26 NEWFOUNDLAND 



Lake, but to his great disappointment, he found it had been 

 deserted for some years by the Indians, "after being tor- 

 mented by Europeans for the last eighteen years." After 

 further search on the Exploits River, Cormack returned to 

 the north on November 29 w^ithout having seen a single 

 Red Indian. Amongst other interesting relics of these people 

 which Cormack presented to the Beothick Institution was a 

 vocabulary of the Beothick language, consisting of two hundred 

 to three hundred words. This was supposed to have been 

 given by Cormack to a Dr. Yates, but I have failed to trace 

 the list, or the descendants of the recipient, which would go 

 far to prove "the Beothicks to be a distinct tribe from any 

 hitherto discovered in North America." 



During his stay at Red Indian Lake, Cormack found many 

 recent traces of the Beothicks which show their modes of life, 

 treatment of the dead, methods of hunting deer, &c. 



" One difference," he says, " between the Beothick wig- 

 wams and those of other Indians is, that in most of the former 

 there are small hollows, like nests, dug in the earth around the 

 fire-place, one for each person to sit in. These hollows are 

 generally so close together, and also so close to the fire-place 

 and to the sides of the wigwam, that I think it probable these 

 people have been accustomed to sleep in a sitting position." 

 He also found a large handsome birch-rind canoe, about 

 22 feet in length, comparatively new.^ In its construction 

 iron nails had been used, doubtless stolen from the white 

 settlers. 



John Hinx, a half-breed Micmac, who was present when 



' I am enabled to give a photograph of the model of this curiously shaped canoe 

 by the courtesy of the Director of the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh. In form 

 it is quite unlike the birch-bark canoes used by the Canadian tribes, being high raised 

 at the bow and stern. The interior has sheets of birch rind. The exterior is of deal 

 planking. 



