Section IL, 1908 [ ISS ] Trans. R. S. C. 



VIII. — Intrusive Ethnological Types in Rupert's Land. 

 By Eev. De. G. Beyce. 



(Read May 19, 1903.) 



The filling up of the great north and west of Canada at the present 

 time, by immigrants from all parts of the world, suggests to students 

 of race an inquiry into the early intrusions of ethnological types into 

 Rupert's Land, which becam'e a part of Canada in 1870. 



The region known from the incorporation of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company in 1670 until 1870 as Kupert's Land, was the centre of attrac- 

 tion, (1) for several tribes of Indians; (2) later, for bands of traders, 

 settlers and colonists of different nationalities. While at present it 

 is the agricultural and pastoral features of this region that are drawing 

 to it thousa^nds to settle, yet for two centuries before the Northwest 

 became a part of Canada, fur-bearing animals, including on the prairies 

 mighty herds of buffaloes, attracted different races and peoples to the 

 land. 



Rupert's Land as defined by the charier of the Hudson's Bay 

 Comipany, included the lands lying on the rivers and other bodies of 

 water tributary to Hudson Bay. This vast region of varying physical 

 features was divided into two parts by a line drawn from the inter- 

 section of parallel 90° W. long, with the north shore line of Lake 

 Superior, running west and northwestward to Lake of the Woods, thence 

 to Lake Winnipeg, up its eastern shore, and far away to the Arctic 

 sea. East of this line is the rocky region, with its Laurentian and Hu- 

 ronian rocks, woods and crystal streams even to Labrador. West of 

 the line lie the wide fertile prairies, generally treeless, covered with rich 

 grasses, and originally inhabited by the buffalo, bear, and antelope. 

 Eastern and Western Rupert's Land appealed in very different ways 

 to the various classes of intruders who were dra\vn to them. 



EARLY EACES. 



When the French explorer, Nicolet, first of white men, in 1634, 

 found his way westward, he paiSsed up the Ottawa, d'own the streams 

 to Georgian Bay, and through that bay, encountering Indians of Algon- 

 quin stock. These were the Ottawas, Pottawottomies, and Ojibways. 

 Among these three tribes a confederacy existed known as the " Three 

 Fires." When Nicolet reached the St. Mary river, and at the head 

 of it Sault Ste. Marie, he found the Indians to be still Ojibway, a lead- 



