96 THROUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIIT 



At dinner Mr. Wilson told us of a very curious circum- 

 stance the previous fall, at the Loon Eiver, some eighty miles 

 south of Vermilion — something, indeed, that very much 

 resembled volcanic action. Indians hunting there were sur- 

 prised by a great shower of ashes all over the country, thick 

 enough to track moose by, whilst others in canoes were bewil- 

 dered in dense clouds of smoke. Dr. Wade, a traveller who 

 had just come in from Loon River, said he had discovered 

 three orifices, or " wells," as he called them, out of which he 

 thought the ashes might have been ejected. As there were 

 no forest fires to account for the phenomena, they were rather 

 puzzling. 



We had begun taking depositions almost as soon as we 

 arrived, and had a very busy time, working late and early in 

 order to get away by the first of August. There were some 

 interesting people here, " Old Lizotte " and his vdfe in par- 

 ticular. He was another of the " Ancient Mariners " who 

 had left Lachine fifty-five years before with Governor Simp- 

 son — a man still of unshaken nerve and muscles as hard as 

 iron. One by one these old voyageurs are passing away, and 

 with them and their immediate successors the tradition 

 perishes. 



There was another character on the Vermilion stage, 

 namely, old King Beaulieu. His father was a half-breed who 

 had been brought up amongst the Dog Ribs and Copper 

 Indians, and some eighty years back had served as an 

 interpreter at Fort Chipewyan. It was he who at Eort 

 Wedderbume sketched for Eranklin with charcoal on 

 the floor the route to the Coppermine River, the sketch 

 being completed to and along the coast by Black Meat, 

 an old Chipewyan Indian. King Beaulieu himself was War- 

 burton Pike's right-hand man in his trip to the Barren Lands. 

 He had his own story, of course, about the sportsman, which 

 we utterly discredited. He had joined the Indian Treaty 

 here, but repented, almost flinging his payment in our face, 

 and demanding scrip instead. One of his sons asked me if 



