FOET CHIPEWYAN TO FOKT M'MUERAY 117 



On the 25th of July they passed through the channel 

 of the Scaffold to Great Slave Lake, and, landing at Moose 

 Deer Island, found thereon the rival forts, of course, v^ithin 

 striking distance of each other, and in charge, as usual, of 

 rival Scotsmen. At Great Slave Lake I must part com- 

 pany with Franklin's Journal, since our own negotiations 

 only extended to its south shores. But who that has read 

 it can ever forget the awful return journey of the party 

 from the Arctic coast, through the Barren Lands, to their 

 ovni winter quarters, which they so aptly named Fort Reso- 

 lution? In the tales of human suffering from hunger there 

 are few more terrible than this. All the gruesome features 

 of prolonged starvation were present; the murder of Mr. 

 Hood and two of the voyageurs by the Iroquois; his bring- 

 ing to the camp a portion of human flesh, which he declared 

 to be that of a wolf; his death at the Doctor's hands; the 

 dog-like diet of old skins, bones, leather pants, moccasins, 

 tripe de rochej the death of Peltier and Semandre from 

 want, and the final relief of the party by Akaitcho's Indians, 

 and their admirable conduct. And aU those horrors experi- 

 enced over five hundred miles beyond Fort Ohipevifyan, 

 itself thousands of mUes beyond civilization! Did the 

 noble Franklin's last sufferings exceed even these ? Perhaps ; 

 but they are unrecorded. 



To return to our muttons. Some marked changes had 

 taken place, and for the better, in Ohipewyan character- 

 istics since Franklin's day; not surprising, indeed, after 

 eighty years of contact with educated, or reputable, white 

 men; for miscreants, like the old American frontiersmen, 

 were not known in the country, and if they had been, 

 would soon have been rxm out. There was now no paint 

 or " strouds " to be seen, and the blanket was confined to 

 the bed. In fact, the Indians and half-breeds of Atha- 

 basca Lake did not seem to differ in any way from those 

 of the Middle and TTpper Peace Eiver, save that the for- 

 mer were all hunters and fishermen, pure and simple, there 

 being little or no agriculture. It was impossible to study 



