INDIAN TENTS. 97 



CHAPTER VII. 



Indian tents — New fields for research — Visit to the Indians — Seals' flesh 

 — Dogskin boots — Cattle food in hard winters — Coptis irifolia — Spruce 

 Partridge — Inland — Hypothesis of Aurora — Little Auk — Signs of 

 wreck — Ascent of the western arm of the bay — Wreck of the Edward 

 Cardwell — Picking up lumber — First snowstorm of the winter. 



We had hardly entered the bay before we saw in the distance 

 the mishwaps of the Indians, who had chosen this for their camp- 

 ing place. The Indian mishwap, or tent, is a pecuharly arranged 

 structure, and suited only to the wants of the people who oc- 

 cupy it ; being the usual, movable dwelling place of this nomadic 

 and roving people. It is generally called by the name of wigwam, 

 and is the same, very nearly, as the tent-like structures that go by 

 that name in western North America. It is composed of long, 

 thin, rounded sticks that have been hardened by charring in the 

 fire, and which are set about in a circle whose ground diameter 

 is some ten feet ; the tops loosely put together overlap each other 

 a foot or eighteen inches. Around this are layers of birch bark, 

 and over the bark more sticks are placed so as to fall each one be- 

 tween the other two all around the outside. All holes are then 

 patched and covered ; while the top remains loosely open to allow 

 the smoke and bad odors to escape. A small opening in front 

 permits the inhabitants to enter or leave by stooping very low in- 

 deed. The pecuHarity about these abodes, and the feature that 

 characterizes them even when seen at a distance, is the plume-like 

 appearance of the top, as it is thus constituted. I know of no 

 mere piling together of sticks that will produce this peculiar ar- 

 rangement. By it, these tents can be distinguished as far as they 

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