32 ACROSS THE SUB-ARCTICS OF CANADA. 



take, these matters were arranged with Schott, and all 

 but our instruments, tents, blankets and three or four 

 days' provisions were handed over to him. 



On the evening of the 4th, the steamer Athabasca 

 also put in an appearance, and made fast to the shore a 

 little above the scows. Grand Rapid was no longer an 

 uninhabited wilderness, but had now become trans- 

 formed into a scene of strange wild life. Large dark, 



savage-looking figures, 

 many of them bare to the 

 waist, and adorned with 

 head-dresses of fox-tails or 

 feathers, were everywhere 

 to be seen. Some of them, 

 notably those of the Chip- 

 pewyan tribe, were the 

 blackest and most savage- 

 looking Indians I had ever 

 seen. As it was already 

 nearly night when the last 

 of them arrived by the 

 steamer, the work of tran- 

 shipping was left for the 



morning. In the dark woods the light of camp-fires 

 began soon to appear, and around them the whole night 

 long the Indians danced and gambled, at the same time 

 keeping up their execrable drum music. 



At daylight the next morning the overhauling of 

 cargoes was commenced. One by one the scows were 

 loosened and piloted down the middle of the rapid to 

 the wharf at the head of the island. Here they were 

 unloaded, and after being lightened, were lowered down 



111 



KN( ; I.ISH-CHIPPEWYAN HALF- 

 BREED. 



