NORTHERN OCEAN 313 



The Southern Indians and Esquimaux are equally fond of 

 those vermin, which are so detestable in the eyes of an Euro- 

 pean ; nay, the latter have many other dainties of a similar 

 kind, for beside making use of train-oil as a cordial and as 

 sauce to their meat, I have frequently seen them eat a whole 

 handful of maggots that were produced in meat by fly-blows. 

 It is their constant custom to eat the filth that comes from the 

 nose ; and when their noses bleed by accident, they always 

 lick the blood into their mouths, and swallow it. 



The track of land inhabited by the Northern Indians is 

 very extensive, reaching from the fifty-ninth to the sixty- 

 eighth degree of North latitude ; and from East to West is 

 upward of five hundred miles wide. It is bounded by Churchill 

 River on the South ; the Athapuscow Indians' Country on the 

 West ; the Dog-ribbed and Copper Indians' Country on the 

 North; and by Hudson's Bay on the East. [327] The land 

 throughout that whole track of country is scarcely anything 

 but one solid mass of rocks and stones, and in most parts very 

 hilly, particularly to the Westward among the woods. The 

 surface, it is very true, is in most places covered with a thin 

 sod of moss, intermixed with the roots of the Wee-sa-ca-pucca, 

 cranberries, and a few other insignificant shrubs and herbage ; 

 but under it there is in general a total want of soil, capable of 

 producing anything except what is peculiar to the climate. 

 Some of the marshes, indeed, produce several kinds of grass, 

 the growth of which is amazingly rapid ; but this is dealt out 

 with so sparing a hand as to be barely sufficient to serve the 

 geese, swans, and other birds of passage, during their migra- 

 tions in the Spring and Fall, while they remain in a moulting 

 state. 



The many lakes and rivers with which this part of the 

 country abounds, though they do not furnish the natives with 

 water-carriage, are yet of infinite advantage to them ; as they 

 afford great numbers of fish, both in Summer and Winter. 

 The only species caught in those parts are trout, tittameg, (or 



