186 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



declared, to their native land. Two Indians and a 

 squaw assisted to paddle, one of the former being a 

 medicine-man and owner of the canoe, which was a 

 fine new one of great size and beauty carved out of a 

 single tree- trunk. The first night was spent in camp 

 at a small settlement of most dissolute and drunken 

 Indians known as Martin Point, situated near a pro- 

 montory at the corner of the delta of the Atna or 

 Copper Eiver. Our medicine-man was obdurate in 

 refusing to proceed any farther that day, being 

 determined with his squaw to join the crazy inhabi- 

 tants of this wretched village in the pot-latch or 

 debauch they were celebrating with a vile spirit they 

 are able to distil from sugar. While this festival was 

 proceeding I sallied out and was fortunate enough to 

 slay a bear. He was apparently engaged in looking 

 for fish in a stream, and I was able to plant an express 

 bullet in a vital part behind the shoulder which 

 instantly proved fatal. In the morning the shaman 

 had hardly recovered from his drunken orgie when 

 we started, having found it necessary to hire two 

 more Indians to assist in transporting the canoe 

 over the bar into the estuary of the Copper Eiver. 

 The whole tribe appeared to be still in a half-drunken 

 condition, but fortunately amiably disposed towards us. 

 "We next crossed part of the tidal lagoons of the 

 Copper Eiver delta, pushing the canoe before us when 

 the tide was out, like an unwieldy sledge over the 

 black slippery oose, finally camping upon a little island. 

 A semicircle of graceful peaks and glaciers surround 



