406 AN ACCOUNT OF THE BOTANICAL AND MINERAL PRODUCTS 



From the fibrous bark of the willow a species of twine is made which, 

 the natives manufacture into nets of great durability. Sleds are made of 

 the larch and the Banksian pine. The Loucheux Indians use the black 

 seed of the bear-berry for beads, to ornament their dresses with. Alder 

 bark, the wild sorrel, and other shrubs and plants are used for dyes and 

 medicines. While the strawberry, raspberry, gooseberry, mossberry, cran- 

 berry, crowberry, mooseberry, red bearberry, the fruit of the rose, and 

 various roots contribute an important item to their summer larder. 



Mineral Products. — The mineral kingdom affords but few and unimpor- 

 tant articles for the necessities of the Indians. 



Sulphur is found in considerable quantities at the Sulphur Cove on 

 Great Slave Lake. Here sulphur springs occupy a space of several hundred 

 yards in length along the beach. They are very clear, and flow in small 

 rivulets, whose banks are encrusted with a deposit of sulphur which becomes 

 serviceable when thoroughly dried, and is used by the Chipewyan Indians 

 who come to Fort Resolution, in the fabrication of matches. 



Common Salt is procured from the salt plains lying about twenty miles 

 up the Salt river, a tributary of the Slave. The springs issue from the base 

 of a long ridge, some hundreds of feet in height, and spreading their waters 

 over a clayey plain, deposit the salt by evaporation in cubical crystals of 

 various degrees of fineness. The mother liquor flows into Salt river, giving 

 a name as well as a most abominable taste to that stream, which is still 

 sensibly brackish at its junction with the Slave. At present, the main 

 supply of salt is confined to one large jet d'eau from which a strong brine,, 

 mingled with completely formed crystals, is perpetually thrown. Around 

 this spring, evaporation has formed a hillock of dry salt many feet high ; 

 and a pole forty feet long was shoved into the spring without finding bottom. 

 Sir John Richardson considers that these fountains belong to the Onondaga 

 Salt group of the Upper Silurian Series of New York. 



Numerous bands of buffalo, elk, and reindeer frequent these plains to 

 lick the mineral, of which they are extremely fond. The salt is of excellent 

 quality, strong and well-flavoured. It preserves meat, meal, and butter,, 

 fully as well as that imported from England, being far superior to the 

 description manufactured in the plain country of the Swan River district. 

 As the Salt river is very crooked, with generally too little water to float any 

 craft larger than a small canoe, the transport of the salt from the springs to 

 its mouth is by horses. 



Ochres, red and blue, are procured at several points in the district, and 

 are used for painting snow-shoes and sleds, by the natives. The Loucheux 

 of the Youcon river paint their faces with these colours in the same way 

 as the tribes of the Plain. 



White earth or Pipe-clay is found associated with the coal beds at the 

 mouth of Bear river. "When newly dug, it is plastic, but soon dries. It is 

 eaten in times of scarcity by the natives, and is also used as a soap for 

 washing their clothes, and by the whites for white-washing their houses. 

 At the request of Sir John Richardson it was analysed by Drs. Davy and 

 Prout, but was not found to coAtain any nutritious matter. 



