week in July the issue of scrip certificates +began to fall off, though the declarations were still numerous. +But land was in sight; that is to say, our release and departure +for Peace River, which we were all very anxious, in fact burning, +to see.</p> + +<p>By this time there was, of course, much money afloat amongst the +people, which was rapidly finding its way into the traders' +pockets. There was a "blind pig," too, doing business in the +locality, though we could not discover where, as everybody +professed entire ignorance of anything of the kind. The fragrant +breath and hilarity of so many, however, betrayed its existence, +and, as a crowning evidence, before sunrise on the 6th, we were +all awakened by an uproarious row amongst a tipsy crowd on the +common.</p> + +<p>The disturbance, of course, awakened the dogs, if, indeed, those +wonderful creatures ever slept, and soon a prolonged howl, +issuing from a thousand throats, made the racket complete. It +seemed to our listening ears, for we stuck to our beds, to be +a promiscuous fight, larded with imprecations in broken English, +the phrase "goddam" being repeated in the most comical way. We +expected to see a lot of badly bruised men in the morning, but +nothing of the kind! Nobody was hurt. It proved to be a very +bloodless affair, like the scrimmages of the dogs themselves, +full of sound and fury signifying nothing.</p> + +<h3 class="chap-num" id="chap06">Chapter VI</h3> +<h3>On The Trail To Peace River.</h3> + +<p>By the afternoon of the 12th we had finished our work at the lake, +and in the evening left the scene of so much amusement, and its +lively and intelligent people, not without regret. Having said +good-bye to Bishop Clût and his clergy, and to the Hudson's Bay +Company's people, and others, we passed on to Salt Creek, which +we crossed at dusk, and then to the South Heart River—Otaýe +Sepe—where we camped for the night. This affluent of the lake has +a broad but sluggish current, its grassy banks sloping gently to +the water's edge, like some Ontario river—the beau ideal of a pike +stream. The Church of England mission was established here in charge +of the Reverend Mr. Holmes, who had shown us every kindness during +our long stay. As boats can ascend in high water to this point, the +Hudson's Bay Company had a couple of large warehouses close by, +standing alone, and filled with all kinds of goods. The trail led +for many miles up a long, easy ascent, through a timber country, to +an upper plateau, with, after passing the Heart River, occasional +small patches of prairie on the wayside. The plateau itself is the +anticlinal down which the North Heart flows to Peace River, which it +joins at the crossing.</p> + +<p>The trail so far had been good, but after crossing Slippery Creek +it proved to be almost a continuous mud-hole, due to its extreme +narrowness and the wet weather, closely bordered, as much of it was, +by dense forests. It revealed a good farming country, however, free +from stones, and the soil a rich, loamy clay throughout. It was well +timbered, in some places, with the finest white poplar I had yet +seen. The grass was luxuriant, and the region teemed with +tiger-lilies, yarrow, and the wild rose.</p> + +<p>The Little Prairie, as it is called, is really a lovely region, +in appearance resembling the Saskatchewan country. There was an +old Hudson's Bay cattle station here, at that time deserted, and +here, too, we were charmed with a mirage of indescribable beauty, +an enchanting portal to the mighty Peace, which we reached about +mid-day on the 15th of July.</p> + +<p>The view up the Peace River from the high prairie level is +singularly beautiful, the river disclosing a series of reaches, +like inland lakes, far to the west, whilst from the south comes +the immense valley of the Heart, and, farther up, the Smoky River, +a great tributary which drains a large extent of prairie country +mixed with timber.</p> + +<p>To the north spreads upward, and backward to its summit, the vast +bank of the river, varied as to surface by rounded bare hills and +valleys and flats sprinkled with aspens, cherries, and saskatoons, +the latter loaded with ripe fruit.</p> + +<p>The banks of the Peace River are a country in themselves, in +which, particularly on the north side, numerous homesteads might +be, and indeed have been, carved out. Descending to the river, +we found a Hudson's Bay Company and Police post. The river here +is about a third of a mile wide, and was in freshet, with a +current, we thought, of about six miles an hour.</p> + +<p>At Smoky River we met a couple of prospectors, Mr. Tryon, a nephew +of the ill-fated Admiral, and Mr. Cooper Blachford, down from the +Poker Flat mining-camp, this side the Finlay Rapids, in the Selwyn +Mountains. They reached that camp by way of Ashcroft, B.C., in +twenty-two days, the Peace River route being very much longer and +more difficult. They described the camp there as a promising one, +with much gold-bearing quartz in sight, but the cost of provisions +and the extreme difficulty of development under the circumstances +held it back.</p> + +<p>There being but a few half-breeds here, we crossed the river, and +decided to go on to Fort Dunvegan, and on our return complete our +scrip issue at the Landing; so, partly on horseback and partly by +waggon, we made our way to our first camp. The trail lay along +and up and down the immense bank of the river, debouching at one +place at the site of old Fort McLeod, and passing the fine St. +Germain farm, with as beautiful fields of yellowing wheat as one +would wish to see.</p> + +<p>Here we got an abundant supply of vegetables, and in this ride our +first taste of the Peace River mosquito—or, rather, that animal +got its first taste of us. It is needless to dwell upon this pest. +Like the fleas in Italy, it has been overdone in description, +and yet beggars it.</p> + +<p>All along the trail were old buffalo paths and willows. Indeed, we +saw them everywhere we went on land, showing how numerous those +animals were in times past. In 1793 Sir Alexander Mackenzie describes +them as grazing in great numbers along these very banks, the calves +frisking about their dams, and moose and red deer were equally +numerous. In 1828 Sir George Simpson made a canoe journey to the +Coast by way of this river, and they were still very numerous. The +existing tradition is that, some sixty years ago, a winter occurred +of unexampled severity and depth of snow, in which nearly all the +herds perished, and never recovered their footing on the upper river. +The wood buffalo still exists on Great Slave River, but, where we +were, the only memorials of the animal were its paths and wallows, +and its bones half-buried in the fertile earth.</p> + +<p>On the morning of the 17th we topped the crest of the bank, and +found ourselves at once in a magnificent prairie country, which +swept northward, varied by beautiful belts of timber, as far as +Bear Lake, to which we made a detour, then westerly to Old Wives +Lake—Nootoóquay Sakaigon—and on to our night camp at Burnt +River, twenty-two miles from Dunvegan. The great prairie is as +flat as a table, and is the exact counterpart of Portage Plains, +in Manitoba, or a number of them, with the addition of belts and +beautiful islands of timber, the soil being a loamy clay, unmistakably +fertile. Nothing could excel the beauty of this region, not even +the fairest portions of Manitoba or Saskatchewan.</p> + +<p>On the 18th we finished our drive over a like beautiful prairie, +slightly rolling, dotted with similar clumps of timber like a +great park, and carpeted with ripe strawberries and flowers, +including the wild mignonette, the lupin, and the phlox.</p> + +<p>Descending a very long and crooked ravine, we reached the river +flat at last, upon which is situated Fort Dunvegan, called after +the stronghold of the McLeods of Skye, but alas! with no McCrimmon +to welcome us with his echoing pipes! Chief-factor McDonald, in +his scanty journal of Sir George Simpson's canoe voyage in 1828 +from Hudson's Bay to the Pacific, does not give the date at +which this post was established, but mentions its abandonment +in 1823, owing to the murder of a Mr. Hughes and four men at +Fort St. John by the Beaver Indians. It had been re-established +by Chief-trader Campbell. Simpson, Mr. McDonald, and Mr. +McGillivray, who had embarked at Fort Chipewyan, where Sir +George himself had served his clerkship, spent a day at Dunvegan +in August, resting and getting fresh supplies. The warring +traders had united in 1821, and this voyage was undertaken in +order to harmonize the Indians, who, from the bay to the coast, +particularly across the mountains, had become fierce partisans +of one or other of the great companies.</p> + +<p>Sir George had his McCrimmon with him in the shape of his piper, +Colin Fraser, who played and paraded before the Indians most +impressively in full Highland costume. Deer and buffalo were +numerous in the region, and, during the day, thirteen sacks of +pemmican were made for the party from materials stored at the fort. +Simpson was famous in those days for his swift journeys with his +celebrated Iroquois canoemen. They were made by <i>Canot du Maitre</i> as +it was called, the largest bark canoe made by the Indians, carrying +about six tons and a crew of sixteen paddlers, and which ascended as +far as Fort William. Thence further progress was made in the much +smaller "North Canoes" to all points west of Lake Superior. This +particular journey of nearly 3,200 miles, made almost entirely by +canoe, was completed from York Factory to Fort Langley, near the +mouth of Fraser River, in sixty-five days of actual paddling, an +average of about fifty miles a day, nearly all up stream.</p> + +<p>Only two buildings of the old fort remained at the time of our +visit, both in a ruinous condition. The old fireplaces and the +roofs of spruce bark, a covering much used in the country, were +still sound, and several cellars indicated where the other +buildings had stood. The later post is about a gunshot to the +east of them, and the whole site had certainly been well chosen, +being completely sheltered by the immensely high banks of the +great and deep river, whose bends "shouldered" and seemed to shut +in the place east and west, also by the "Caps," two very high +hills forming the bank on each side of the river, so called from +their fancied resemblance to a skull-cap. The river here is over +four hundred yards in width, and its banks, from the water's edge +to the upper prairie level are some six hundred feet or more in +height; but, as the trail leads, the ascent of the great slope +is about a mile in length.</p> + +<p>A number of townships had been blocked here, at one time, by +Mr. Ogilvie, D.L.S., but not subdivided, Fort Dunvegan being +situated, if I mistake not, in the south-west corner of Township +80, Range 4, west of the Sixth Meridian.</p> + +<p>The Roman Catholic Mission east of the fort was found to be +beautifully sheltered, and neighboured by fine fields of wheat and +a garden full of green peas and new potatoes. But this was on the +flat. There was no farming whatever on the north side, on the upper +and beautiful prairies described. A Mr. Milton had tried, it was +said, about ten miles east of Dunvegan, but did not make a success +of it.</p> + +<p>Near the fort a raft was moored, on which had descended a party of +four Americans. They were from the State of Wyoming, and had made +their way the previous summer, by way of St. John and the Pine +River, to the Nelson, a tributary of the Liard. They had had poor +luck, in fact no luck at all; and this was the story of every +returning party we met which had been prospecting on the various +tributaries of the Peace and Liard towards the mountains. The cost +of supplies, the varying and uncertain yield, but, above all, the +brief season in which it is possible to work, barely six weeks—had +dissipated by sad experience the bright dreams of wealth which had +lured them from comfortable homes. Between seven and eight hundred +people had gone up to those regions via Edmonton, bound for the +Yukon, many of whom, after a tale of suffering which might have +filled its boomsters' souls with remorse, had found solitary graves, +and the remainder were slowly toiling out of the country, having +sunk what means they possessed in the vain pursuit of gold. They +brought a rumour with them that some whites who had robbed the +Indians on the Upper Liard had been murdered. It was not known what +white men had penetrated to that desolate region, and the rumour was +discredited; at all events, it was never verified.</p> + +<p>The treaty had been effected at Dunvegan, on the 6th, with a few +Beaver Indians, who still lingered by their tepees, pitched to the +west on the opposite shore. The half-breeds had camped near the +fort pending our arrival, and we found them a very intelligent +people, indeed, with some interesting relics of the old régime +still amongst them. One, in particular, had canoed from Lachine +with Simpson sixty years before. He was still lively and active, +and a patriarch of the half-breed community. Large families we +found to be the rule here, some parents boasting of twelve or +thirteen children <i>under</i> age. This, and their healthy looks, spoke +well for the climate, and their condition otherwise was promising, +being comfortably clad, all speaking more or less English or French, +whilst many could read and write.</p> + +<p>Our work being completed here, we set out for the Crossing by +waggon, our route lying over the same majestic prairies, and reached +the Landing the second night, passing the Roman Catholic and Church +of England Missions on the way. The former Mission is an extensive +establishment, with a fine farm and garden. Indeed, with the +exception of primitive outlying stations, all the principal Roman +Catholic Missions, by their extent and completeness, put our own +more meagrely endowed establishments into rather painful contrast.</p> + +<p>A great concourse of natives was at the Landing awaiting our +arrival. The place was covered with tepees and tents, and no +less than four trading marquees had been pitched pending the +scrip issue, which it took some time to complete.</p> + +<p>Near the Landing were the mill and farm of a namesake of Sir +Alexander Mackenzie. His father, indeed, was a cousin of the +renowned explorer who gave his name to the great river of the +North. This father, under whom, Mr. Mackenzie said, Lord +Strathcona had spent his first year as a clerk in the Hudson's +Bay Company's service, was drowned, with nine Iroquois, whilst +running the Lachine Rapids in a bark canoe. His son came to +Peace River in 1863, and his career, as he told it to me, will +bear repeating. He was born at Three Rivers, in Lower Canada, +in 1843, and was sent to Scotland to be educated, remaining there +until he was eighteen years of age. In 1861 he joined the Hudson's +Bay Company's service, wintering first at Norway House under +Chief factor William Sinclair, but removed to Peace River, became +a chief-trader there in 1872, and, after some years of service, +retired, and has lived at the Crossing ever since.</p> + +<p>The Landing, he told me, used to be known as "The Forks," it being +here that the Smoky River joins the Peace; and here were concentrated, +in bygone days, the posts and rivalries of the great fur companies. +The remains of the North-West Company's fort are still visible on +the north bank, a few miles above the Landing. On the south shore, +in the angle of the two rivers, stood the Hudson's Bay Company's +fort, whilst the old X. Y. Company's post, at that time the best +equipped on the river, stood on the north bank opposite the Smoky.</p> + +<p>In a delightful afternoon spent in rambling over this interesting +neighbourhood, Mr. Mackenzie made out for me the site of the +latter establishment, now in the midst of a dense thicket of +nettles, shrubs, and saplings. In this locality the antagonisms +of old had full play—not only those of the traders, but of the +Indians—and the river exhibited much more life and movement then +than at the time of our visit.</p> + +<p>In remote days a constant warfare had been kept up by the Crees +on the river, who, just as they invaded the Blackfeet on the +Saskatchewan, encroached here upon the Beavers—at that time a +brave, numerous and warlike tribe, but now decayed almost to +extinction, the victims, it is said, of incestuous intercourse. The +Beavers had also an enemy in their congeners, the Chipewyans, the +three nations seemingly dividing the great river between them. But +neither succeeded in giving a permanent name to it. The Uńjigah, its +majestic and proper name, or the Tsa-hoo-dene-desay—"The Beaver +Indian River"—or the Amiskoo eëinnu Sepe of the Crees, which has +the same meaning, has not taken root in our maps. The traditional +peace made between its warring tribes gave it its name, the Rivière +la Paix of the French, which we have adopted, and by this name the +river will doubtless be known when the Indians, whose home it has +been for ages, have disappeared.</p> + +<p>On the 24th our work here was completed, and we took to our boats, +which were to float us down to Vermilion and Athabasca Lake. +During our stay, however, I had noted all the information that +could be gained respecting the Upper Peace as an agricultural +region, some of which I have already given. The knowledge obtainable +about the fertile areas of the hinterlands of a vast unsurveyed +country like this, though not very ample, was no doubt trustworthy +as far as it went.</p> + +<p>Trappers and traders are confined to the water, as a rule, and see +little land away from the shores of streams and lakes. The only +people who, through their employments, knew the interior well were +the Indians and half-breed hunters. It was the statements of these, +therefore, and of the few prosperous farmers and stockmen scattered +here and there, which afforded us our only reliable knowledge.</p> + +<p>The most extensive prairies adjacent to the Upper Peace River +are those to the north already described. The nearest on the +south side are the prairies of Spirit River, a small stream which +divides several townships of first-class black, loamy soil, well +wooded in parts, but with considerable prairie. The nearest farmer +and rancher to Dunvegan, Mr. C. Brymner, who had lived for ten +years on Spirit River, told me that during seven of these, though +frost had touched his grain, particularly in June, it had done +little serious harm. It was a fine hay country, he said, even the +ridge hay being good, and therefore a good region for cattle, he +himself having at the time over a hundred head, which fed out late +in the fall and very early in the spring, owing to the Chinook +winds, which enter the region and temper its climate. Southeast +of Fort St. John there is a considerable area known as Pooscapee's +Prairie, getting its name from an old Indian chief, and which was +well spoken of, but which we did not see.</p> + +<p>A much more extensive open country, however, is the Grand Prairie, +to the south-west of the Crossing, which connects with the Spirit +River country, and is drained by the Smoky River and its branches, +and by its tributary, the Wapiti. There is no dispute as to whether +this should or should not be called a prairie country. As a matter +of fact, it is an extensive district suitable for immediate +cultivation, and containing, as well, valuable timber for lumber, +fencing and building.</p> + +<p>The first inquiry the intending immigrant makes is about frost. +At the Dunvegan and St. Augustine Mission farms, on the river bank +above the Landing, Father Busson told me that White Russian and +Red Fyfe wheat had been raised since 1881, and during all these +years it had never been seriously injured, whilst the yield has +reached as high as thirty-five bushels to the acre. Seeding +began about the middle of April, and harvesting about the middle +of August. He was of opinion that along the rim of the upper +prairie level wheat would ripen, but farther back he thought +it unsafe, and so no doubt it is for the present. Mr. Brick's +fine farm, opposite the Six Islands, and other farms also, were +a success, but, of course, all these were along the river. With +regard to the upper level, I heard opinions adverse to Father +Busson's, though, like his, conjectural. The inconsiderable +height above the sea (Lefroy, I think, puts the upper level at +about 1,600 feet), the prolonged sunlight, the whole night being +penetrated with it though the sun has set, together with good +methods of farming, will no doubt get rid of frost, which strikes +here just as it has in every new settlement in Manitoba, and in +fact throughout a great portion of the continent.</p> + +<p>There were complaints, however, of a worse enemy than frost, namely, +drought, which we were told was a characteristic feature of those +magnificent prairies to the north. The wiry grass is very short +there, something like the Milk River grass in Southern Alberta, +and hay is scarce. This drawback will doubtless be got over hereafter +by dry farming, or better still by irrigation, should the lakes to +the north prove to be available.</p> + +<p>I have pointed out disadvantages which in all likelihood will +disappear with time and settlement by good farmers. It is a region, +I believe, predestined to agriculture; but, in some localities, the +rainfall, as has been said, is rather scant for good husbandry, and, +therefore, farming to the north of the river, on the upper level, +is not as yet an assured success. To the south better conditions +prevail, and thither no doubt the stream of immigration will first +trend.</p> + +<p>Altogether we estimated the prairie areas of the upper river at +about half a million acres, with much country, in addition, which +resembles the Dauphin District in Manitoba, covered with willows +and the like, which, if they can be pulled out by horse-power, +as is done there, will not be very expensive to clear. There +is, of course, any quantity of timber for building and fencing, +though much has been destroyed by fire, the varieties being +those common to the whole country. To the south, in the Yellowhead, +and on the Upper Athabasca and its tributaries, there is considerable +prairie also, more easily reached than Peace River; but this is +apart from my subject. I may say, in conclusion, that the Upper +Peace River country is a very fine one, drained by a vast and +navigable river, compared with which the Saskatchewan must yield +the palm, and, beyond doubt, this will be the first region to +attract settlement and railway development.</p> + +<p>Aside from settlers and a railway, the chief needs of the country +are a good waggon-road to Edmonton and mail facilities, which +were almost non-existent when we were there, but which have +recently been to some extent supplied. Nearly three months had +elapsed since we entered the country, and not a letter or paper +had reached us from the outer world at any point. The imports +into the country were increasing very fast, and, through +competition and fashion, its principal furs were immensely +more valuable than in the past.</p> + +<p>As for the natives of the region, we found them a very worthy +people, whose progress in the forms of civilized life, and to a +certain extent in its elegances, was a constant surprise to us. +As for the country, it was plain that all we met were making a good +living in it, not by fur alone, but by successful farming, and that +its settlement was but a question of time.</p> + +<h3 class="chap-num" id="chap07">Chapter VII</h3> +<h3>Down The Peace River.</h3> + +<p>We had now to descend the river, and our first night in the boats +was a bad one. A small but exceedingly diligent variety of mosquito +attacked us unprepared; but no ordinary net could have kept them +out, anyway. It was a case of heroic endurance, for Beelzebub +reigned. The immediate bank of the river was now somewhat low +in places, and along it ran a continuous wall, or layer, of +sandstone of a uniform height. The stream was vast, with many +islands in its course, and whole forests of burnt timber were +passed before we reached Battle River, 170 miles down, and which, +on the 25th, we left behind us towards evening. Next morning we +reached Wolverine Point, a dismal hamlet of six or seven cabins, +with a graveyard in their midst. The majority of the half-breeds +of the locality had collected here, the others being out hunting. +This is a good farming country. Eighteen miles north-west of +Paddle River there is a prairie, we were told, of rich black +soil, twenty-five miles long and from one to five miles wide, +and another south-west of Wolverine, about nine miles in +diameter and thirty-six in circumference—clean prairie and +good soil, and covered with luxuriant grass and pea-vine. The +latter, I think, is watered by a stream called "The Keg," or +"Keg of Rum." Wolverine is also a region of heavy spruce timber, +and fish are abundant in the various streams which join the Peace +River, though not in the Peace itself.</p> + +<p>We were now approaching Vermilion, the banks of the river constantly +decreasing in height as we descended, until they became quite low. +Beneath a waning moon in the south, and an exquisite array of gold +and scarlet clouds in the east, which dyed the whole river a +delicate red, we floated down to the hamlet of Vermilion. The +place proved to be a rather extensive settlement, with yellow +wheat-fields and much cattle, for it is a fine hay country. The +pioneer Canadians at Vermilion were the Lawrence family, which has +been settled there for over twenty years. They were original +residents of Shefford County, Eastern Townships, and set out from +Montreal for Peace River in April, 1879, making the journey to +Vermilion, by way of Fort Carlton, Isle a la Crosse and Fort McMurray, +in four months and some ten days. The elder Mr. Lawrence had been +engaged under Bishop Bompas to conduct a mission school at Chipewyan, +but after a time removed to Vermilion, where he organized another +school, which he conducted until 1891. He then resigned, and began +farming on his own account, and, by and by, with great pains and +expense, brought in a flour mill, whose operation stimulated +settlement, and speedily reduced the price of flour from $25 to $8 +a sack. Unfortunately, this useful mill was burnt in April preceding +our visit. The yield of grain, moreover, most of it wheat, was +estimated at 10,000 bushels, and the turning of the mill was +therefore not only a great loss to Mr. Lawrence, but a severe blow +to the place. The population interested in farming was estimated +at about three hundred souls, thus forming the nucleus of a very +promising settlement, now, of course, at its wits' end for gristing. +Vermilion seemed to be a very favourable supply point in starting +other settlements, being in touch by water with Loon River, Hay +River, and other points east and north, where there is abundance +of excellent land. For the present, and pending railway development, +it was plain that the great and pressing requirement of the region +was a good waggon road by way of Wahpoośkow to Athabasca Landing, +a distance of three hundred miles, thus avoiding the dangerous +rapids of the Athabasca, or the long detour by way of Lesser Slave +Lake, and making communication easy in winter time.</p> + +<p>From Mr. Erastus Lawrence, the head of the family, we got definite +information regarding the region and its prospects for agriculture. +We spent Sunday at his comfortable home, and examined his farm +carefully. In front of the house was a field of wheat, 110 acres +in extent, as fine a field as we had ever seen anywhere, and of +this they had not had a failure, he said, during all their farming +experience, the return never falling below fourteen bushels to the +acre, in the worst of years, twenty-five being about the average +yield. They sowed late in April, but reaped generally about the 15th +of August. They had never, he said, been seriously injured by frost +since 1884, and in fact no frost had occurred to injure wheat since +1887. There was abundance of hay, and 10,000 head of stock, he +believed, could be raised at that very point. Many hogs were raised, +with great profit, bacon and pork being, of course, high-priced. One +of the sons, Mr. E. H. Lawrence, said he had raised sixteen pigs, +which at eighteen months dressed 370 pounds apiece. At that time +there were about 500 head of cattle, 250 horses, and 200 pigs in the +settlement.</p> + +<p>After service at the Reverend Mr. Scott's neat little church, +we returned to Mr. Lawrence's, and enjoyed an excellent dinner, +including home-cured ham, fresh eggs, butter and cream. That was +a notable Sunday for us in the wilds, and seldom to be repeated.</p> + +<p>Strange to say, we found the true locust here, our old Red River +pest, which had quartered itself on the settlement more than once. +I examined numbers of them, and found the scarlet egg of the +ichneumon fly under many of the shards. No one seemed to know +exactly how they came, whether in flight or otherwise; but there +they were, devouring some barley, but living mainly upon grass, +which they seemed to prefer to grain. They had appeared nine years +before our coming, and disappeared, and then, three years before, +had come again.</p> + +<p>We found quarters in a large building at the fort, which was in +charge of Mr. Wilson, whose wife was a daughter of my old friend, +Chief-factor Clarke, of Prince Albert, her brother having charge +of the trading store. The post is a substantial one, and the +store large, well stocked, and evidently the headquarters of an +extensive trade. At such posts, which have generally a fringe +of settlement, the Company's officers and their families, though, +of course, cut off from the outer world, lead, if somewhat +monotonous, by no means irksome lives. Books, music, cards and +dances serve to while away spare time, and an occasional wedding, +lasting, as it generally does, for several days, stirs the little +community to its core. But sport, in a region abounding with game +of all kinds, is the great time-killer, giving the longed-for +excitement, and contributing as well to the daily bill of fare the +very choicest of human food. Such a life is indeed to be envied +rather than commiserated, and we met with few, if any, who cared to +leave it. But such posts are the "plums" of the service, and are few +and far between. At many of the solitary outposts life has a very +different colour. <span class="footnote">["At an outpost," says Mr. Bleasdell Cameron, +"where a clerk is alone with his Indian servant, the life is +wearisome to a degree, and privation not infrequently adds to the +hardship of it. Supplies may run short, and in any case he is +expected to stock himself with fish, taken in nets from the lake, +near which his post is situated, for his table and his dogs, as well +as to augment his larder by the expert and diligent use of his gun. +Rare instances have occurred where, through accident, supplies had +not reached the far-out posts for which they were intended, and the +men had literally died of starvation. Out of a York boat's crew, +which was taking up the annual supplies for a post far up among +the Rocky Mountains, on a branch of the Mackenzie River, two or +three men were drowned, and the ice beginning to take, the boat was +obliged to put back to the district headquarters. The three men +at the outpost were left for some weeks without the supplies, and +when, after winter had set in, and it became possible to reach them +with dog trains, and provisions were at length sent them, two were +found dead in the post, while the third man was living by himself in +a small hut some distance from the fort buildings. The explanation +he gave was that he had removed to where there was a chance of +keeping himself alive by snaring rabbits, which were more plentiful +than at the post. But a suggestion of cannibalism surrounded the +affair, for only the bones of his companions were found, and they +were in the open chimney-place. Nothing was done, however, and I +myself saw the survivor many times in after years."]</span></p> + +<p>At dinner Mr. Wilson told us of a very curious circumstance the +previous fall, at the Loon River, some eighty miles south of +Vermilion—something, indeed, that very much resembled volcanic +action. Indians hunting there were surprised by a great shower of +ashes all over the country, thick enough to track moose by, whilst +others in canoes were bewildered in dense clouds of smoke. Dr. Wade, +a traveller who had just come in from Loon River, said he had +discovered three orifices, or "wells," as he called them, out of +which he thought the ashes might have been ejected. As there were +no forest fires to account for the phenomena, they were rather +puzzling.</p> + +<p>We had begun taking depositions almost as soon as we arrived, and +had a very busy time, working late and early in order to get away +by the first of August. There were some interesting people here, +"Old Lizotte" and his wife in particular. He was another of the +"Ancient Mariners" who had left Lachine fifty-five years before +with Governor Simpson—a man still of unshaken nerve and muscles +as hard as iron. One by one these old voyageurs are passing away, +and with them and their immediate successors the tradition +perishes.</p> + +<p>There was another character on the Vermilion stage, namely, old +King Beaulieu. His father was a half-breed who had been brought +up amongst the Dog Ribs and Copper Indians, and some eighty years +back had served as an interpreter at Fort Chipewyan. It was he +who at Fort Wedderburne sketched for Franklin with charcoal on +the floor the route to the Coppermine River, the sketch being +completed to and along the coast by Black Meat, an old Chipewyan +Indian. King Beaulieu himself was Warburton Pike's right-hand man +in his trip to the Barren Lands. He had his own story, of course, +about the sportsman, which we utterly discredited. He had joined +the Indian Treaty here, but repented, almost flinging his payment +in our face, and demanding scrip instead. One of his sons asked +me if the law against killing buffalo had not come to an end. I +said, "No! the law is stricter than ever—very dangerous now to kill +buffalo." Asking him what he thought the band numbered, he said, +"About six hundred," and added, "What are we poor half-breeds to +do if we cannot shoot them?" Pointing out the abundance of moose +in the country, and that if they shot the buffalo they would soon +be exterminated, he still grumbled, and repeated, "What are we +poor half-breeds to do?" I have no doubt whatever that they do +shoot them, since the band is reported to have diminished to about +250 head. Immediate steps should certainly be taken to punish and +prevent poaching, or this band, the only really wild one on the +continent, will soon be extinct.</p> + +<p>We were now on our boats again, and heading for the Chutes, as they +are called, the one obstruction to the navigation of Peace River +for over six hundred miles. We debarked at the head of the rapids +above the Grand Fall, and walked to their foot along a shelving +and slippery portage, skirting the very edge of the torrent. The +Crees call this Meátina Poẃistik—"The Real Rapid"—the cataract +farther on being the Nepegabaḱetik—"Where the Water Falls."</p> + +<p>Returning to the "Decharge," I ran the rapids with Cyr and Baptiste +in one of the boats, a glorious sensation, reminding one, though +shorter, of the Grand Rapids of the Saskatchewan, the waves being +great, and the danger spiced by the tremendous vortex ahead. The +rapids are about four hundred yards in length, and extend quite +across the river, which is here of an immense width. A heavy but +brief rainstorm had set in, and it was some time before we could +reload and drop down to the head of the "Chaudiere," if I may call +it so, for the vortex much resembles the "Big Kettle" at Ottawa. +That night we spent in the York boat, its keel on the rocks and +painter tied to a tree, and, lulled by the roar of the cataract, +slept soundly until morning.</p> + +<p>These falls cut somewhat diagonally across the river, the vortex +being at the right bank, and close in-shore, concentred by a limestone +shelf extending to the bank, flanked on the left, and at an acute +angle, by a deeply-indented reef of rock. Looking up the river, +the view to the west seems inclosed by a long line of trees, which, +in the distance, appear to stand in the water. Thence the vast +stream sweeps boldly into the south, and with a rush discharges +down the rapids, and straight over the line of precipice, in a +vast tumultuous greyish-drab torrent which speedily emerges into +comparatively still water below. The rock here is an exceedingly +hard, mottled limestone, resembling the stone at St. Andrew's +Rapids on Red River. Where exposed it is pitted or bitten into +by the endless action of wind and water, and lies in thick layers, +forming an irregular dyke all along the shore, over the surface +of which passes the portage, some forty yards in length. Though +short, it is a nasty one, running along a shelf of rock into which +great gaps have been gored by the torrent. Large quantities of +driftwood were stuck in the rapids above, and a big pile of it +had lodged at the south angle of the cataract, over which our +boats had to be drawn, and dropped down, with great care and +difficulty. A rounded, tall island lies, or rather stands, below +the falls, towards the north shore, whose sheer escarpments and +densely wooded top are very curious and striking. Two sister +islands and another above the falls, all four being about a mile +apart, stand in line with each other, as if they had once formed +parts of an ancient marge, and, below the falls, the torrent +has wrought out a sort of bay from the rock, the bank, which +is high here, giving that night upon its grassy slope, overhung +with dense pine woods, a picturesque camp to our boatmen. +The vast river, the rapids and the falls form a majestic picture, +not only of material grandeur, but of power to be utilized some +day in the service of man. Though formidable, they will yet +be surmounted by modern locks; and should Smith's Rapids, on +the Great Slave River, be overcome by canalling, there would +then be developed one of the longest lines of inland navigation +on the continent.</p> + +<p>The Red River, which joins the Peace about twenty-five miles below +the Chutes, flows from the south with a course, it was said, of +about two hundred miles, and up this beautiful stream there are +extensive prairies. The soil is very rich at the confluence, and +we noticed that in the garden at the little Hudson's Bay Company's +post, where we transacted our business, vegetables and potatoes +were further advanced than at Vermilion, and some ears of wheat +were almost ripe. From statements made we judged this to be a +region well worth special investigation; it was, in fact, one +of the most inviting points for settlement we had seen on our +journey.</p> + +<p>Following down the Peace, some shoaly places were met with in the +afternoon, the banks being low, sandy and uniform, with open woods +to the south. The current was stately, but so slow that oars had +often to be used. A chilly sunset was followed by an exceedingly +brilliant display of Northern Lights, called by the Crees Pahkugh́ +ka Neématchik—"The Dance of the Spirits." This generally presages +change; but the day was fine, and next morning we passed what +are called the Lower Rapids, below which the banks are lined by +precipitous walls of limestone, the river narrowing to less than +half of its previous width.</p> + +<p>Landing at Peace Point, the traditional scene of the peace between +the Beavers and the Chipewyans, or between the Beavers and the +Crees, as Mackenzie says, or all three, we found it to be a wide +and beautiful table-like prairie, begirt with aspens, on which we +flushed a pack of prairie chickens. Below it, and looking upward +beyond an island, a line of timber, fringed along the water's +edge with willows, sweeps across the view, met half-way by a wall +of Devonian rock, whose alternate glitter and shade, in the strong +sunshine streaming from the east, seemed almost spectral.</p> + +<p>The heavily timbered island added to the effect, and, with a patch +of limestone on its cheek, formed a strikingly beautiful foreground.</p> + +<p>The only exciting incident of the day was the vigorous chase, by some +of the party, of an old pair of moulting gray geese with their young, +all, of course, unable to fly. It was pitiful to watch the clever +and fearless actions of the old birds as decoys, falling victims, +at last, to parental love. Indeed, they were not worth eating, and +to kill them was a sin. But when were there ever scruples over +food on Peace River, that theatre of mighty feats of gormandism?</p> + +<p>I have already hinted at those masterpieces of voracity for which +the region is renowned; yet the undoubted facts related around our +camp-fires, and otherwise, a few of which follow, almost beggar +belief. Mr. Young, of our party, an old Hudson's Bay officer, knew +of sixteen trackers who, in a few days, consumed eight bears, two +moose, two bags of pemmican, two sacks of flour, and three sacks of +potatoes. Bishop Grouard vouched for four men eating a reindeer at +a sitting. Our friend, Mr. d'Eschambault, once gave Oskinnéqu—"The +Young Man"—six pounds of pemmican, who ate it all at a meal, washing +it down with a gallon of tea, and then complained that he had not had +enough. Sir George Simpson states that at Athabasca Lake, in 1820, he +was one of a party of twelve who ate twenty-two geese and three ducks +at a single meal. But, as he says, they had been three whole days +without food. The Saskatchewan folk, however, known of old as the +Gens de Blaireaux—"The People of the Badger Holes"—were not behind +their congeners. That man of weight and might, our old friend, +Chief-factor Belanger—drowned, alas, many years ago with young +Simpson at Sea Falls—once served out to thirteen men a sack of +pemmican weighing ninety pounds. It was enough for three days; but, +there and then, they sat down and consumed it all at a single meal, +not, it must be added, without some subsequent and just pangs of +indigestion. Mr. B. having occasion to pass the place of eating, and +finding the sack of pemmican, as he supposed, in his path, gave it +a kick; but, to his amazement, it bounded aloft several yards, and +then lit. It was empty! When it is remembered that, in the old +buffalo days, the daily ration per head at the Company's prairie +posts was eight pounds of fresh meat, which was all eaten, its +equivalent being two pounds of pemmican, the enormity of this +Gargantuan feast may be imagined. But we ourselves were not bad +hands at the trencher. In fact, we were always hungry. So I do not +reproduce the foregoing facts as a reproach, but rather as a meagre +tribute to the prowess of the great of old—the men of unbounded +stomach!</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of the 4th we rounded Point Providence, the soil +exposures sandy, the timber dense but slender, and early next +morning reached the Quatre Fourches, which was at that time flowing +into Lake Athabasca. It is simply a waterway of some thirty miles +in length, which connects Peace River with the lake, and resembles, +in size and colour, Red River in Manitoba. It is one of "the +rivers that turn"—so called from their reversing their current +at different stages of water. A small stream of this kind connects +the South Saskatchewan with the Qu'Appelle, and another, a navigable +river, the Lower Saskatchewan with Cumberland Lake. The Quatre +Fourches is thus both an inlet and an outlet, but not of the lake +in a right sense. The real outlet is the Rocher River, which joins +the Peace River at the intersection of latitude 59 with the 111.30th +degree of longitude, beyond which the united streams are called +the Great Slave River.</p> + +<p>The Quatre Fourches—"The Four Forks"—gets its name from the +junction of a channel which connects a small lake called the Mamawee +with the south-west angle of Lake Athabasca, Fort Chipewyan being +situated on an opposite shore upon an arm of the lake, here about +six miles wide. The stream is sluggish, and is thickly wooded to the +water's edge, with here and there an exposure of red granite. It is +a very beautiful stream, and it was a pleasure to get out of the +great river and its oppressive vastness into the familiar-looking, +homely water, its eastern rocks and exquisite curves and bends. +Rounding a point, we came upon a camp of Chipewyans drying fish and +making birch-bark canoes, all of them fat, dirty, like ourselves, +and happy; and, passing on, at dusk we reached the outlet and the +lake.</p> + +<p>It was blowing hard, but we decided to cross to the fort, where +a light had been run up for our guidance, and which, by vigorous +rowing, we reached by midnight. Here Mr. Laird was waiting to +receive us, the other Commissioners having departed for Fort +McMurray and Wahpoośkow.</p> + +<p>Next morning we saw the lake to better advantage. It is called by +the Chipewyans Kaytaylaýtooway, namely, "The Lake of the Marsh," +corresponding to the Athapuskow of the Crees, corrupted into the +Rabasca of the French voyageurs, and meaning "The Lake of the Reeds." +At one time, it may be mentioned, it was also known as "The Lake +of the Hills," and its great tributary, the Athabasca, was the Elk +River; but these names have not survived.</p> + +<h3 class="chap-num" id="chap08">Chapter VIII</h3> +<h3>Fort Chipewyan To Fort McMurray.</h3> + +<p>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, <i>cheepo</i> meaning "tapering," and +<i>way</i> "sound," or "voice." The name was begot of the Ojibway's +peculiar manner of lowering the voice at the end of a sentence. +As "<i>wyan</i>" 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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="footnote">[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.]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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. <span class="footnote">[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., <i>Eveque d'Ibora</i>, 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."]</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, <i>en route</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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).</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p><span class="footnote">[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.]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, <i>tripe de roche</i>; +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="footnote">[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.]</span></p> + +<p>On the 9th the steamer <i>Grahame</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<h3 class="chap-num" id="chap09">Chapter IX</h3> +<h3>The Athabasca River Region.</h3> + +<p>We were now traversing perhaps the most interesting region in all +the North. In the neighbourhood of McMurray there are several +tar-wells, so called, and there, if a hole is scraped in the bank, +it slowly fills in with tar mingled with sand. This is separated +by boiling, and is used, in its native state, for gumming canoes +and boats. Farther up are immense towering banks, the tar oozing +at every pore, and underlaid by great overlapping dykes of +disintegrated limestone, alternating with lofty clay exposures, +crowned with poplar, spruce and pine. On the 15th we were still +following the right bank, and, anon, past giant clay escarpments +along it, everywhere streaked with oozing tar, and smelling +like an old ship.</p> + +<p>These tar cliffs are here hundreds of feet high, of a bold and +impressive grandeur, and crowned with firs which seem dwarfed +to the passer-by. The impregnated clay appears to be constantly +falling off the almost sheer face of the slate-brown cliffs, in +great sheets, which plunge into the river's edge in broken masses. +The opposite river bank is much more depressed, and is clothed +with dense forest.</p> + +<p>The tar, whatever it may be otherwise, is a fuel, and burned in our +camp-fires like coal. That this region is stored with a substance +of great economic value is beyond all doubt, and, when the hour of +development comes, it will, I believe, prove to be one of the +wonders of Northern Canada. We were all deeply impressed by this +scene of Nature's chemistry, and realized what a vast storehouse of +not only hidden but exposed resources we possess in this enormous +country. What is unseen can only be conjectured; but what is seen +would make any region famous. We now came once more to outcrops of +limestone in regular layers, with disintegrated masses overlying +them, or sandwiched between their solid courses. A lovely niche, at +one point, was scooped out of the rock, over the coping of which +poured a thin sheet of water, evidently impregnated with mineral, +and staining the rock down which it poured with variegated tints of +bronze, beautified by the morning sun.</p> + +<p>With characteristic grandeur the bends of the river "shouldered" +into each other, giving the expanses the appearance of lakelets; +and after a succession of these we came to the first rapid, +"The Mountain"—Watchíkwe Powistic—so called from a peak at its +head, which towered to a great height above the neighbouring banks. +The rapid extends diagonally across the river in a low cascade, +with a curve inward towards the left shore. It was decided to +unload and make the portage, and a very ticklish one it was. The +boats, of course, had to be hauled up stream by the trackers, +and grasping their line I got safely over, and was thankful. How +the trackers managed to hold on was to me a mystery; but the steep +and slippery bank was mere child's play to them. The right bank, +from its break and downward, bears a very thick growth of alders, +and here we found the wild onion, and a plant resembling spearmint.</p> + +<p>In the evening we reached the next rapid, called the Cascades—Nepe +Kabátekik—"Where the water falls," and camping there, we had a +symposium in our tent, which I could not enjoy, having headache and +heartburn, a nasty combination. The 16th was the hottest day of the +season—a hard one on the trackers, who now pulled along walls of +solid limestone, perpendicular or stepped, or wrought into elaborate +cornices, as if by the art of some giant stonecutter. At one place +we came to a lovely little <i>rideau</i>, and on the opposite shore were +two curious caves, scooped out of the rock, and supported by +Egyptian-like columns wrought by the age-action of water.</p> + +<p>Towards evening we reached the Crooked Rapid—Kah́wakak o +Poẃestik—and here the portage path followed on the summit of the +limestone rampart, which the viscous gumbo-slides made almost +impassable in rainy weather, and indeed very dangerous, forming, at +the time we passed, pits of mud and broken masses of half-hard clay, +along the very verge of the wall of rock, likely at any moment to +give way and precipitate one into the raging torrent below. At other +parts the path was jammed out to the wall-edge, to be stepped round +with a gulp in the throat. But these and other features of a like +interesting character, though a lively experience to the tenderfoot, +were of no account whatever to those wonderful trackers. At one of +the worst spots I was hesitating as to how and where I should step +next, when a carrier, returning for his load, seeing my fix, humped +his back with a laugh and gave me a lift over.</p> + +<p>We camped for the night below a point where the river makes a sharp +bend, parallel with its course. This we surmounted in the morning, +following a rounded wall of limestone, for all the world like a +decayed rampart of some ancient city. A wide floor of rock at its +base made beautiful walking to a place where the lofty escarpment +showed exposures of limestone underlying an enormous mass of dark +sandstone, topped by tar-clay. It is a portentous cliff, bearing +a curiously Eastern look, as if some great pyramid had been riven +vertically, and the exposed surface scarred and scooped by the +weather into a multitude of antic hollows, grotesque projections, +and unimaginable shapes. Here, also, the knives of passers-by had +carved numerous autographs, marring the majestic cliff with their +ludicrous incongruity. Are we not all sinners in this way? "John +Jones," cut into a fantastic buttress which would fittingly adorn a +wizard's temple, may be a poor exhibit of human vanity; but, after +all, the real John Jones is more imperishable than the rock, which +seems scaling, anyway, from the top, and may, by and by, carry the +inscriptions with it. It was hard to tear one's self away from such +a wonderful structure as this, the most striking feature of its kind +on the whole river.</p> + +<p>Farther on, escarped banks, consisting of boulders and pebbles +imbedded in tenacious clay, rose to a great height, their tops +clothed with rich moss, and wooded with a close growth of pine, +the hollows being full of delicious raspberries, now dead ripe.</p> + +<p>By and by we encountered the Long Rapids—Kaúkinwauk Powestik—and, +some hours afterwards, entered the Middle Rapid—Tuwáo Powestik—the +worst we had yet come to, full of boulders and sharp rocks, with a +strong current. Very dexterous management was required here on the +part of steersman and bowman; a snapt line or a moment's neglect, +and a swing to broadside would have followed, and spelled ruin.</p> + +<p>It was evening before this rapid was surmounted, and all hands, +dog-tired with the long day's pull, were glad to camp at the foot +of the Boiler Rapid, the next in our ascent, and so called from +the wrecking of a scow containing a boiler for one of the Hudson's +Bay Company's steamers. It was the most uncomfortable of camps, +the night being close, and filled with the small and bloodthirsty +Athabasca mosquito, by all odds the most vicious of its kind. +This rapid is strewn with boulders which show above water, making +it a very "nice" and toilsome thing to steer and track a boat +safely over it, but the tracking path itself is stony and firm, +a fortunate thing at such a place. There are no exposures of rock +at the foot of this rapid; but along its upper part runs a ledge +of asphalt-like rock as smooth as a street pavement, with an outer +edge as neatly rounded as if done with a chisel. This was the finest +bit of tracking path on the river, excepting, perhaps, the great +pavement beneath the cliff at the Long Rapids.</p> + +<p>In this region the river scenery changes to a succession of +cut-banks, exposed in all directions, and in almost all situations. +Immense towering hills of sand, or clay, are cut down vertically, +some facing the river, others at right angles to it, and others +inland, and almost inclosed by projecting shoulders of the wooded +heights. These cut-banks carry layers of stone here and there, and +are specked with boulders, and in some places massed into projecting +crests, which threaten destruction to the passer-by. Otherwise the +scenery is desolate, mountainous always, and wooded, but with much +burnt timber, which gives a dreary look to the region. The cut-banks +are unique, however, and would make the fortune of an Eastern river, +though here little noticed on account of their number.</p> + +<p>It was now the 18th, and the weather was intensely hot, foreboding +change and the August freshet. We had camped about eight miles below +the Burnt Rapid, and the men were very tired, having been in the +water pretty much since morning. Directly opposite our camp was a +colossal cliff of clay, around which, looking upward, the river bent +sharply to the south-west, very striking as seen beneath an almost +full moon breaking from a pile of snowy clouds, whilst dark and +threatening masses gathered to the north. The early, foggy morning +revealed the freshet. The river, which had risen during the night, +and had forced the trackers from their beds to higher ground, was +littered from bank to bank with floating trees, logs and stumps, +lifted from many a drift up stream, and borne down by the furious +current. At one of the short breathing spells the water rose two +inches in twenty minutes, and the tracking became exceedingly bad, +the men floundering to their waists in water, or footing it +insecurely on steep and slippery ledges along the water's marge. +About mid-day the anticipated change took place in the weather. +Thick clouds closed in with a driving rain and a high raw wind, +presaging the end of summer.</p> + +<p>It was now, of course, very bad going, and camp was made, in the +heavy rain, on a high flat about two miles below the Burnt Rapid. +Though a tough spot to get up to, the flat proved to be a prime +place for our camp, with plenty of dead fallen and standing timber, +and soon four or five "long fires" were blazing, a substantial +supper discussed, and comfort succeeded misery. The next day +(Sunday) was much enjoyed as a day of rest, the half-breeds at +their beloved games, the officials writing letters. The weather +was variable; the clouds broke and gathered by turns, with slight +rain towards evening, and then it cleared. As a night camp it was +picturesque, the full moon in the south gleaming over the turbid +water, and the boatmen lounging around the files like so many +brigands.</p> + +<p>Next morning we surmounted the Brulé Rapid—Pusitáo Poẃestik—short +but powerful, with a sharp pointed rock at its head, very +troublesome to get around. Above this rapid the bank consists +of a solid, vertical rampart of red sandstone, its base and top +and every crack and crevice clothed with a rich vegetation—a +most beautiful and striking scene, forming a gigantic amphitheatre, +concentred by the seeming closing-in of the left bank at Point +Brulé upon the long straight line of sandstone wall on the right. +Nothing finer, indeed, could be imagined in all this remarkable +river's remarkable scenery than this impressive view, not from +jutting peaks, for the sky-line of the banks runs parallel with +the water, but from the antique grandeur of their sweep and +apparent junction.</p> + +<p>That afternoon we rounded Point Brulé, a high, bold cliff of +sandstone with three "lop-sticks" upon its top. The Indian's +lop-stick, called by the Cree piskoot́enusk, is a sort of living +talisman which he connects in some mysterious way with his own fate, +and which he will often go many miles out of his direct course to +visit. Even white men fall in with the fetish, and one of the three +we saw was called "Lambert's lop-stick." I myself had one made for +me by Gros Oreilles, the Saulteau Chief, nearly forty years ago, in +the forest east of Pointe du Chene, in what is now Manitoba. They +are made by stripping a tall spruce tree of a deep ring of branches, +leaving the top and bottom ones intact. The tree seems to thrive all +the same, and is a very noticeable, and not infrequent, object +throughout the whole Thickwood Indian country.</p> + +<p>Just opposite the cliff referred to, the Little Buffalo, a swift +creek, enters between two bold shoulders of hills, and on its +western side are the wonderful gas springs. The "amphitheatre," +sweeps around to, and is cloven by, that stream, its elevation +on the west side being lofty, and deeply grooved from its summit +downward, the whole locality at the time of our visit being +covered with raspberry bushes loaded with fruit.</p> + +<p>The gas escapes from a hole in the ground near the water's edge in +a pillar of flame about thirty inches high, and which has been +burning time out of mind. It also bubbles, or, rather, foams up, +for several yards in the river, rising at low water even as far +out as mid-stream. There is a level plateau at the springs, several +acres in extent, backed by a range of hills, and if a stake is +driven anywhere into this, and withdrawn, the gas, it is said, +follows at once. They are but another unique feature of this +astonishing stream.</p> + +<p>For a long distance the upper prairie level exposes good soil, +always clay loam, and there can be little doubt that there is +much fertile land in this district. That night we slept, or +tried to sleep, in the boat, and made a very early start on a +raw, cloudy morning, the tracking being mainly in the water. +We now passed great cliffs of sandstone, some almost shrouded +in the woods, and came upon many peculiar circular stones, as +large as, and much resembling, mill-stones. Towards evening we +passed Pointe la Biche, and met Mr. Connor, a trader, with two +loaded York boats, going north, and whom we silently blessed, +for he brought additional mail for ourselves. What can equal +the delight in the wilderness of hearing from home! It was +impossible to make Grand Rapids, and we camped where we were, +the night cold and raw, but enlivened by the reading and +re-reading of letters and newspapers.</p> + +<p>Next morning, crossing the right bank of the river, and leaving +the boat, we walked to the foot of Grand Rapids. Our path, if +it could be called such, lay over a toilsome jumble of huge, +sharp-edged rocks, overhung by a beetling cliff of reddish-yellow +sandstone, much of which seemed on the point of falling. This whole +bank, like so much of this part of the river, is planted, almost at +regular intervals, with the great circular rocks already referred +to. These globular or circular masses are a curious feature of this +region. They have been shaped, no doubt, by the action of eddying +water, yet are so numerous, and so much alike, as to bespeak some +abnormally uniform conditions in the past.</p> + +<p>The Grand Rapids—Kitchi Poẃestik—the most formidable on the river, +are divided by a narrow, wooded island, over a quarter of a mile +in length, upon which the Hudson's Bay Company have a wooden +tramway, the cars being pushed along by hand. Towards the foot of +the island is a smaller one near the left shore, and here is the +larger cascade, a very violent rapid, with a fall from the crest +to the foot of the island of thirty feet, more or less. The +narrower passage is to the right of the island, and is called +the "Free Traders' Channel." The river, in full freshet, was +very muddy-looking, detracting much from the beauty of the rapids.</p> + +<p>The Hudson's Bay Company have storehouses at each end of the +tramway, but for their own use only. Free traders have to portage +their supplies over a very rough path beneath the cliffs. Both +banks of the river are of sandstone, capped on the left by a wall +of cream-coloured rock, seventy or eighty feet in height, at a +guess. A creek comes in from the west which has cloven the sandstone +bank almost to the water's edge; and running along the top of these +sandstone formations are, everywhere, thick layers of coal, which +is also found, in a great bed, on the opposite shore, and about +three miles back from the river. The coal had been used by a trapper +there, and is a good burner and heater, leaving little ash or clinker. +These coal beds seem to extend in all directions, on both sides of +the river, and underlie a very large extent of country. The inland +country for some eight or ten miles had been examined by Sergeant +Anderson, of the Mounted Police post here, who described it as +consisting of wide ridges, or tables, of first-rate soil, divided +by shallow muskegs; a good farming locality, with abundance of +large, merchantable spruce timber. Moose were plentiful in the +region, and it was a capital one for marten, one white trapper, +the winter before our visit, having secured over a hundred skins.</p> + +<p>On the 25th we left our comfortable spruce beds and "long fires," +and tracked on to House River, which we reached at nine a.m. Here +there is a low-lying, desolate-looking, but memorable, "Point," +neighboured by a concave sweep of bank. The House is a small +tributary from the east, but very long, rising far inland; and here +begins the pack-trail to Fort McMurray, about one hundred miles in +length, and which might easily be converted into a waggon-road, as +also another which runs to Lac la Biche. Both trails run through a +good farming country, and the former waggon-road would avoid all +the dangers and laborious rapids whose wearisome ascent has been +described.</p> + +<p>The Point itself is tragic ground, showing now but a few deserted +cabins and some Indian graves—one of which had a white paling +around it, the others being covered with gray cotton—which looked +like little tents in the distance. These were the graves of an +Indian and his wife and four children, who had pitched through +from Lac la Biche to hunt, and who all died together of diphtheria +in this lonely spot. But here, too, many years ago, a priest was +murdered and eaten by a weeghteko, an Iroquois from Caughnawaga. +The lunatic afterwards took an Indian girl into the depths of the +forest, and, after cohabiting with her for some time, killed and +devoured her. Upon the fact becoming known, and being pursued by her +tribe, he fled to the scene of his horrible banquet, and there took +his own life. Having rowed across the river for better tracking, as +we crawled painfully along, the melancholy Point with its lonely +graves, deserted cabins and cannibal legend receded into eerie +distance and wrapped itself once more in congenial solitude.</p> + +<p>The men continued tracking until ten a.m. much of the time wading +along banks heavily overhung with alders, or along high, sheer +walls of rock, up to the armpits in the swift current. The country +passed through was one giant mass of forest, pine and poplar, +resting generally upon loamy clay—a good agricultural country +in the main, similar to many parts of Ontario when a wilderness.</p> + +<p>We camped at the Joli Fou Rapids, having only made about fifteen +miles. It was a beautiful spot, a pebbly shore, with fine open +forest behind, evidently a favourite camping-place in winter. +Next morning the trackers, having recrossed for better footing, +got into a swale of the worst kind, which hampered them greatly, +as the swift river was now at its height and covered with gnarled +driftwood.</p> + +<p>The foliage here and there showed signs of change, some poplars +yellowing already along the immediate banks, and the familiar +scent of autumn was in the air. In a word, the change so familiar +in Manitoba in August had taken place here, to be followed by a +balmy September and the fine fall weather of the North, said to +surpass that of the East in mildness by day, though perhaps sharper +by night. We were now but a few miles from the last obstruction, +the Pelican Rapids, and pushed on in the morning along banks of +a coal-like blackness, loose and friable, with thin cracks and +fissures running in all directions, the forest behind being the +usual mixture of spruce and poplar. By midday we were at the rapids, +by no means formidable, but with a ticklish place or two, and got +to Pelican Portage in the evening, where were several shanties +and a Hudson's Bay freighting station. Here, too, is a well which +was sunk for petroleum, but which struck gas instead, blowing up the +borer. It was then spouting with a great noise like the blowing-off +of steam, and, situated at such a distance from the shaft at the +Landing and from the Point Brulé spiracle described, indicated, +throughout the district, available resources of light, heat and +power so vast as almost to beggar imagining.</p> + +<p>Mr. Ross having obtained on the 14th the adhesion of the Crees +to the Treaty at Wahpoośkow, it was now decided that the Scrip +Commission should make the canoe trip to that lake, whilst Mr. +Laird and party would go on to Athabasca Landing on their way home. +Accordingly Matcheese—"The Teaser"—a noted Indian runner, was +dispatched with our letters to the Landing, 120 miles up the river. +This Indian, it was said, had once run from the Landing to Edmonton, +ninety-five miles, in a single day, and had been known to carry 500 +pounds over a portage in one load. I myself saw him shoulder 350 +pounds of our outfit and start off with it over a rough path. He was +slightly built, and could not have weighed much over nine stone, but +was what he looked to be, a bundle of iron muscles and nerves.</p> + +<p>On the 29th Mr. Laird and party bade us good-bye, and an hour +later we set out on our interesting canoe trip to the Wahpoośkow, +a journey which led us into the heart of the interior, and +proved to be one of the most agreeable of our experiences.</p> + +<h3 class="chap-num" id="chap10">Chapter X</h3> +<h3>The Trip To Wahpoośkow.</h3> + +<p>Our route lay first up the Pelican River, the Chachákew of the +Crees, and then from the "divide" down the Wahpoośkow watershed +to the lake. We had six canoemen, and our journey began by +"packing" our outfit over a four-mile portage, commencing with a +tremendously long and steep hill, and ending on a beautiful bank +of the Pelican, a fine brown stream about one hundred feet wide, +where we found our canoes awaiting us, capital "Peterboroughs," +in good order. Here also were a number of bark canoes, carrying +the outfit of Mr. Ladoucere, a half-breed trader going up to +Wahpoośkow. Mr. Prudhomme and myself occupied one canoe, and +with two experienced canoemen, Auger at the stern and Cardinal +at the bow, we kept well up with the procession.</p> + +<p>Where the channels are shallow, poles are used, which the men +handled very dexterously, nicking in and out amongst the rocks and +rapids in the neatest way; but in the main the propulsion was by our +paddles, a delight to me, having been bred to canoeing from boyhood. +We stopped for luncheon at a lovely "place of trees" overhanging a +deep, dark, alluring pool, where we knew there were fish, but had +no time to make a cast. So far the banks of the Pelican were of a +moderate height, and the adjacent country evidently dry—a good +soil, and berries very plentiful. Presently, between banks overhung +with long grass, birch and alder, we entered a succession of the +sweetest little rapids and riffles imaginable, the brown water +dancing amongst the stones and boulders to its own music, and the +rich rose-pink, cone-like tops of the water-vervain, now in bloom, +dancing with it.</p> + +<p>Our camp that night was a delightful one, amongst slender birch +and spruce and pine, the ground covered with blueberries, partridge +berries, and cranberries in abundance. The berries of the +wolf-willow were also red-ripe, alluring, but bitter to the taste. +It was really a romantic scene. Ladoucere had made his camp in a +small glade opposite our own, the bend of the river being in front +of us. The tall pines cast their long reflections on the water, our +great fires gleamed athwart them, illuminating the under foliage +of the birches with magical light, whilst the half-breeds, grouped +around and silhouetted by the fires, formed a unique picture which +lingers in the memory. We slept like tops that night beneath the +stars, on a soft bed of berry bushes, and never woke until a thin +morning rain sprinkling in our faces fetched us to our feet.</p> + +<p>A good bacon breakfast and then to our paddles, the river-bends +as graceful as ever, but with fewer rapids. At every turn we +came upon luxuriant hay meadows, with generally heavy woods +opposite them, the river showing the same easy and accessible +shore, whilst now and then giant hoof-prints, a broken marge, +and miry grass showed where a moose had recently sprawled up +the bank. Nothing, indeed, could surpass the rich colour-tone +of this delightful stream—an exquisite opaqueness even under +the clouds; but, interfused with sunshine, like that rare and +translucent brown spread by the pencil of a master.</p> + +<p>As we were paddling along, the willows on shore suddenly parted, +and an Indian runner appeared on the bank, who hailed us and, +handing over a sack of mail with letters and papers for us all, +sped off as suddenly as he came.</p> + +<p>It was now the last day of August, raw and drizzly, and having +paddled about ten miles through a like country, we came in sight +of the Pelican Mountains to the west, and, later on, to a fork +of the river called Muskeg Creek, above which our stream narrowed +to about eighteen feet, but still deep and fringed with the same +extensive hay meadows, and covered here and there with pond +lilies, a few yellow ones still in bloom. By and by we reached +Muskeg Portage, nearly a mile in length. The path lay at first +through dry muskegs covered with blueberries, Labrador tea, and +a dwarfed growth of birch, spruce, tamarac, and jackpine, but +presently entered and ended in a fine upland wood, full of +pea-vines, vetches and wild rose. This is characteristic of +the country, muskegs and areas of rich soil alternating in all +directions. The portage completed, we took to our canoes again, +the stream of the same width, but very crooked, and still bordered +by extensive and exceedingly rich hay meadows, which we were +satisfied would yield four or five tons to the acre. Small +haystacks were scattered along the route, being put up for ponies +which haul supplies in winter from Pelican Landing to Wahpoośkow.</p> + +<p>The country passed through showed good soil wherever we penetrated +the hay margin, with, of course, here and there the customary +muskegs. The stream now narrowed into a passage deep but barely +wide enough for our canoes, our course lying always through tall +and luxuriant hay. At last we reached Pelican Lake, a pretty large +sheet of water, about three miles across, the body of the lake +extending to the south-west and north-east. We crossed it under +sail and, landing at the "three mile portage," found a half-breed +there with a cart and ponies, which took our outfit over in a +couple of trips to Sandy Lake. A very strong headwind blowing, +we camped there for the night.</p> + +<p>This lake is the height of land, its waters discharging by the +Wahpoośkow River, whose northern part, miscalled the Loon, falls +into the Peace River below Fort Vermilion. The lake is an almost +perfect circle, ten or twelve miles in diameter, the water full +of fibrous growths, with patches of green scum afloat all over +it. Nevertheless, it abounds in pike, dory, and tullabees, the +latter a close congener of the whitefish, but finer in flavour +and very fat. Indeed, the best fed dogs we had seen were those +summering here. The lake, where we struck it, was literally +covered with pin-tail ducks and teal; but it is not a good moose +country, and consequently the food supply of the natives is +mainly fish.</p> + +<p>We descried a few half-breed cabins and clearings on the opposite +shore, carved out of the dense forest which girdles the lake, and +topographically the country seemed to be of a moderate elevation, +and well suited for settlement. The wind having gone down, we +crossed the lake on the 2nd of September to what is here called +Sandy Creek, a very crooked stream, its thick, sluggish current +bordered by willows and encumbered with reeds and flags, and, +farther on, made a two-mile portage, where at a very bad landing +we were joined by the boats, and presently paddled into a great +circular pond, covered with float-weed, a very paradise of ducks, +which were here in myriads.</p> + +<p>Its continuation, called "The Narrows," now flowed in a troubled +channel, crossed in all directions by jutting boulders, full of +tortuous snies, to be groped along dexterously with the poles, +but dropped at last into better water, ending at a portage, +where we dined. This portage led to the farmhouse of a Mr. +Houle, a native of Red River, who had left St. Vital fifty-eight +years before, and was now settled at a beautiful spot on the +right bank of the river, and had horses, cows and other cattle, +a garden, and raised wheat and other grain, which he said did +well, and was evidently prosperous. After a regale of milk we +embarked for the first Wahpoośkow lake, which we reached in +the afternoon.</p> + +<p>This is a fine and comparatively clear sheet of water, much +frequented by the natives. The day was beautiful, and with a +fair wind and sails up we passed point after point sprinkled +with the cabins and tepees of the Indians and half-breeds. It +was perfectly charming to sweep up to and past these primitive +lodgings, with a spanking breeze, and the dancing waves seething +around our bows. Small patches of potatoes met the eye at every +house, making our mouths water with expectation, for we had now +been a long time without them, and it is only then that one realizes +their value. In the far distance we discerned the Roman Catholic +Mission church, the primitive building showing up boldly in the +offing, whilst our canoemen, now nearing their own home, broke +into an Indian chant, and were in high spirits. They expected +a big feast that night, and so did we! I had been a bit under +the weather, with flagging appetite, but felt again the grip +of healthy hunger.</p> + +<p>We were now in close contact with the most innocently wild, +secluded, and apparently happy state of things imaginable—a real +Utopia, such as Sir Thomas More dreamt not of, being actually here, +with no trace of abortive politics or irritating ordinance. Here +was contentment in the savage wilderness—communion with Nature in +all her unstained purity and beauty. One thought of the many men of +mind who had moralized on this primitive life, and, tired of towns, +of "the weariness, the fever and the fret" of civilization, had +abandoned all and found rest and peace in the bosom of Mother +Nature.</p> + +<p>The lake now narrowed into a deep but crooked stream, fringed, +as usual, by tall reeds and rushes and clumps of flowering +water-lilies. A four-mile paddle brought us to a long stretch +of deep lake, the second Wahpoośkow, lined on the north by a +lovely shore, dotted with cabins, the central tall buildings +upon the summit of the rising ground being those of the English +"Church Mission Society," in charge of the Reverend Charles R. +Weaver. Here we were at last at the inland end of our journey, +at Wahpoośkow—this, not the "Wabiscow" of the maps, being the +right spelling and pronunciation of the word, which means in +English "The Grassy Narrows."</p> + +<p>The other Missions of this venerable Society in Athabasca, +it may be mentioned, were at the time as follows: Athabasca +Landing, the residence of Bishop Young; Lesser Slave Lake, White +Fish Lake, Smoky River, Spirit River, Fort Vermilion, and Fort +Chipewyan, in charge, respectively, of the Reverend Messrs. +Holmes, White, Currie, Robinson, Scott, and Warwick. The Roman +Catholic Mission, already mentioned, had been established three +years before our coming by the Reverend J. B. Giroux, at Stony +Point, near the outlet of the first lake, the other Oblat +Missions in Athabasca—I do not vouch for my accuracy—being +Athabasca Landing, Lesser Slave Lake, the residence of Bishop +Clût and clergy and of the Sisters of Providence; White Fish +Lake, Smoky River, Dunvegan, and St. John, served, respectively, +by Fathers Leferriere, Lesserec, and Letreste; Fort Vermilion +by Father Joussard, and Fort Chipewyan by Bishop Grouard and +the Grey Nuns.</p> + +<p>Mr. Weaver, the missionary at Wahpoośkow, is an Englishman, his +wife being a Canadian from London, Ontario. By untiring labour +he had got his mission into very creditable shape. When it is +remembered that everything had to be brought in by bark canoes or +dog-train, and that all lumber had to be cut by hand, it seemed to +be a monument of industry. Before qualifying himself for missionary +work he had studied farming in Ontario, and the results of his +knowledge were manifest in his poultry, pigs and cows; in his +garden, full of all the most useful vegetables, including Indian +corn, and his wheat, which was then in stock, perfectly ripe and +untouched by frost. This he fed, of course, to his pigs and poultry, +as it could not be ground; but it ripened, he told me, as surely +as in Manitoba. Some of the natives roundabout had begun raising +stock and doing a little grain growing, and it was pleasant to +hear the lowing of cattle and the music of the cow-bells, recalling +home and the kindly neighbourhood of husbandry and farm.</p> + +<p>The settlement was then some twenty years old, and numbered about +sixty souls. The total number of Indians and half-breeds in the +locality was unknown, but nearly two hundred Indians received +head-money, and all were not paid, and the half-breeds seemed +quite as numerous. About a quarter of the whole number of Indians +were said to be pagans, and the remainder Protestants and Roman +Catholics in fair proportion. In the latter denomination, Father +Giroux told me, the proportion of Indians and half-breeds, +including those of the first lake, was about equal. The latter, +he said, raised potatoes, but little else, and lived like the +Indians, by fishing and hunting, especially by the former, as +they had to go far now for fur and large game.</p> + +<p>The Hudson's Bay Company had built a post near Mr. Weaver's +Mission, and there was a free-trader also close by, named +Johnston, whose brother, a fine-looking native missionary, +assisted at an interesting service we attended in the Mission +church, conducted in Cree and English, the voices in the Cree +hymns being very soft and sweet. Mr. Ladoucere was also near +with his trading-stock, so that business, it was feared, would +be overdone. But we issued an unexpectedly large number of scrip +certificates here, and the price being run up by competition, +a great deal of trade followed.</p> + +<p>Wahpoośkow is certainly a wonderful region for fish, particularly +the whitefish and its cousin-german, the tullabee. They are not got +freely in winter in the first lake, but are taken in large numbers +in the second, where they throng at that season. But in the fall +the take is very great in both lakes, and stages were seen in all +directions where the fish are hung up by their tails, very tempting +to the hungry dogs, but beyond their reach until the crows attack +them. The former keep a watchful eye on this process, and when the +crows have eaten off the tails, which they invariably attack first, +the dogs seize the fish as they drop. When this performance becomes +serious, however, the fish are generally removed to stores.</p> + +<p>One night, after an excellent dinner at Mr. Weaver's, that grateful +rarity with us, we adjourned to a ball or "break-down," given in our +honour by the local community. It took place in a building put up by +a Mr. George, an English catechist of the Mission; a solid structure +of logs of some length, the roof poles being visible above the +peeled beams. On one of these five or six candles were alight, +fastened to it by simply sticking them into some melted tallow. +There were two fiddlers and a crowd of half-breeds, of elders, +youths, girls and matrons, the latter squatting on the floor with +their babes in moss-bags, dividing the delights of the evening +between nursing and dancing, both of which were conducted with the +utmost propriety. Indeed, it was interesting to see so many pretty +women and well-behaved men brought together in this out-of-the-world +place. The dances were the customary reels, and, of course, the Red +River Jig. I was sorry, however, to notice a so-called improvement +upon this historic dance; that is to say, they doubled the numbers +engaged in it, and called it "The Wahpoośkow Jig." It seemed a +dangerous innovation; and the introduction later on of a cotillon +with the usual dreary and mechanical calls filled one with +additional forebodings. We almost heard "the first low wash of waves +where soon shall flow a human sea." But aside from such newfangled +features, there was nothing to criticise. The fiddling was good, +and the dancing was good, showing the usual expertness, in which +performance the women stooped their shoulders gracefully, and bent +their brows modestly upon the floor, whilst the men vied with each +other in the admirable and complicated variety of their steps. In +fact, it was an evening very agreeably spent, and not the less so +from its primitive environment. After joining in a reel of eight, we +left the scene with reluctance, the memorable Jig suddenly striking +on our ears as we wended our way in the darkness to our camp.</p> + +<p>As regards farming land in the region, for a long way inland Mr. +Weaver and others described it as of the like good quality as at +the Mission, but with much muskeg. It is difficult to estimate the +extent of the latter, for, being more noticeable than good land, +the tendency is to overestimate. Its proportion to arable land is +generally put at about 50 per cent., which may be over or under +the truth, for only actual township or topographic surveys can +determine it.</p> + +<p>The country drained by the lower river, the Loon, as it is +improperly called in our maps, navigable for canoes all the +way to where it enters the Peace, was described as an extensive +and very uniform plateau, sloping gently to the north. To the +south the Pelican Mountains formed a noble background to the +view from the Mission, which is indeed charming in all directions.</p> + +<p>At the mouth of the river, and facing the Mission, a long point +stretches out, dividing the lake into two deep arms, the Mission +being situated upon another point around which the lake sweeps +to the north. The scene recalls the view from the Hudson's Bay +Company's post at Lesser Slave Lake, but excels it in the larger +extent of water, broken into by scores of bayous, or pools, +bordered by an intensely green water-weed of uniform height, +and smooth-topt as a well-clipt lawn. Behind these are hay meadows, +a continuation of the long line of them we had passed coming up.</p> + +<p>Upon the whole, we considered this an inviting region for any +farmer who is not afraid to tackle the forest. But whether a +railway would pass this way at first seemed to us doubtful. The +head of Lesser Slave Lake lies far to the south-west, and there +it is most likely to pass on its way to the Peace. What could be +supplied, however, is a waggon-road from Wahpoośkow to Athabasca +Landing, instead of the present dog-trail, which passes many deep +ravines, and makes a long detour by Sandy Lake. Such a road should +pass by the east end of the first Wahpoośkow Lake, thence to Rock +Island Lake, and on by Calling Lake to the Landing, a distance of +about one hundred miles. Such a road, whilst saving 125 miles of +travel by the present route, would cut down the cost of transport +by fully one-half.</p> + +<p>Wahpoośkow had its superstitions and some doubtful customs. For +instance, an Indian called Nepapinase—"A Wandering Bolt of +Night-Lightning"—lost his son when Mr. Ross was there taking +adhesion to the Treaty, and spread the report that he had brought +"bad medicine." Polygamy was practised, and even polyandry was +said to exist; but we had no time to verify this gossip, and no +right to interfere if we had.</p> + +<p>On the 6th, a lovely fall morning, we bade good-bye to Wahpoośkow, +its primitive people, and its simple but ample pleasures. Autumn +was upon us. Foliage, excepting in the deep woods, was changing +fast, the hues largely copper and russet; hard body-tints, yet +beautiful. There were no maples here, as in the East, to add a +glorious crimson to the scene; this was given by shrubs, not by +trees. The tints were certainly, in the larger growths, less +delicate here than there; the poplar's chrome was darker, the +willow's mottled chrome more sere. But there was the exquisite +pale canary of the birch, the blood-red and yellow of the wild +rose, which glows in both hues, the rich crimson of the red +willow, with its foil of ivory berries, and the ruddy copper +of the high-bush cranberry. These, with many other of the berry +bearers and the wild-flowers, yielded their rich hues; so that +the great pigments of autumn, crimson, brown and yellow, were +everywhere to be seen, beneath a deep blue sky strewn with +snowy clouds.</p> + +<p>We were now on the return to Pelican Landing, with but few incidents +to note by the way, aside from those already recorded. But having +occasion to take a declaration at a cabin on our passage along the +first lake, we had an opportunity of visiting a hitherto unobserved +stratum of Wahpoośkow's society.</p> + +<p>The path to the cabin and its tepees led up a steep bank, beaten +as hard as nails and as slippery as glass; nevertheless, by +clutching the weeds which bordered it, mainly nettles, we got +on top at last, where an interesting scene met the eye.</p> + +<p>This was a half-breed family, the head of which, a shrivelled +old fellow, was busy making a paddle with his crooked knife, +the materials of a birch-bark canoe lying beside him—and most +beautifully they make the canoe in this region. His wife was +standing close by, a smudged hag of most sinister aspect; also a son +and his wife. On stages, and on the shrubs around, were strewn nets, +ragged blankets, frowsy shawls, and a huddle of other shreds and +patches; and, everywhere else, a horde of hungry dogs snarling and +pouncing upon each other like wolves. Filth here was supreme, and +the <i>mise en scene</i> characteristic of a very low and very rare type +of Wahpoośkow life indeed—a type butted and bounded by the word +"fish." An attempt was made to photograph the group, but the old +fellow turned aside, and the old woman hobbled into the recesses of +a tepee, where we heard her muttering such execrations in Cree as +were possible to that innocent tongue. The hands of the woman at the +cabin door were a miracle of grime and scrofula. Her sluttish locks, +together with two children, hung around her; one of the latter +chewing a muddy carrot up into the leaves, an ungainly little imp; +the other was a girl of singularly beautiful features and of perfect +form, her large luminous eyes of richest brown reflecting the +sunlight from their depths like mirrors—a little angel clad in +dirt. Why other wild things should be delicately clean, the birds, +the fishes she lived on, and she be bred amidst running sores and +vermin, was one of the mysteries I pondered over when we took to our +canoes. For such a pair of eyes, for those exquisite features, some +scraggy denizen of Vanity Fair would have given a king's ransom. +Yet here was a thing of beauty, dropped by a vile freak of Nature +into an appalling environment of filth and ignorance; a creature +destined, no doubt, to spring into mature womanhood, and lapse, in +time, into a counterpart of the bleared Hecate who mumbled her Cree +philippics in the neighbouring wigwam.</p> + +<p>On our return trip some detours were made, one of which was to the +habitation of another half-breed family at the foot of Sandy Lake, +themselves and everything about them orderly, clean and neat; the +very opposites of the curious household we had visited the day +before. They had a great kettle of fish on the fire, which we +bought, and had our dinner there; being especially pleased to note +that their dogs were not starved, but were fat and well handled. At +the east side of the lake we were delayed trying to catch ponies +to make the portage, failing which we got over otherwise by dark, +and camped again on the Pelican River. That night there was a keen +frost, and ice formed along shore, but the weather was delightfully +crisp and clear, and we reached Pelican Landing on the 9th, finding +there our old scow and the trackers, with our friend Cyr in command, +and Marchand, our congenial cook, awaiting us.</p> + +<p>On the 11th we set off for Athabasca Landing, accompanied by a +little fleet of trippers' and traders' canoes, and passed during +the day immense banks of shale, the tracking being very bad and +the water still high. We noted much good timber standing on heavy +soil, and on the 14th passed a curious hump-like hill, cut-faced, +with a reddish and yellow cinder-like look, as if it had been +calcined by underlying fires. Near it was an exposure of deep +coloured ochre, and, farther on, enormous black cut-banks, also +suggestive of coal.</p> + +<p>The Calling River—"Kitoósepe"—was one of our points of +distribution, and upon reaching it we found the river benches +covered with tepees, and a crowd of half-breeds from Calling +Lake awaiting us. After the declarations and scrip payments were +concluded, we took stock of the surroundings, which consisted, so +far as numbers went, mainly of dogs. Nearly all of them looked very +miserable, and one starveling bitch, with a litter of pups, seemed +to live upon air. It was pitiful to see the forlorn brutes so +cruelly abused; but it has been the fate of this poor mongrel friend +of humanity from the first. The canine gentry fare better than many +a man, but the outcasts of the slums and camps feel the stroke of +bitter fortune, yet, with prodigious heart, never cease to love the +oppressor.</p> + +<p>There was an adjunct of the half-breed camp, however, more +interesting than the dogs, namely, Marie Rose Gladu, a half-sister +of the Catherine Bisson we met at Lesser Slave Lake, but who +declared herself to be older than she by five years. From evidence +received she proved to be very old, certainly over a hundred, +and perhaps the oldest woman in Northern Canada. She was born at +Lesser Slave Lake, and remembered the wars of her people with the +Blackfeet, and the "dancing" of captured scalps. She remembered +the buffalo as plentiful at Calling Lake; that it was then a mixed +country, and that their supplies in those old days were brought +in by way of Isle a la Cross, Beaver River, and Lac la Biche, as +well as by Methy Portage, a statement which I have heard disputed, +but which is quite credible for all that. She remembered the old +fort at the south-east end of Lesser Slave Lake, and Waupístagwon, +"The White Head," as she called him, namely, Mr. Shaw of the famous +finger-nail. Her father, whose name was Nekehwapiśkun—"My wigwam +is white"—was a fur company's Chief, and, in his youth, a noted +hunter of Rabisca (Chipewyan), whence he came to Lesser Slave Lake. +Her own Cree name, unmusical for a wonder, was Ochenaskuḿagan— +"Having passed many Birthdays." Her hair was gray and black rather +than iron-gray, her eyes sunken but bright, her nose well formed, +her mouth unshrunken but rather projecting, her cheeks and brow a +mass of wrinkles, and her hands, strange to say, not shrivelled, but +soft and delicate as a girl's. The body, however, was nothing but +bones and integument; but, unlike her half-sister, she could walk +without assistance. After our long talk through an interpreter she +readily consented to be photographed with me, and, seating ourselves +on the grass together, she grasped my hand and disposed herself in a +jaunty way so as to look her very best. Indeed, she must have been a +pretty girl in her youth, and, old as she was, had some of the arts +of girlhood in her yet.</p> + +<p>At this point the issue of certificates for scrip practically +ended, the total number distributed being 1,843, only 48 of which +were for land.</p> + +<p>Leaving Calling River before noon, we passed Rivière la Biche +towards evening, and camped about four miles above it on the same +side of the river. We were not far from the Landing, and therefore +near the end of our long and toilsome yet delightful journey. It +was pleasant and unexpected, too, to find our last camp but one +amongst the best. The ground was a flat lying against the river, +wooded with stately spruce and birch, and perfectly clear of underbrush. +It was covered with a plentiful growth of a curious fern-like plant +which fell at a touch. The great river flowed in front, and an almost +full moon shone divinely across it, and sent shafts of sidelong light +into the forest. The huge camp-fires of the trackers and canoemen, +the roughly garbed groups around them, the canoes themselves, the +whole scene, in fact, recalled some genre sketch by our half-forgotten +colourist, Jacobi. Our own fire was made at the foot of a giant spruce, +and must have been a surprise to that beautiful creature, evidently +brimful of life. Indeed, I watched the flames busy at its base with +a feeling of pain, for it is difficult not to believe that those +grand productions of Nature, highly organized after their kind, +have their own sensations, and enjoy life.</p> + +<p>The 17th fell on a Sunday, a delicious morning of mist and sunshine +and calm, befitting the day. But we were eager for letters from +home, and therefore determined to push on. Perhaps it was less +desecrating to travel on such a morning than to lie in camp. One +felt the penetrating power of Nature more deeply than in the +apathy or indolent ease of a Sunday lounge. Still there were +those who had to smart for it—the trackers. But the Mecca of +the Landing being so near, and its stimulating delights looming +largely in the haze of their imagination, they were as eager to +go on as ourselves.</p> + +<p>The left bank of the river now exhibited, for a long distance, a +wilderness swept by fire, but covered with "rampikes" and fallen +timber. The other side seemed to have partially escaped destruction. +The tracking was good, and we passed the "Twenty Mile Rock" before +dinner, camping about fifteen miles from the Landing. Next morning +we passed through a like burnt country on both sides, giving the +region a desolate and forlorn look, which placed it in sinister +contrast with the same river to the north.</p> + +<p>Farther up, the right bank rose bare to the sky-line with a mere +sprinkling of small aspens, indicating what the appearance of the +"rampike" country would be if again set ablaze, and converted from +a burnt-wood region to a bare one. The banks revealed a clay soil, +in some places mixed boulders, but evidently there was good land +lying back from the river.</p> + +<p>In the morning bets were made as to the hour of arrival at the +Landing. Mr. P. said four p.m., the writer five, the Major six, +and Mr. C. eight. At three p.m. we rounded the last point but +one, and reached the wharf at six-thirty, the Major taking the +pool.</p> + +<p>We had now nothing before us but the journey to Edmonton. At night +a couple of dances took place in adjacent boarding-houses, which +banished sleep until a great uproar arose, ending in the partisans +of one house cleaning out the occupants of the other, thus reducing +things to silence. We knew then that we had returned to earth. We +had dropped, as it were, from another planet, and would soon, too +soon, be treading the flinty city streets, and, divorced from +Nature, become once more the bond-slaves of civilization.</p> + +<h3 id="conclusion">Conclusion.</h3> + +<p>I have thought it most convenient to the reader to unite with +the text, as it passes in description from place to place, what +knowledge of the agricultural and other resources of the country +was obtainable at the time. The reader is probably weary of +description by this time; but, should he make a similar journey, +I am convinced he would not weary of the reality. Travellers, +however, differ strangely in perception. Some are observers, +with imagination to brighten and judgment to weigh, and, if need +be, correct, first impressions; whilst others, with vacant eye, +or out of harmony with novel and perhaps irksome surroundings, +see, or profess to see, nothing. The readiness, for instance, +of the Eastern "fling" at Western Canada thirty years ago is +still remembered, and it is easy to transfer it to the North.</p> + +<p>Those who lament the meagreness of our records of the fur-trade +and primitive social life in Ontario, for example, before the +advent of the U. E. Loyalists, can find their almost exact +counterpart in Athabasca to-day. For what that Province was +then, viz., a wilderness, Athabasca is now; and it is safe to +predict that what Ontario is to-day Athabasca will become in +time. Indeed, Northern Canada is the analogue of Eastern Canada +in more likenesses than one.</p> + +<p>That the country is great and possessed of almost unique resources +is beyond doubt; but that it has serious drawbacks, particularly +in its lack of railway connection with the outer world, is also +true. And one thing must be borne in mind, namely, that, when +the limited areas of prairie within its borders are taken up, the +settler must face the forest with the axe.</p> + +<p>Perhaps he will be none the worse for this. It bred in the pioneers +of our old provinces some of the highest qualities: courage, iron +endurance, self-denial, homely and upright life, and, above all, +for it includes all, true and ennobling patriotism. The survival +of such qualities has been manifest in multitudes of their sons, +who, remembering the record, have borne themselves manfully wherever +they have gone.</p> + +<p>But modern conditions are breeding methods new and strange, and +keen observers profess to discern in our swift development the +decay of certain things essential to our welfare. We seem, they +think, to be borrowing from others—for they are not ours by +inheritance—their boastful spirit, extravagance, and love +of luxury, fatal to any State through the consequent decline of +morality. The picture is over-drawn. True womanhood and clean +life are still the keynotes of the great majority of Canadian +homes.</p> + +<p>Yet very striking is the contrast with the old days of household +economies, the days of the ox-chain, the sickle, and the leach-tub. +All of these, some happily and some unhappily, have been swept +away by the besom of Progress. But in any case life was too +serious in those days for effeminate luxury, or for aught but +proper pride in defending the country, and in work well done. +And it is just this stern life which must be lived, sooner or +later, not only in the wilds of Athabasca, but in facing +everywhere the great problems of race-stability—the spectres +of retribution—which are rapidly rising upon the white man's +horizon.</p> + +<p>For the rest, and granting the manhood, the future of Athabasca +is more assured than that of Manitoba seemed to be to the doubters +of thirty years ago. In a word, there is fruitful land there, +and a bracing climate fit for industrial man, and therefore its +settlement is certain. It will take time. Vast forests must +be cleared, and not, perhaps, until railways are built will +that day dawn upon Athabasca. Yet it will come; and it is well +to know that, when it does, there is ample room for the immigrant +in the regions described.</p> + +<p>The generation is already born, perhaps grown, which will recast +a famous journalist's emphatic phrase, and cry, "Go North!" Well, +we came thence! Our savage ancestors, peradventure, migrated from +the immemorial East, and, in skins and breech-clouts, rocked the +cradle of a supreme race in Scandinavian snows. It has travelled +far to the enervating South since then; and, to preserve its +hardihood and sway on this continent, must be recreated in the +high latitudes which gave it birth.</p> + +<hr> + +<h3 id="cotespoem">MR. COTÉ'S POEM.</h3> + +<blockquote> +Sortez de vos tombeaux, peuplades endormies<br> +A l'ombre des grands pins de vos forêts bénies!<br> +Venez, fils de guerriers, qui jadis sous ces bois<br> +Bruliez vos tomahawks, vos armes et vos carquois!<br> +Que sur vos pâles fronts l'auréole immortelle<br> +Pour votre bienfaiteur s'illumine plus belle.<br> +Néophytes, venez en ce jour de bonheur<br> +Proclamer les vertus de l'illustre pasteur,<br> +Qui pour vous ses agneaux, ses brebis les plus chères.<br> +Consacra sa jeunesse et ses années entières.<br> +Venez, fleurs qui brillez au jardin de Bon Dieu.<br> +Répandre les parfums qu'exhale le saint lieu<br> +Sur l'illustre vieillard qui de sa voix bénie<br> +Vous fit épanouir dans l'hôeureuse patrie!<br> +Tendre et vénéré père, apôtre magnanime,<br> +Grand prêtre du Seigneur, votre oevre fut sublime.<br> +Des bords du Missouri jusqu'aux glances du nord,<br> +Voyez, semeur béni, cinquante sillons d'or;<br> +Voyez sur le versant de la montagne sainte<br> +De votre charité l'impérissable empreinte;<br> +Voyez cette légion d'âmes régénérées<br> +Portant par votre main les célestes livrées.<br> +Quoi, muse profane, indigne chalumeau,<br> +Oserais-tu planer sur un thème si haut?<br> +Pour chanter du héros les fêtes jubilaires<br> +Descends de ces hauteurs à demi-séculaires!<br> +Muse prosterne-toi. Hosanna! Hosanna!<br> +Au ciel gloire au Très-Haut. Jube, alleluia!<br> +Hommage sur la terre à l'Oblat de Marie,<br> +Qui dans son cycle d'or brille sur la patrie!</blockquote> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12569 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |