132 



A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



hills, and followed an Indian track along its northern bank, by which 

 we avoided the White Mud and Good Portages. We afterwards 

 followed the river as far as the Pine Portage, when we passed through 

 a very romantic defile of rocks, which presented the appearance of 

 Gothic ruins, and their rude characters were happily contrasted with 

 the softness of the snow, and the darker foliage of the pines which 

 crowned their summits. We next crossed the Cascade Portage, 

 which is the last on the way to the Athabasca Lake, and we soon 

 afterwards came to some Indian tents, containing five families, 

 belonging to the Chipewyan tribe. We smoked the calumet in the 

 Chief's tent, whose name was the Thumb, and distributed some to- 

 bacco and a weak mixture of spirits and water among the men. 

 They received this civility with much less grace than the Crees, and 

 seemed to consider it a matter of course. There was an utter neg- 

 lect of cleanliness, and a total want of comfort in their tents ; and 

 the poor creatures were miserably clothed. Mr. Frazer, who accom- 

 panied us from the Methye Lake, accounted for their being in this 

 forlorn condition by explaining, that this band of Indians had re- 

 cently destroyed every thing they possessed, as a token of their great 

 grief for the loss of their relatives in the prevailing sickness, It 

 appears that no article is spared by these unhappy men when a near 

 relative dies ; their clothes and tents are cut to pieces, their guns 

 broken, and every other weapon rendered useless, if some person do 

 not remove these articles from their sight, which is seldom done. — 

 Mr. Back sketched one of the children. This delighted the father 

 very much, who charged the boy to be very good now, since his 

 picture had been drawn by a great Chief. We learned that they 

 prize pictures very highly, and esteem any they can get, however 

 badly executed, as efficient charms. They were unable to give us 

 any information respecting the country beyond the Athabasca Lake, 

 which is the boundary of their peregrinations to the northward. 

 Having been apprized of our coming, they had prepared an encamp- 



