NORTHERN OCEAN 171 



time all the Copper Indians were dispatched different ways, so 1771. 

 that there was not one in company, who knew the shortest cut "'" ^' 

 to the main river. Seeing some woods to the Westward, and 

 judging that the current of the rivulet ran that way, we 

 concluded that the main river lay in that direction, and was 

 not very remote from our present situation. We therefore 

 directed our course by the side of it, when the Indians met 

 with several very fine buck deer, which they destroyed ; and 

 as that part we now traversed afforded plenty of good fire- 

 wood, we put up, and cooked the most comfortable meal to 

 which we had sat down for some months. As such favourable 

 opportunities of indulging the appetite happen but seldom, it 

 is a general [144] rule with the Indians, which we did not 

 neglect, to exert every art in dressing our food which the most 

 refined skill in Indian cookery has been able to invent, and which 

 consists chiefly in boiling, broiling, and roasting : but of all 

 the dishes cooked by those people, a heeatee^ as it is called in 

 their language, is certainly the most delicious, at least for a 

 change, that can be prepared from a deer only, without any 

 other ingredient. It is a kind of haggis, made with the blood, 

 a good quantity of fat shred small, some of the tenderest of 

 the flesh, together with the heart and lungs cut, or more 

 commonly torn into small shivers ; all which is put into the 

 stomach, and roasted, by being suspended before the fire by a 

 string. Care must be taken that it does not get too much 

 heat at first, as the bag would thereby be liable to be burnt, 

 and the contents be let out. When it is sufficiently done, it 

 will emit steam, in the same manner as a fowl or a joint of 

 meat ; which is as much as to say, Come, eat me now : and if 

 it be taken in time, before the blood and other contents are 

 too much done, it is certainly a most delicious morsel, even 

 without pepper, salt, or any other seasoning. 



After regaling ourselves in the most plentiful manner, and 

 taking a few hours rest, (for it was almost impossible to sleep 

 for the muskettoes,) we once more set forward, directing our 



