A General History of the Fur Trade* 



89 



language consists in applying the name of the most offensive 

 animal to the object of their displeasure, and adding the 

 term ugly, and chiay, or still-born.* 



Their arms and domestic apparatus, in addition to the ar- 

 ticles procured from Europeans, are spears, bows and ar- 

 rows, fishing-nets, and lines made of green deer-skin thongs. 

 They have also nets for taking the beaver as he endeavours 

 to escape from his lodge when it is broken open. It is set 

 in a particular manner for the purpose, and a man is em- 

 ployed to watch the moment when he enters the snare, or 

 he would soon cut his way through it. He is then thrown 

 upon the ice, where he remains as if he had no life in him. 



The snow-shoes are of very superior workmanship. The 

 inner part of their frame is straight, the outer one is curved, 

 and it is pointed at both ends, with that in front turned up. 

 They are also laced with great neatness with thongs made 

 of deer-skin. The sledges are formed of thin slips of board 

 turned up also in front, and are highly polished with crooked 

 knives, in order to slide along with facility. Close-grained 

 wood is, on that account, the best; but theirs are made of 

 the red or swamp spruce-fir tree. 



The country, which these people claim as their land, has 

 a very small quantity of earth, and produces little or no 

 wood or herbage. Its chief vegetable substance is the moss, 

 on which the deer feed; and a kind of rock moss, which, in 

 times of scarcity, preserves the lives of the natives. When 

 boiled in water, it dissolves into a clammy, glutinous sub- 

 stance, that affords a very sufficient nourishment. But, 

 notwithstanding the barren state of their country, with pro- 

 per care and economy, these people might live in great com- 

 fort, for the lakes abound with fish, and the hills are covered 

 with deer. Though, of all the Indian people of this con- 

 tinent, they are considered as the most provident, they suf- 

 fer severely at certain seasons, and particularly in the dead 

 of winter, when they are under the necessity of retiring to 

 their scanty, stinted woods. To the Westward of them the 

 musk-ox may be found, but they have no dependence on it 

 as an article of sustenance. There are also large hares, a 

 few white wolves, peculiar to their country, and several 

 kinds of foxes, with white and grey partridges, &c. The 

 beaver and moose deer they do not find until they come 

 within 60 degrees North latitude, and the buffalo is still 



* This name is also applicable to the foetus of an animal, when killed, 

 vrhich is considered as one of the greatest delicacies. 



