268 EXTENT OP TRAVELLING. 



Tullen met at Point Berens on the 11th of August, 1849, and gave 

 O'-lik-to as the name of the place where the post was erected. By 

 a letter dated H.M.S. Investigator, 8th of August, 1850, received 

 from a native of Point Barrow, to whom it had been given at Point 

 Drew, that ship must have passed Point Berens on the 9th or 10th 

 of August, when she also was seen by Erk-sin'-ra. As he was on 

 both these occasions on his return from that bartering-place, the 

 first week in August may be confidently assumed as the usual time 

 of the two tribes meeting at Barter Point. 



Among the few remarkable features of this dreary coast is a large 

 stone, about four sleeps from Point Barrow, near Point Tangent, 

 giving the name of Black Bock Point to the projecting land off 

 which it lies. It is mentioned by Mr. J. Simpson as the only stone 

 of large size he met with on this part of his journey. The natives 

 assert it is a " fire stone," and fell from the sky within the memory 

 of people now living. No one saw it fall ; but one woman, about 

 sixty years of age, said she travelled that way yearly as a girl, 

 when there was no stone there, and that in returning one summer, 

 her people were much surprised to see it, and believed it had fallen 

 from the sky. Should it prove a meteoric stone, the story of its 

 age might be true enough ; but at present it is doubtful. It is 

 said to enlarge and present a full rounded appearance at times, 

 when deer are plentiful in the neighbourhood, as it feeds upon them, 

 killing and devouring a great many at a time. No doubt those 

 animals are instinctively guided in their migrations by particular 

 states of the atmosphere ; and as the tides are much influenced by 

 the winds, it is not impossible that they should most abound in that 

 locality when the tide is low, giving an apparent increase to the 

 size of the stone. 



We were anxious to get the history of the " Old Huts," marked 

 by Sir J. Franklin in longitude 146° 20' w., but could ascertain 

 distinctly no more than that they were the remains of an ancient 

 Kang'-ma-li settlement. In connection with this, our informants 

 gave an account of the modern origin of the trade at Barter Point, 

 agreeing with that given by Sir J. Franklin, to the effect that it 

 was established within the memory of people recently dead, whilst 

 their intercourse with the inland people by the Colville is of ancient 

 date. But from their having traditions of the Eastern people 

 relating to a remote period, we think it probable that it was only 

 renewed in recent times, having been previously kept up by a tribe 

 inhabiting the " Old Huts," whose parties visited the Colville on 

 the west, and met the Mackenzie people on the east of their own 

 country. From the well-known hostility of the Bed Indians to the 



