North-West Continent of America. 149 



not exceed the thickness of a cod-line, their strength is 

 sufficient to hold a moose-deer : they are from one and an 

 half to two fathoms in length. Their nets and fishing- 

 lines are made of willow-bark and nettles ; those made of 

 the latter are finer and smoother than if made with hempen 

 thread. Their hooks are small bones, fixed in pieces of 

 wood split for that purpose, and tied round with fine 

 watape, which has been particularly described in the for- 

 mer voyage. Their kettles are also made of watape, which 

 is so closely woven that they never leak, and they heat 

 water in them, by putting red-hot stones into it. There is 

 one kind of them, made of spruce-bark, which they hang 

 over the fire, but at such a distance as to receive the heat 

 without being within reach of the blaze ; a very tedious 

 operation. They have various dishes of wood and bark ; 

 spoons of horn and wood, and buckets : bags of leather 

 and net-work, and baskets of bark, some of which hold 

 their fishing-tackle, while others are contrived to be carried 

 on the back. They have a brown kind of earth in great 

 abundance, with which they rub their clothes, not only for 

 ornament, but utility, as it prevents the leather from be- 

 coming hard after it has been wetted. They have spruce 

 bark in great plenty, with which they make their canoes, 

 an operation that does not require any great portion of 

 skill or ingenuity, and is managed in the following man- 

 ner : — The bark is taken off the tree the whole length of 

 the intended canoe, which is commonly about eighteen 

 feet, and is sewed with watape at both ends ; two laths are 

 then laid, and fixed along the edge of the bark which forms 

 the gunwale ; in these are fixed the bars, and against them 

 bear the ribs, or timbers, that are cut to the length to 

 which the bark can be stretched ; and, to give additional 

 strength, strips of wood are laid between them : to make 

 the whole water-tight, gum is abundantly employed. These 

 vessels carry from two to five people. Canoes of a similar 

 construction were used by the Beaver Indians within these 

 few years, but they now very generally employ those made 

 of the bark of the birch-tree, which are by far more dura- 

 ble. Their paddles are about six feet long, and about one 

 foot is occupied by the blade, which is in the shape of an 

 heart. 



Previous to our departure, the natives had caught a 

 couple of trout, of about six pounds weight, which they 

 brought me, and I paid them with beads. They likewise 



