2 6 EXPLORATIONS IN THE FAR NORTH 



enter. Within, an open fire burns in the center beneath the 

 broad smoke hole at the apex of the cone. The floor is car- 

 peted with spruce boughs. The occupants do not stand up 

 inside the lodge as their heads would then be in the smoke, but 

 sit crosslegged upon blankets around the fire. 



Sir Francis Drake in describing the Indian lodges near 

 Golden Gate, says: "Their houses are digged round within the 

 earth and have from the vpper-most brimmes of the circle clefts 

 of wood set vp and ioyned close together at the top, like our 

 spires on the steeple of a church; which being couered with 

 earth, suffer no water to enter, and are very warm; the doore 

 in the most part of them performes also the office of a chimney 

 to let out the smoke: its made in bignesse and fashion like to 

 an ordinary scuttle in a ship, and standing slopewise: their 

 beds are the hard ground onley with rushes strewed vpon it,, 

 and lying round about the house, haue their fire in the middest, 

 which by reason that the house is but low vaulted, round and 

 close, giveth a maruelous reflexion to their bodies to heate 

 the same." 1 



This description, written in 1579, is equally applicable to-day. 

 Warburton Pike, writing three hundred years later, says, 

 " There is no better camp than a well-set-up lodge with a good 

 fire crackling in the middle." 2 When the temperature falls to 

 sixty degrees below zero a "maruelous reflexion" is needed to 

 "heate the same." The adult inmates are lightly clothed and 

 the children half naked. At night there is but one three-point 

 blanket for each person. The fire soon goes out and it is then 

 a question of endurance. In this battle with the frost, the 

 Cree wraps his blanket around his body and head, leaving his 

 feet exposed. 



Dress. Capotes are worn in winter; these are light, hooded 

 frock coats, of fine woolen cloth, unlined and ornamented with 

 a double row of brass buttons. This is the "fine-cloth capote" 

 so dear to the heart of the voyageur. A capote of cheaper and 

 coarser cloth is worn by the poorer class, but the rough cloth 

 is not impervious to the wind and snow. The hood protects 

 the neck and head from the winds and from masses of snow 

 dislodged from the trees in traversing the bush. They are 

 short and do not obstruct the limbs in running on snow-shoes- 



'Tfc World Encompassed, p. 121 

 * Barren Ground of Canada, p. 37. 



