FOET CHIPEWYAN TO FORT M'MUERAY 115 



crossed the Methy portage on the 13th, and, amidst a chaos 

 of vast ravines and the Mfildest of scenery, descended the 

 next day to the Clearwater River. Thence they followed the 

 Indian trail on the north bank, passing a noted scene, " a 

 romantic defile of limestone rocks like Gothic ruins," and, 

 crossing a small stream, found pure sulphur deposited by 

 springs and smelling very strongly. On the 17th they got to 

 the junction of the Clearwater with the Athabasca, where 

 Fort McMurray now stands, and next day reached the Pierre 

 au Calumet post, in charge of a Mr. Stewart, who had twice 

 crossed the mountains to the Pacific coast. The place got its 

 name from a soft stone found there, of which the Indians 

 made their pipes. 



Franklin notes the " sulphurous springs " and " bitumr 

 inous salt " in this region, also the statement of Mr. Stewart, 

 who had a good thermometer, " that the lowest temperature 

 he had ever witnessed in many years, either at the Atha- 

 basca or Great Slave Lake, was 45 degrees below zero," a 

 statement worth recording here. 



On the 26th of March the party arrived at Fort Chipewyan, 

 the distance travelled from Cumberland House being 857 

 miles. He notes that at the time of his arrival the fort 

 was very bare of both buffalo and moose meat, owing, it was 

 said, to the trade rivalry, and that where some eight hun- 

 dred packs of fur used to be shipped from that point, only 

 one-half of that number was now sent. Liquor was largely 

 used by both companies in trade, and scenes of riot and 

 violence ensued upon the arrival of -the Indians at the fort 

 in spring, and whom he describes otherwise as " reserved 

 and selfish, unhospitable and beggars, but honest and affec- 

 tionate to children." They painted round the eyes, the 

 cheek-bones and the forehead, and all the race, except the 

 Dog Ribs and the Beavers, believed that their forefathers 

 came from the East. The Northern Indians, Franklin says, 

 suppose that they originally sprang from a dog, and about 

 A.D. 1815 they destroyed all their dogs, and compelled their 



