INTO THE TERRA-NOVA COUNTRY 25 



which he reached in eight days, passing the country interior 

 from New Bay, Badger Bay, and Seal Bay, a district well 

 known as the summer resort of the Indians. On the fourth 

 day he found traces of the savages in the shape of canoe- 

 rests, spear-shafts, and rinded " vars," — " This people using 

 the inner part of the bark of that kind of tree for food." 

 On the lakes near New Bay were the remains of winter 

 mamateeks or wigwams, each intended to hold from six to 

 twenty people. Close to these were oblong pits about four 

 feet deep, designed to preserve stores, &c., some of them 

 being lined with birch rind. In his report^ Cormack mentions 

 the peculiar vapour baths of which he also found traces at 

 this place, and whose use was afterwards explained to him 

 by Shawnawdithit. "The method used by the Beothicks to 

 raise the steam, was by pouring water on large stones made 

 very hot for the purpose, in the open air, by burning a 

 quantity of wood around them ; after this process, the ashes 

 were removed, and a hemispherical framework, closely covered 

 with skins to exclude the external air, was fixed over the 

 stones. The patient then crept in under the skins, taking 

 with him a birch-rind bucket of water, and a small bark 

 dish to dip it out, which, by pouring on the stones, enabled 

 him to raise the steam at pleasure." Shawnawdithit ex- 

 plained that the steam bath was only used by old and 

 rheumatic people. 



After traversing the country on the high lands south of 

 White Bay without finding further traces of the Indians, 

 whom he had expected to encounter near the passes of the 

 deer now in full migration, Cormack travelled to Red Indian 



' Report of W. E. Cormack's Journey in Search of the Red Indians in New- 

 foundland. Read before the Beothick Institution at St. John's, Newfoundland. 

 Communicated by Mr. Cormack, Edinburgh. New Phil. Journ., vol. xx., 1828-29, 

 pp. 318-329- 



