136 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



ing stirps of the Algonquins. Tbe looal name given by the French 

 to the Indians of the 'district was 



. • SAUTEURS. 



Different forms of the word, have been -used, as: — Saulteurs, Saul- 

 teux, Sautcux, or more commonly, Saulteaux. This family of Indians 

 had very marked features of life and behaviour. They might well be 

 called the Indian gypsies of the west. 



Bourgainville in his Memoir (1757) tells us that he found numbers 

 of this tribe trading far up Lake Supoiior at Nepigon. He says: 

 " This tribe, one of the most numerous in these regions, is wandering, 

 plants nothing, and subsists solely by the chase and fishing." As 

 far west as the Kaministiquia river he found Saulteaux, and they were 

 an aggressive and intrusive race, with their faces set westward. 



In 1808 Alexander Henry, Jr., found Saulteaux mingling with 

 the Crées on the sO'Uth branch of the Saskatchewan, fifteen hundred 

 miles west of Sault Ste. Marie. They had there actually become 

 adapted to the use of horses — a, remarkable thing for a canoe-loving 

 Algonquin. 



A celebrated fur trader, Peter Grant, in 1804, writes a finished 

 and accurate aocount of the " Sauteux Indians.^' This sketch is to 

 he found in Ex-Grovemor Masson's '" Bourgeois du Nord-Ouest." He 

 describes the Saulteux Indians, in the main, as follows: 

 Of common stature. 



Som.ewhat slender. 



Oompl'exion, whitish copper-coloured. 



Hair: black, long and strong. 



Point of nose slightly flattened. 



Lips, full. 



Cheeks, high and prominent. 



Eyes, black. 



Face — rather handsome. 

 The Saulteaux were well adapted by their nomadic life for the 

 life in the rockland forest, and here their influence was strongly felt. 

 Grant speaks of their country as bounded on the northeast by Nipissing 

 (and Hudson's Bay?); on the southwest by the south side of Lake 

 Superior, in a line to the head of the Mississippi, and from thence to 

 Eed River. He states their population to be 6,000 souls. (Probably 

 Grant did not distinguish very clearly the Saulteaux from the Crées. — 

 G. B.). 



Groups of Saulteaux are to this day to be found on the Red and 

 Assiniboine rivers, and even on the SasKatchewan. 



