134 REV. GEO. PATTEESON ON" THE BEOTHIKS 



their cauoes. These seem to me the most remarkable of the works of the Beothiks. This 

 mode of capturing deer was practised among several tribes of the aborigines of this con- 

 tinent. But I have never known of its being practised on so large a scale. The fences 

 described by John Cartwright extended for thirty miles along the river, and in addition 

 George mentions that on the north side of the river they had erected lines of fences 

 running back from the river, sometimes parallel with each other, or slightly diverging, 

 and forming a narrow lane of some length, and then forming wing fences to the north- 

 ea'^t and the northwest. Mr. Cormaek, sixty years after, observed the same and remarked 

 the. skill with which they were laid out to guide the creatures to certain passes, 

 such as the extreme ends of lakes which form branches of the river, or along the 

 bottoms of valleys between high and rugged mountains, or to fords in the river. Mr. 

 N. R. Neilsou, a gentleman employed in lumbering on the Exploits River, mentioned the 

 same to me, and says that some of the old fences have been repaired by the Micmacs. 

 Farther Mr. Lloyd, who visited the district in 1874, observed the remains of an extensive 

 structure of the same kind on the uorth side of Red Indian Lake. Mr. W. G-. Bradshaw, 

 employed about the same time on the geological survey of the island in that quarter, in- 

 forms me that he observed the same ; that wherever there were bogs the stakes remained 

 standing. They were both informed by the Micmacs that this extended northeasterly all 

 the way to Grrand Pond,' a distance of thirty-five miles. The construction of such works 

 in the circumstances of this people, even with the aid of all the iron axes we may sup- 

 pose them to have stolen from the whites, must have required the labours of a largo 

 number of men, Mr. Cormaek says some hundreds, and shows that they must have been 

 a numerous tribe, as well as possessed of a spirit of perseverance and a capacity for har- 

 monious and combined effort. 



After six days' travel Cartwright and some of the party reached the lake. They 

 found here a number of the native dwellings, but saw none of their occupants, and their 

 supplies being reduced they returned to the coast. He, however, carefully examined 

 their houses, cauoes, etc., and has given us a very carefully written account of them, 

 which, as not only the oldest but the best that we possess, we shall draw upon largely.^ 

 Their houses were of two kinds. The one called meulick was like the ordinary wigwams 

 of the Micmacs and other neighbouring tribes, being a conical hut, formed by a row of 

 poles stuck in the ground in a circle and meeting in a point at the top, and covered by 

 birch rind laid sheet upon sheet like tiles. But one remarkable peculiarity he observed 

 was that in a circle round the centre where the fire was placed were dug oblong hollows, 

 which were lined with the tender branches of fir and pine, and which he supposed were 

 their sleeping places. This kind of nest in the wigwam was almost peculiar to the 

 Beolhi/cs. But Lndy Blake mentions that among a tribe at the foot of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains named the Atuaks, whose lands are contiguous to the Thompson River, the women 

 dig out holes on the ground, which they inlay with grass or branches, and which it is 

 supposed are used as places of repose. 



The other form of dwelling was the square-framed habitation, the vmmmatee/c, as it 



' In Newfouiiclland lakes of whatever size are called ponds. 



- Mr. George Cartwright, in his ".Journal of Transactions and Events on the Coast of Labrador," has given an 

 account of the same journey and similar particulars about the Red Indians. We have added some items from 

 his work. 



