

'iW:- -'rV- 



Revillon Freres' trading post on Hay River, which is more than seven hundred miles by any 

 available route from the railroad. Fires are kept burning to protect the horses from flies 



The river is full of islands. In the 

 three hundred miles there are about two 

 hundred of them, covered with pine and 

 spruce timber. As we proceeded the 

 banks gradually grew lower and the river 

 wider. That night we tied up at North 

 Vermilion and went down to the river 

 bank instead of up, the river was so high. 

 Here six hundred miles from the railroad 

 there are two little communities of 

 whites and half breeds, one on either side 

 of the river. They get mail once a month 

 and are glad to get it, although it is usu- 

 ally two months old when it arrives. 



The white people are well-read, well- 

 educated, and have the true northern 

 hospitality. The half-breeds form a 

 class by themselves. They read a little 

 French, but prayer books and catechisms 

 are all that are available to them in 

 French. Only a few of them have been 

 as far from home as Edmonton, the 

 others consider Vermilion the center of 

 the earth. 



With Vermilion as a base six weeks 

 were spent in ethnological work. Dur- 

 ing this time a trip was made to a trading 

 post on Hay River on the occasion of 



Slavey Indians gathered to receive treaty money from the Dominion Government. An annual 

 payment of Ave dollars for each Indian is made to heads of families in an effort to keep an accurate census 

 and supervision over the tribes. Some refuse to accept the money and none have any conception of the 

 outside world 



257 



