North-West Continent of America. 



57 



CHAPTER VI. 



Employ the towing line. Description af a place where the 

 Indians come to collect flint. Their shyness and suspicions. 

 Current lessens. Appearance of the country. Abundance 

 of hares. Violent storm. Land near three lodges. 

 Alarm of the Indians. Supply of fish from them. Their 

 fabulous accounts. Continue to see Indian lodges. Treat-, 

 ment of a disease. Misunderstanding with the natives. 

 The interpreter harangues them,. Their accounts similar 

 to those xve have already received. Their curious con- 

 duct. Purchase some beaver skins. Shoot one of their 

 dogs. The consequence of that act. Apprehensions of 

 the women. Large quantities of liquorice. Swallorv^s 

 nests seen in the precipices. Fall in with a party of na- 

 tives killing geese. Circumstances concerning them. Hur- 

 ricane. Variation of the weather. Kill great numbers^ 

 of geese. Abundance of several kinds of berries. Stat 

 cf the river and its bank. 



^Frtiay^. ^ ^ T five we continued our course, but, in a 

 very short time, were under the necessity of applying to 

 the aid of the line, the stream being so strong as to render 

 all our attempts unavailing to stem it with the paddles. 

 We passed a small river, on each side of which the natives 

 and Esquimaux collect flint. The bank is an high, steep, 

 and soft rock, variegated with red, green, and yellow 

 hues. From the continual dripping of water, parts of it 

 frequently fall and break into small stony flakes like slate, 

 but not so hard. Among them are found pieces of Petro- 

 lium, which bears a resemblance to yellow wax, but is 

 more friable. The English Chief informed me, that rocks 

 of a similar kind are scattered about the country, at the 

 back of the Slave Lake, where the Chepewyans collect 

 copper. 



At ten, we had an aft wind, and the men who had been 

 engaged in towing, re-embarked. At twelve we observed 

 a lodge on the side of the river, and its inhabitants run- 

 ning about in great confusion, or hurrying to the woods. 

 Three men waited our arrival, though they remained at 

 some distance from us, with their bows and arrows ready 



H 



