NORTHERN OCEAN 255 



Immediately on our arrival on the South side of the Atha- 1772. 

 puscow Lake, the scene was agreeably altered, from an entire ""^*^' 

 jumble of rocks and hills, for such is all the land on the North 

 side, to a fine level country, in which there was not a hill to be 

 seen, or a stone to be found : so that such of my companions 

 as had not brass kettles, loaded their sledges with stones from 

 some of the last islands, to boil their victuals with in their 

 birch-rind kettles, which will not admit of being exposed to 

 the fire. They therefore heat stones and drop them into the 

 water in the kettle to make it boil. 



Buffalo,^ moose, and beaver were very plentiful ; and we 

 could discover, in many parts through which we passed, the 

 tracks of martins, foxes, quiquehatches, and other animals of 

 the furr kind : so that they were by no means scarce : but my 

 companions never gave themselves the least trouble to catch 

 any of the three last mentioned animals ; for the buffalo, 

 moose, and beaver engaged all their attention ; perhaps princi- 

 pally so on account of the excellency of their flesh; whereas the 

 flesh of the fox and quiquehatch are never eaten by those people, 

 except when they are in the greatest distress, and then merely 

 to save [251] life. Their reasons for this shall be given in a 

 subsequent part of my Journal. 



The buffalo in those parts, I think, are in general much 

 larger than the English black cattle ; particularly the bulls, 

 which, though they may not in reality be taller than the largest 

 size of the English oxen, yet to me always appeared to be 

 much larger. In fact, they are so heavy, that when six or 

 eight Indians are in company at the skinning of a large bull, 

 they never attempt to turn it over while entire, but when the 

 upper side is skinned, they cut off the leg and shoulder, rip up 



[^ Buffalo. This is the earliest notice of the northern race of the bison, the 

 so-called Wood Bison, Biso?t bison Athabasca Rhoads. It was formerly very 

 numerous and inhabited an extensive region (see Preble's " North Am. Fauna," 

 No. 27, p. 144, 1908), but is now reduced to a few small herds, aggregating a 

 few hundred individuals, which roam over a limited area south of Great Slave 

 Lake.— E. A. P.] 



