CANMIBALISM. 305 



the weaker were killed, to be devoured. The 

 Express-men, one Scotch, the other a native of 

 Orkney, who were proceeding with letters to the 

 post on the Peel River, were met by a party of 

 starving Indians, who stole upon them at night, 

 murdered and ate them and their provisions, and, as 

 report goes, were in their turn slaughtered and 

 devoured. 



The commodious residence in which we were 

 located deserves description, if only as a new 

 proof that 



" Man wants but little here below." 



It consisted of a solitary apartment, twenty by 

 eighteen feet ; was constructed of roughly-hewn pine- 

 logs of large dimensions, the interstices being- 

 plastered with mud, which I must remark, by the 

 by, was the universal substitute for mortar in the 

 Mackenzie River and adjacent districts. The two 

 casements were formed by tightly-stretched sheets of 

 semilucent parchment, which, where imperfect, were 

 repaired with scraps of foolscap ; the light admitted 

 thereby was well suited for weak eyes ; the door had 

 been made of green wood, and its parts had shrunk 

 widely asunder; the openings thus formed were 

 stuffed with lynx-skin, which gave it a very motley 

 appearance. The roof was flat, of sticks and moss, in 



