USEFUL TO THE CHIPEWYAN TRIBES OP INDIANS. 407 



Mineral Tar is procured at several spots along the Arthabaska or CI ear 

 "Water river ; it is also found on Great Slave Lake, at a short distance N.E. 

 of Big Island, and also near to Fort Good Hope. It is little used by the 

 natives, except to mix with and to soften gum for paying canoes with. It 

 becomes, after being boiled and purified, an excellent tar for boat-building 

 purposes, for which it is used. 



Iron Pyrites is found in the mountain ranges. The Gens-des-Bois, a 

 tribe living on the banks of the Pelly river, use it instead of flint to strike 

 fire with. 



Pieces of Agate are used occasionally as flints, and native copper has 

 been made into knives, spear and arrow heads. 



Lignite exists in large cjuantities near the mouth of Bear river, where 

 it is seen in a state of combustion. It is of little value as fuel, and quite 

 unserviceable for forge use. The legend told by the Slave and Dog Rib 

 Indians, of the origin of the fire in these lignite beds is rather curious. The 

 story relates that in the days of old, before Indians roamed the forest, or 

 glided over the waters in their birchen canoes, a "giant, tall as a pine tree, 

 dwelt at the eastern end of Slave Lake, then a much larger sheet of water. 

 The giant hungered and he went to hunt. His spear was a tall fir-tree, 

 hardened in the fire, and tipped with native copper. The skin of 

 gigantic elks served him for clothing. Travelling on, he found a beaver- 

 house ; the beavers in those days were of extraordinary size, and 

 their houses of corresponding proportions. With great exertion and 

 toil, the house was broken open : it contained two animals, a female and 

 her young. The latter was killed, but the dam escaped, pursued by the 

 giant, who bore the dead cub over his shoulder on the point of his spear 

 On they sped, until the western end of the ] ake was reached, where a rocky 

 barrier then stretched across, giving vent to the waters of the lake, and 

 thus forming the Tesschi or McKenzie's river. Through this, the beaver 

 pushed her way, the flood of which swept her downwards, far out of the 

 pursuer's reach. The giant still continued the chase, until hungry and 

 exhausted, he reached the mouth of Bear river, where he stopped to cook 

 the cub, which was the size of a moose-deer ; and thus lit the fire which 

 continues burning to the present day. 



With these I think I have completed this series of notes, in which I 

 believe that nothing of importance to the comfort or welfare of the natives 

 is omitted. 



Among the Esquimaux, the arts and manufactures of savage life are in 

 a much more advanced state than among the Indian tribes. 



