200 LABRADOR 



much weight of snow, the water comes over the ice in places 

 near shore, and does not freeze when blanketed with ten 

 or twelve inches of light snow. Such water can be cleared 

 of slush by very little warming over the fire. In default 

 of water, chopped ice melts much better than snow, which 

 the people avoid. They prefer to work hard for twenty 

 or thirty minutes chopping a hole, rather than bother to 

 melt down an uncompacting mass of cold, porous snow. 

 They rarely, if ever, drink ice-cold water, but warm it a few 

 degrees, even building a special fire for this purpose when 

 travelling. In this, as in most other race peculiarities, 

 they find their opposite in their Eskimo neighbours, who are 

 said to eat snow and swallow frozen food with only the 

 happiest consequences. 



For winter travel, most of the people now use sheet-iron 

 stoves a foot square and about two feet long. The snow 

 is tramped level with the snow-shoes, the tent raised and 

 boughs laid ; then the stove is placed on four stakes which 

 are driven some three feet into the snow, and serve as legs. 

 Such a stove will burn almost any small wood, and in a 

 country where good wood is scarce, will save much time and 

 labour in heavy chopping and shovelling snow, besides 

 enabling the traveller to camp almost anywhere and not 

 have to go more than a mile or two out of his course to 

 get good wood. 



The Indians at Nichicun are classed by Low as Western 

 Nascaupees. Only thirteen families traded at the post 

 at the time of his visit. Other families in the neighbourhood 

 go to the Gulf with their furs. Living near the geographical 

 centre and apex of the plateau, they naturally hunt not 

 far from Nichicun (" Otter-place ") Lake. They live almost 



