THE SASKATCHEWAN NATIVES 39 



tea nearly to a boil when the burning sticks fell beneath it and 

 it was all spilled. Not gaining wisdom by experience he 

 allowed this to happen a second time, after which I did not 

 wonder that Ooskanatchet was afraid to depend upon him and 

 the Little Devil for support. 



Tea Kettles. The tea kettles — "copper kettles" — used in the 

 North and Northwest are tin-lined copper pails having a close 

 fitted lid with a ring riveted in the centre. There are no seams 

 to melt in the intense heat of a winter camp fire, and they are 

 sufficiently heavy to withstand the hard usage of camp life. 

 The smallest hold but one pint. The two quart size is the one 

 used by two men traveling together and one filling is never 

 enough to satisfy their thirst. 



Provision. In summer, in the Northwest, the bread is baked 

 en route. It is made of flour and water only, no leavening agent 

 being used. The dough is made very stiff and is worked for 

 some time. It is kneaded into flat circular cakes of a size to 

 fit the frying pan, in which they are baked before the fire, the 

 pan resting on the ground and inclined so that the heat falls 

 upon the top of the loaf; the handle of the pan is supported by 

 an upright stick set in the ground. If the traveler has no fry- 

 ing pan the bread is baked in a "beaver tail." Such a loaf is 

 long and narrow and is exposed to the fire upon a stick, the 

 lower end being set in the ground; two or three cross sticks, the 

 size of an ordinary skewer, are required to prevent the loaf 

 from breaking and falling as it bakes. The natives in their 

 haste usually eat these cakes before they are thoroughly cooked. 



In the winter the bread is all baked before starting on the 

 journey and is thawed when it is to be used. Fish are boiled if 

 a second kettle is to be had; if not, they are opened along the 

 back and roasted upon a stick set in the ground in the snow. 

 Meat is usually boiled just enough to cook the outside. It may 

 be roasted on a stick or suspended from a pole, cut for the pur- 

 pose. Very little salt is used. Coffee is unknown. Side 

 bacon or "cogos" is the greatest luxury in the North, though 

 now becoming common at southern posts. Grand Rapids has 

 imported a little butter of late years, and the Indians are very 

 fond of it. They spread butter, bacon grease, deer's or bear's 

 grease, all on the same piece of bread if they are so fortunate 

 as to have them all. I regarded this appetite for grease in a 



