NORTHERN OCEAN 89 



carry it, we left Cathawhachaga, as has been observed, on 1770. 

 the sixth of July, and continued our course to the North •'"^" 

 by West, and North North West ; and that night put up by 

 the side of a small bay of White Snow Lake,^ where we angled, 

 and caught several fine trout, some of which weighed not less 

 than fourteen or sixteen pounds. In the night heavy rain 

 came on, which continued three days ; but the ninth proving 9th. 

 fine weather, and the sun displaying his beams very powerfully, 

 we dried our clothes, and proceeded to the Northward. To- 

 ward the evening, however, it began again to rain so excessively, 

 that it was with much difficulty we kept our powder and 

 books dry. 



On the seventeenth, we saw many musk-oxen, several of 17th. 

 which the Indians killed ; when we agreed to stay here a day 

 or two, to dry and pound * some of the carcases to take with 

 us. The flesh of any animal, when it is thus prepared, is 

 not only hearty food, but is always ready for [39] use, and at 

 the same time very portable. In most parts of Hudson's Bay 

 it is known by the name of Thew-hagon,^ but amongst the 

 Northern Indians it is called Achees. 



Having prepared as much dried flesh as we could trans- 

 port, we proceeded to the Northward ; and at our departure 

 left a great quantity of meat behind us, which we could neither 

 eat nor carry away. This was not the first time we had so 

 done ; and however wasteful it may appear, it is a practice 

 so common among all the Indian tribes, as to be thought 



P The bay of Yath-kyed Lake, at which they seem to have stopped, is about 

 eight miles north of Paleluah, where the river was crossed.] 



* To prepare meat in this manner, it requires no farther operation than 

 cutting the lean parts of the animal into thin slices, and drying it in the sun, or 

 by a slow fire, till, after beating it between two stones, it is reduced to a coarse 

 powder. 



[* Thewhagon or Yewuhikun is the Cree name for meat dried and beaten as 

 above, and it is generally known throughout the fur countries as " pounded 

 meat." When fat is plentiful this shredded dry meat is often packed into a 

 sack made of hide, and boiling fat is poured over and into it. This mixture of 

 dried meat and grease is called pemican.] 



