112 EXPLORATIONS IN THE FAR NORTH 



lowing Sundays which we spent in the Barren Ground. Not- 

 withstanding the need of haste, and the discomfort of kneeling 

 for an hour, with only a blanket between their knees and the 

 naked rock upon which our lodge was always pitched, the 

 Indians repeated the appointed prayers in concert, and sang 

 two or three hymns responsively, under the leadership of 

 Johnnie Cohoyla. All remained kneeling with their faces 

 toward Rae throughout the service. 1 The service was marked 

 by a seriousness which I thought resulted more from a super- 

 stitious desire to propitiate the wrath of a savage storm god 

 than from a feeling of reverence toward a beneficent Creator. 

 We encamped that night in a little clump of pines on the 

 Coppermine River. The Dog Ribs called this stream Tson 

 Te. It takes its rise in a large lake, called Ek-a Tooh, which is 

 two days' journey in length. This was the last outlier of the 

 timbered country and we must henceforth carry fuel on our 

 sleds. The largest of the trees reached a height of twenty-five 

 feet, with thick, twisted trunks. We left the Coppermine with 

 our sleds loaded as heavily as the dogs could haul with wood 

 which we had cut and split into billets of convenient size. What 

 a luxury a good oil stove would have been! As we were about 

 to start, Jimmie, who was leader of the band, and by far the 

 most intelligent man among them, after a long look eastward, 

 turned to me and said: "E-ye tet-tcm tau-ti, mt-zi nit-tca yaz-zi 

 ed-sa." "This is the woodless country where the blizzards 

 blow and it is always cold." Then drawing his old gray blanket 

 closer about him, and shouldering his double-barreled smooth- 

 bore encased in its greasy deerskin gun-coat, he set off at a 

 rapid pace, the seven trains falling into line upon the track of 

 his snow-shoes. We followed the course of a small stream 

 called Kwilond Te for about forty miles, until we reached a 

 lake at least thirty miles in length, called Yam-ba Tooh. 



As we advanced on the seventh day, the hills became more 

 rolling, with gravel and pebbles, but fewer boulders. Wher- 

 ever the wind had swept the surface clear of snow the reindeer 

 moss, Cladonia rangiferina, and tufts of low grass appeared. 

 Toward evening we passed a few old musk-ox tracks. 



1,1 Les sauvages qui restent loin de lVglise, se rdunissent le dimanche 

 sur le mont voisin le plus 6lev6 ils s'orientent le mieux possible, se tourn- 

 ent du c6ti ou ils savent qu'une e"glise se trouve, el chantent des cantiques 

 ou rdcitent des prieres." Farand, Dix-huit ans chez les Sauvages, p. 198. 



