INDIAN EXAGGERATION. 315 



There are several " articles of belief " in meteor- 

 ological signs among the Indians and whites who 

 have sojourned long in these regions. Por instance, 

 if January be fine or cold, March may be looked for 

 as the reverse, and vice versa; if, in display of 

 parhelia, the mock-sun is seen to the westward of 

 the true, or, should there be one on each side, 

 if the western sun be last to fade, bad weather is 

 sure to ensue. 



The Indians have a sad character for exaggera- 

 tion. Some who passed our quarters on return 

 from Fort Norman brought doleful news of death 

 and starvation. — " An Indian man and woman had 

 been frozen to death near Fort Norman ; many were 

 dying of starvation, and the Fort was full of people 

 in a like condition." Fortunately Mr. MacKenzie 

 had written a note by them which I received next 

 day, and found that a few had reached Fort Norman 

 without food ; a woman had died from extreme old 

 age and two boys from sickness, upon which founda- 

 tion their tale had been built up. There was little 

 danger of starvation either to us or the Indians, while 

 the supply of fish remained so plentiful. We had 

 used four small nets from the end of November, 

 and found at the end of February, that we had 

 eighteen hundred fish " en cache ;" our consumption. 



