THE NORTHLAND INDIAN AS HE IS 



slighted Chipewyan if I failed to record the further emi- 

 nence it enjoys in having two streets. I was never able, 

 unaided, to discover more than the one which separates 

 the post's dozen log cabins from the lake, but that may 

 have been due to the deflection of my compass needle. 

 At all events, after McMurray, with its four cabins, it 

 seemed metropolitan, though of its " census" of four hun- 

 dred men, women, and children only a small percentage is 

 in actual residence. This is equally true of all the posts. 



The real dwellers within the settlements are a compara- 

 tive handful, comprising chiefly the mission people, the 

 company servants, and a few " freemen," as those who 

 have served their five years' enlistment and set up a little 

 independency of labor are called. Those that 

 live within the company's gates are chiefly 

 half-breeds. In summer they catch and dry 

 the fish which forms the chief article of food 

 for men and dogs, or work on the company 

 flatboats ; and in winter they spend the short 

 days in " tripping," and the long nights in 

 smoking and talking about their dogs, or in 

 dancing and sleeping. They have no other di- 

 versions ; no in-door games, no out-door sports. 

 Dancing and sleeping are the beginning and 

 ending of their recreation, and I would not 

 venture an opinion as to the more popular; 

 certainly they have an abnormal capacity for 

 either. 



This applies to the men. Life is a more serious affair 

 for the women. They too sleep and dance and smoke, 

 but their sleeping comes as a well-earned respite after the 

 day's toil ; their dancing has the outward appearance of a 

 sacrifice, to which they are silently resigned, and smoking 

 is an accompaniment to work rather than a diversion in 



MAN S SHOE, 



Canadian 



Snow-Shoe 



Club, 



3> feet long 



