OF BRITISH AND RUSSIAN AMERICA. 311 



attachment to particular localities existing in their minds, though they have a 

 strong bias towards their mode of life. The latter sentiment does not retain 

 nearly so strong a hold on their dispositions as it does on most savage nations. 

 Wedded to ancient manners and customs by much more slender ties than exist 

 in the generality of Indian tribes, they easily fall into the habits of Europeans, 

 and, in cases of servants engaged from among them by the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany, willingly abandon the charms of freedom and the chase for the more regu- 

 lar comforts and daily avocations of civilized life. I judge from this that if 

 these tribes were properly instructed and located in a more favorable climate, 

 they would become tolerable husbandmen, and without acquiring the ferocity 

 of their congeners, the Navajoes, soon surpass them in agricultural skill and 

 herdsmanship. 



2.— THE LOUCHEUX mBl A'i^S.—Hardistt/. 



The physical characteristics of the Loucheux nation are, with few exceptions, 

 the same as those of the other aborigines of North America. The skin is com- 

 monly of a sallow brown tint, in some cases what might be called a yellowish 

 white ; the hair is long, black, and lank ; the beard scanty, with rare exceptions. 

 They have black deep-set eyes, receding foreheads, high cheek bones, high, 

 aquiline noses and large mouths with tumid lips. The eyes are of a dark 

 hazel color, often approaching to black, frequently small and oblique, though I 

 have noticed particular individuals with very large eyes, while iu others the 

 eyes were remarkably small and these invariably oblique. 



The Loucheux language is a dialect of the Chepewyan, which it more closely 

 resembles than the intervening dialects of the Hare Indians and Slaves, although 

 a very slight intercourse enables the latter also to luiderstand the former suffi- 

 ciently for the ordinary purposes of traffic. The Loucheux proper is spoken by 

 the Lidians of Peel's river, thence traversiu'j;' the mountains westward down 

 Rat river, the Tuk-kuth, (Rat Indians,) and Van-tah-koo-chin, it extends to the 

 Tran-jik-koo-chin, Na-tsik-koo-chin, and Koo-chakoo-chin of the Youcon. All 

 the tribes inhabiting the valley of the Youcon understand one another; a slight 

 difference of accent being all that is perceptible in their respective dialects. 

 The first material change occurs among the '' Gens de Fou" or Hun-koo-chin, 

 (river people.) These make use of a great many Avords in common with the 

 "Gens de Bois," who again understand the language of the "Mauvais Monde" 

 of Francis lake, which is the common language of the Mauvais Monde of Fort 

 Halkett, the Tliikanies, the Ah-bah-to-diu-ne (mountain Indians) and Nahau- 

 nies of Forts Liard and Simpson. 



The Loucheux, though sunk in barbarism, are rather more intelligent than 

 the other tribes composing the great Chepewyan nation, owing no doiabt to 

 their intellectual faculties being more frequently brought into active play in 

 their traffic and intercourse with other tribes. They are essentially a commercial 

 people, and live by barter, supplying their wants by exchanging their beads, 

 which form the circulating medium, for the peltries of the neighboring tribes, 

 to whom they go on periodical trading visits. They hunt no furs, but are, 

 neveitheless, good hunters, and invariably well supplied with provisions, unless 

 when some very unfavorable circumstances may have occurred to prevent suc- 

 cess in the chase. They are great talkers and very fond of displaying their 

 eloquence. They are always making public harangues, and in the figurative 

 language they use, their speeches are not ineloquent nor void of sense. Their 

 delivery is good, but the effect is spoiled by their gradually raising their voices 

 ro such a high pitch as to be compelled to stop before they come to the end of 

 their speech from sheer want of breath. After a minute or two they begiu 

 again in a lower key, and gradually raising their voices as they proceed and get 

 excited ; they finally close their harangues with a most infernal screech, which 

 is particularly disagreeable to a white man's ears. 



