NO. 1405. MA3BfALS OF NORTHWEST TERRITORIES— MACFARLANE. 681 



same inexcusable manner. They ai'c a more provident race, and 

 seldom suffer privation for want of food. In courses of the company's 

 five years' occupation of Fort Anderson, we received consideral)le quan- 

 tities of venison and many skins of the Barren Ci round reindeer from 

 the Eskimos and Indians who resorted thereto for pui'poses of trade. 



During the ('omparati^'eIy short season of open water, the Anderson 

 and Liverpool Bay Kskimos were engaoed in fishing and hunting 

 reindeer along the river, as well as walrus, seals, and sometimes whales 

 in the contiguous polar seas. In spring, when the reindeer were on 

 their annual migration to the coast, but especially on their fall return 

 to the woods, the Eskimos shot and speared a great num])er; in the 

 former season while browsing on the slopes and smnmits of the Ander- 

 son Kiver l)anks, and in the latter, when in the water making for their 

 customar}' crossing points or passes. In l)oth cases, the successful 

 hunter inserted an arrow in the carcass, so that on its fioating ))y the 

 lodges lower down the river it might be taken ashore for the benefit 

 of the part}' by whom it had })een killed. Earl}^ in December, the 

 Eskimos usually retired to their driftwood-constructed huts, or winter 

 houses, at various points along the coast, but before doing so they 

 always made more or less provision for their return to the Anderson 

 River in the beginning of the succeeding month of April, by placing 

 in one or more caches (built on and formed of large blocks of thick 

 ice, well protected from wolves and wolverines, the chief ro])bers to 

 1)6 feared) some 30 or 40 miles from its outlet in Liverpool Bay, a con- 

 siderable quantity of fresh venison. Earl}' in March, the female seals 

 begin to bring forth their 3'oung, and the seal then became the chief 

 object of chase by the Eskimos, who, as the days lengthened, moved 

 out seaward on the ice from their winter residences on the coast to 

 engage in the interesting task of hunting seals. After reaching 

 the aforesaid caches, the bulk of the Eskimos would remain in the 

 neighl)orhood, using the meat, trapping foxes, and killing a few rein- 

 deer and making the usual preparations for the siunmer season, until 

 the disruption of the ice, when many of them would ascend the river, 

 visit the post, and spend some daj's in its inunediate vicinity, and in due 

 time proceed to the seashore. 



When I first reached the mouth of the Anderson River, early in 

 Fel)ruary, 1859, instead of a village, as I was led to expect, there Avas 

 but one large house inhabited by fifteen men, women, and children, 

 while the nearest group of huts was, as they informed us, at too great 

 a distance for us to visit in the very cold and stoi-my winither which 

 usually occurs at that season, and which, indeed, prevailed during our 

 two days' stay there. Our party comprised one Scotchman, one Swede, 

 one French half-breed, and one Loucheux Indian, with two trains or 

 teams of three dogs each. We found our quarters very warm and 

 comfortable. Fort Anderson was established in 1861, after we had 



