262 AN ACCOUNT OP THE ANIMALS USEFUL, ETC., ETC. 



natives, these deer use their feet only for this purpose. Indeed, when the 

 horns would be necessary, the males would have already lost them, and a 

 supplemental addition woidd be required to the hypothesis, of the females 

 clearing a space for the males to graze on, as the gentler sex, at that period, 

 reversing human fashions, wear the horns instead of their lords. 



The Barren-ground Eeindeer furnishes the principal support of the 

 Yellow-knife, Dog-rib, and Hare Indians, and has the same value to them 

 as the moose to the other branches of their nation. Their clothing for winter 

 is made out of fawn-skins, dressed with the hair on, and consists of capotes, 

 gowns, shirts, leggings, mittens, socks, and robes, which are warm, and when 

 new, nice looking. Hides which are so much perforated by the larvae of 

 the JEstrus as to be unfit for any other purpose, are converted into babiche, 

 to make which the skin is first divested of hair and all fleshy matter ; it is 

 then with a knife cut into the desired thickness, the operation beginning 

 in the centre of the skin. There are two sizes of this article, the larger 

 being used for barring sleds and for the foot-lacing of snow-shoes, the 

 smaller as a species of thread for sewing leather, for the fine netting of 

 snow-shoes, and for lacing, fishing, and beaver nets. 



The Buffalo. (Bos Americanus.) — The Strong-wood variety, which comes 

 so forth north and east as about twenty miles from the mouth of Little 

 Buffalo River, near Fort Resolution, Great Slave Lake, is found most 

 numerously, in the vicinity of the salt plains of Salt River. It is unknown 

 throughout the country inhabited by any of the Slave tribes, and the point 

 mentioned above may be considered as its furthest limits. It is of larger 

 size than the plain variety, of darker colour, and more thickly furred. The 

 Chipewyans eat its flesh, and make robes and parchment from the hides. 

 The horns are made into powder-flasks, and are used for mounting knives 

 and awls ; the tail, mounted on a wooden shank, ornamented with goose or 

 porcupine quills, is used as a fly-flapper. From its scarcity, this animal 

 does not contribute materially to the tribes under consideration. 



The Musk Ox. (Ovibos vioschatus.) — This small but powerful animal is 

 an inhabitant of the Barren-grounds and Arctic coast, from 61 deg. north. 

 It f^eq^^ents wild, rocky situations, and possesses the agility of the antelope, 

 between which and the buffalo it appears to form a connecting link. 

 During the winter it feeds on lichens, and in the summer on grass. From 

 its remote habit, it is of little service to the Chipewyan tribes, and though 

 the Yellow-knives, Dog-ribs, and Hare Indians sometimes hunt it, yet as it 

 is very fierce, and the flesh is strongly impregnated with the flavour of 

 musk, it is not much looked after. The calf-skins make excellent robes 

 and caps, but the adult hides are almost too hairy for any purpose of that 

 sort. The tails are made into fly -flappers, similar to those obtained from 

 the same part of the buffalo. 



The Mountain Goat. (Aplocerus montanus.) — Is found throughout all 

 the mountain ranges of this district, to within a short distance of the Polar 

 Sea, if, indeed, it does not reach it. It is a larger animal than the domestic 

 goat, which it resembles only in name and in having a beaid. It is covered 



