si? THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
This Athabaskan type of shoe is apparently exclusively used by 
the Athabaskan Indians of Alaska. It is also used by the Cana- 
dian Athabascan Indians of the Yukon, the Mackenzie River Basin 
and the interior of British Columbia. The Western Cree type of shoe 
(Algonkian) has replaced this form among various tribes of the 
Canadian Athabaskan Indians of the interior, and it is difficult with 
our knowledge of these Indians to state whether this change has occur- 
red only locally or has been more or less complete. 
The typical Western Cree type (Algonkian) is long and narrow 
and made up of a two-piece frame pointed at both ends and well 
turned up in front. It often has a string from the front point to the 
front cross-bar, and from one to three cross-bars as spreaders in the toe- 
spacing, which cross-bars are usually circular in cross-section and not 
knitted into the netting; sometimes also it has an extra cross-bar in 
the heel-spacing. It has the usual Algonkian hexagonal netting and 
attachment to the frame, and the two shoes representing the pair 
as in the case of long snowshoes are usually made in rights and lefts. 
It is illustrated in plate 3. 
Figure 1 in this plate is Western Cree from Manitoba. It is 
6 feet long and 15 inches wide with an extra cross-bar in the heel 
spacing which is knitted into the netting and another in the front | 
space which is not, and it also has a twisted rawhide cross-string in 
the front. It belongs to the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association. 
The Indians in the vitinity of Winnipeg are said to have had several 
pairs of snowshoes in use, one pair the height of a man, of which this. 
is an example for long trips while shorter shoes were used around home 
and for shorter trips. 
Number 2 is Western Cree from Pembina River some 70 miles 
west of Edmonton, Alberta. It is 54 inches long and 123 inches wide, 
made in right and left with turned-up front, and two spreader cross- 
bars in the front spacing. 
Number 3 is from the Mackenzie River Basin east of the Rocky 
Mountains, the exact locality being unknown. It has a _ two-piece 
frame neatly spliced in front in Athabaskan style but the turn-up in 
front instead of being long and gradual as in the above type is short and 
abrupt so that the turn-up points backward past the right angle. It 
has the hexagonal mesh and Algonkian attachment to the frame but 
the latter is oval in cross-section, and fuller in the centre than at the 
ends. It is an interesting example and the only one of the kind ever 
seen by the writer. In all probability it is a transitional form between 
Athabaskan and Western Cree types. 
Number 4 is Western Cree from Lake Athabasca, 56 inches long 
and 133 inches wide with a two-piece frame, pointed fore and aft and 
