20 APPENDIX, NO. I. 



birch or spruce bark, but it did not appear that these were 

 applied to any purpose of cookery : I apprehend they do 

 not boil any part of their diet, but broil or roast the whole ; 

 there were two iron boilers, which must have been plundered 

 from some of our settlers ; to what purpose they may apply 

 these is uncertain, but they appeared to set a great value 

 on them, for on deserting the wigwam, they had conveyed 

 them out of our sight. They were well supplied with axes, 

 on which a high value is set ; these they keep bright and 

 sharp, as also the blades of their arrows, of which we 

 found upwards of an hundred new ones in a case. 



The reports of the settlers have always magnified the 

 Newfoundland Indians into a gigantic stature ; this, how- 

 ever, is not the case as far as regards the tribe we saw, and 

 the idea may perhaps have originated from the bulkiness of 

 their dress. They are well formed, and appear extremely 

 healthy and athletic, and the average stature of the men 

 may probably reach five feet eight inches. With one ex- 

 ception, their hair was black ; their features are more pro- 

 minent than any of the Indian tribes that 1 have ever seen, 

 and from what could be discerned through a lacker of oil 

 and red ochre (or red earth) with which they besmear them- 

 selves, I was led to conclude them to be fairer than the 

 generality of Indian complexions. The exception with 

 regard to the hair, was in that of a female, bearing all the 

 marks of an European, with light sandy hair, and features 

 strongly resembling the French, apparently about twenty- 

 two years of age ; she carried an infant in her cossack ; her 

 demeanour differed very materially from the others ; in~ 

 stead of that sudden change from surprise and dismay to 

 acts of familiarity, she never uttered a word, nor did she 

 ever recover from the terror our sudden and unexpected 

 visit had thrown her into. The dress of these Indians 

 consisted of a loose cossack, without sleeves, but puckered 

 at the collar to prevent its falling oif the shoulders, and 

 made so long that when fastened up round the haunches 



