﻿1848. AND ESKIMOS. 213 



before we parted ; being probably what tliey had 

 reserved for their next meal, if we had not fur- 

 nished them mth one. We never found them with 

 abundance of food ; for, in times of plenty, they do 

 not think it necessary to lay up a stock, but let the 

 future provide for itself. 



It is supposed that formerly the Eskimos were in 

 the habit of ascending the river to the Ramparts 

 to collect fragments of flinty slate for lance and 

 arrow-points ; but they have been only once so far 

 up, since the trading-posts were established. An 

 old Indian, who was alive within a few years, told 

 Mr. Bell that on that occasion he was wounded 

 by an arrow ; but that he succeeded in escaping 

 to the top of the cliff, from whence he killed two 

 Eskimos with his fowling-piece. 



As we passed the encampment, the Indians 

 rushed down to the river's side, and, launching 

 their canoes, accompanied us to Fort Good Hope, 

 which now stands near its earliest site, a short 

 way below the defile. At the time of Sir John 

 Franklin's descent of the river in 1825 and 1826, 

 the post stood about one hundred miles further 

 down ; but it Avas removed to its present position 

 in 1836, after the destruction of the former 

 establishment by an overflow of the river. The 

 flood, carrying with it large masses of ice, rose 

 thirty feet ; and, mowing down the forest timber, 



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