Ross on Animals useful to the Chifewyans. 433 



ARTICLE XXXII. — An account of the Animals useful in an 

 economic jpoint of view to the various Chipewyan Tribes. By 

 B. R. Ross, H. B. C. S. 



While collecting and arranging a series of specimens of the 

 industrial arts of the natives of McKenzie's River District, for the 

 Royal Industrial Museum of Edinburgh, I was struck, not only 

 with their number, but also with their importance to the domes- 

 tic comfort of these races. 



Though doubtless much of the skill of the Chipewyan tribes 

 has been lost since the period of Sir Alexander McKenzie's visit, 

 by the introduction of European manufactures, enough yet re- 

 mains to prove interesting as exhibiting the arts and manufac- 

 tures of a people still in the first stages of social existence and 

 civilization ; and the following notices may form a sequel to my 

 paper "On the aboriginal tribes of McKenzie's River District," 

 already printed in the Canadian Naturalist. The manufactures 

 are in themselves rude, and, with the exception of porcupine 

 work, I know of none that would obtain the name of art, or win 

 in a Museum, the meed of more than a passing glance from any 

 one, save an ethnologist. To the unreflecting, or to those who 

 for mere pleasure visit these " repositories of science," they must 

 indeed be caviare^ but to the philosophic mind they would speak 

 volumes, as showing the human intellect, though in its lowest 

 stages, attempting, not unsuccessfully, to break through the sur- 

 rounding crust of animalism, and struggling to emerge into a 

 sphere of higher intelligence. 



In the present sketch, I entirely exclude the Eskimos and Lou- 

 cheux — though recent researches almost confirm me in the opinion 

 that the latter tribe is a branch of the Chipewyan family — as it 

 would swell the paper much beyond the limits to which I have 

 restricted myself, to pass their handicrafts also in review. 



The Chipewyan tribes — including the Montaignais, Yellow- 

 knives, Beavers, Dog-ribs, Slaves, Sickannies, Nehaunies, and Hare 

 Indians — draw their resources from the animal, vegetable and 

 mineral kingdoms ; but I must at present restrict myself to the 

 first of these great sections, hoping, at some future period, to 

 have the pleasure of noticing the others. 



In the manufactures of the Indians, no articles hold a more im- 

 portant or more conspicuous position, than those drawn from 

 animals ; but this must naturally be expected in a people who 

 Can. Nat. 2 Vol. VI. No. 6. 



