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Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la derniAre image de chaque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbols ^^ signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbols V signifie "FIN". Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely Included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The followi ig diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre filmAs A des taux de rAduction diffArents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul clichA, il est filmA A partir de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'imagas nAcessaire. Las diagrammes suivants illustrant la mAthoda. 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 ^^w*^^ .'.nb»im«i»: %0f Ks5 A JOURNEY TO THE YOUCAN, RUSSIAN AMERICA. BY W. W. KIRBT. I left home on the 2(1 of May in a canoe paddled by a couple of Indians be- longing to my mission. We followed the ice down the noble McKenzie, staying awhile with Indians wherever we met them, and remained three or four days at each of the forts along the route. On the 11th of June I left the zone in which my life had hitherto been passed, and entered the less genial arctic one. Then, however, it was pleasant enough. The immense masses of ice piled on each side of the river sufficiently cooled the atmosphere to make the travelling en- joyable, T'hile the sun shed upon us the comfort of light nearly the whole twenty-four hours. And as we advanced further northward he did not leave us at all. Frequently did I see him describe a complete circle in the heavens. Betwen Point Separation and Peel's river we met several parties of Esqui- maux, all of whom, from their thievish propensities^ gave us a great deal of trouble, and very glad were we to escape out of their hands without loss or in- jury. They are a fine-looking race of people, and from their general habits and appearance, I imagine them to be much more intelligent than the Indians. And if proof were wanting I think we have it in a girl who was brought up from the coast little more than three years ago, and who now speaks and reads the English language with considerable accuracy. The men are tall, active, and remarkably strong, many of them having a profusion of whiskers and beard. The women are rather short, but comparatively fair, and possess very regular and by no means badly formed features. The females have a very singular practice of periodically cutting the hair from the crown of their husband's head, (leaving a bare place like the tonsure of a Roman Catholic priest,) and fastening the spoil to their own, wear it in bunches on each side of their face, and a third on the top of their head, something in the manner of the Japanese who recently visited the United States. This custom, as you will imagine, by no means improved either their figure or appearance, and as they advance in life, the bundles must become to them uncomfortably large. A very benevolent old lady was most urgent for me to partake of a slice of blubber, but I need hardly say that a sense of taste caused me firmly but respectfully to decline accepting her hos- pitality. Both sexes are inveterate smokers. Their pipes they manufacture themselves, and are made principally of copper; in shape, the bowl is very like a reel used for cotton, and the hole through the centre of it is as large as the aperture of the pipe for holding the tobacco. This they fill, and when lighted will not allow a single whiff to escape, but in the most unsmoker-likc manner swallow it all, withholding respiration until the pipe is finished. The effect of this upon their nervous system is extremely great, and often do they fall on the ground completely exhausted, and for a few minutes tremble like an aspen leaf. The heavy beards of the men, and the fair complexions of all, as- tonished ray Indians greatly, and in their surprise called them ''Manooli Conde," like white people. They were all exceedingly well dressed in deer-skin clothing, with the hair outside, which being new and nicely ornamented with white fur, gave them a clean and very comfortable appearance. Their little Kyachs were beautifully made, and all the men were well armed with deadly-looking knives, spears, and arrows, all of their own manufacture. The Indians are much afraid of them, and so afraid of my safety were two different parties that I saw on my ■ \ > I ..^ NJ h a itaa^air^vtK'^ ML.^aXi^^^AM^X JOURNEY TO THE YOUCAN, RUSSIAN AMERICA 417 .^ way (Jown that a man from each of thom, who could ppoak a little Eskimos voluntocred to accompaay me, without fee or reward, and invaluable did 1 Hud their services. Poor leliows ! they will never Bee this ; but I cannot refrain from paying them here r.y tribute of gratitude and thanks. At Peel's river 1 met with a large number of Loucheux Indians, all of whom received me most kindly, and listened attentively to the glad tidings of salva- tion 1 brought unto them. As these are a part of the great fumily who reach to the Youcan and beyond, I need not dwell upon them here, as their habits will be included in a general description that I shall give of the whole uy-and- by. I may, however, remark that from their longer association with 'the whites many of the darker traits that belong to their brethren on the Youcnn apply, if at all, in a much milder form to the Indians there and at Lapiene's House. I left my canoe and Indians, as well as those who accompanied me, at the fort, and taking two others who knew the way, walked over the Rocky mount- ains to Lapiene's House. This part of the journey fatigued me exceedingly — not so much from the distance (which was only from 7o to 100 miles) as from the badness of the walking, intense heat of the sun, and myriads of the most voracious mosquitos that I have met with in the country. Tho former, I think, would justly defy competition. There were several rivers to ford, which from the melting snows and recent rains were just at their height. Fortunately they were neither very deep nor wide, or my size and strength would have been seritms impediments to ray getting over them. At Lap ene's House I was delighted to meet Mr. Jones, who was my com- panion on travel from Red river to Fort Simpson. He had come up in charge of the Youcan boat, and at once kindly granted me a passage down with him. I had fortunately a bundle of Canadian newspapers in my carpet-bag, some of them containing some speeches on educational subjects by his venerable grand- father, the bishop of Toronto. Five days of drifting and rowing down the rapid current of the Porcupine river brought us to its confluence with the You- can, on the banks of which, about three miles above the junction, the fort is placed. My friend Mr. Lockhart was in charge, and all who know the kind- ness of his heart need not to be told of the cordial reception that I met with from him. Another hearty grasp was fiom the energetic naturalist Mr. R. Ken- nicott, who, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, came into the district with me, and passed the greater part of his first winter at Fort Simpson. lie delighted me with the assurance that he had mot with a vast field, and that his efforts had been crowned with much success, especially in the collection of eggs, many rare and some hitherto unknown ones having been obtained by him; so that the cause of science, in that department, will be greatly benefited by his labors. Among many oth<'rs I noticed the eggs and parent birds of the American widgeon, the black duck, canvas-back duck, spirit duck, {Bucfphala ahcola,) small biack-head duck, {FuUx affiriis,) the waxwing, [Ampchti gar- rulus,) the Kentucky warbler, the tnunpeter swan, the duck'hawk, (F«/co anatum,) and two species of juncos. With the exception of the waxwing, how- ever, there were few that have not been obtained in other parts of the district by the persevering zi '>! of Mr. Ross, the gentleman in charge, and it, I have eince learned, nested numerously in the vicinity of my out-station at Bear lake. On my arrival at the Youcan there were about 500 Indians present, all of whom were astonished, but appeared glad, to see a missionary among them. They are naturally a fierce, turbulent, and cruel race, approximating more nearly to the Plain tribes than to the quiet Chipewyana of the McKenzie valley. They com- mence somewhere about the 65th degree of north latitude, and stretch westward from the McKenzie to Behring's straits. They were formerly very numerous, but wars among themselves and with the Esquimaux have sadly diminishcid them. They are, however, still a strong and powerful people. They are divided into many petty tribes, each having its own chief, as the Ta-tlit-Kutchin. (PeeJ'a 27 S 418?9 ^ 418 EXPLORATIONS. River Indians,) Ta-Kiith-KutcLiu, (Lapienc's House Indians,) Kutcli-a-Kutcbin, (Youcan Indians,) Touchon-ta-Kutchiu, (Wooded Country Indians,) and many others. But the general appearance, dress, customs, and habits of all are pretty much the same, and all go under the general names of Kutchin (the people) and Loucheux, (squinters ) The former is their own appellation, while the latter was given to them by the whites. There is, however, another division among them of a more interesting and important character than that of the tribes just men- tioned. Irrespective of tribe, they are divided into three classes, termed, respect- ively, Chit-sa, Nate-sa, and Tanges-at-sa — faintly representing the aristocracy, the middle classes, and the poorer orders of civilized nations, the former being the most wealthy and the latter the poorest. In one respect, ho vever, they greatly differ, it being the rule for a man not to marry in his own, but to take a wife from either of the other classes. A Chit-sa gentleman will marry a Tanges- at-sa peasant without the least feeling infra dig. The offspring in every case belong to the class of the mother. This arrangement has had a moat beneficial effect in allaying the deadly feuds formerly so frequent among them. I wit- nessed one this summer, but it was far from being of a disastrous nature. The weapons used were neither the native bow nor imported gun, but the unruly tongue, and even it was used in the least objectionable way. A chief, whoso tribe was in disgrace for a murder committed the summer before, met the chief of the tribe to which the victim belonged, and in the presence of all commenced a brilliant oration in favor of him and his people, while he feelingly deplored his own and his people's inferiority. At once, in the most gallant way, the offended chief, in a spt;ech equally warm, refuted the compliments so freely offered, and returned them all, with interest, upon his antagonist. This lasted for an hour or two, when the offender, by a skilful piece of tactics, confessed himself so thoroughly beaten that he should never be able to open his lips agaia in the presence of his gengrous conqueror. Harmony, of course, was the in- evitable result. The dress of all is pretty much the same. It consists reaching to the knees, and very much ornamented with shells from the Columbia. The trousers and shoes are mentcd with beads and shells similar to the tunics. The dress of the women ia the same as that of the men, with the exception of the tunic being round in- stead of pointed in front. The b(!ad3 above mentioned constitute the Indian's wealth. They are strung lip in lengths, in yards and fathoms, and form a regular currency among them, a fathom being the standard, and ecj^uivalent to the "made beaver" of the company. Some tribes, especially the Kutch-a-Kutchin, are essentially traders, and, instead of hunting themselves, they purchase their furs from dis- tant tribes, among whom they regularly make excursions. Often the medicine- men and chiefs have more beads than they can carry abroad with them, and when this happens the company's stores are converted into banking establish- ments, where the deposits are invested for safe keeping. The women arc much fewer in number and live a much shorter time than the men. The latter arises from their early marriages, harsh treatment they receive, and laborious work they have daily to perform, while the former is caused, I fear, by the cruel acts of infanticide which to female children have been so sadly prevalent among them. Praiseworthy efforts have been made by the company's oflScera to prevent it, but the anguished and hardened mothers have replied that they did it to prevent the child from experiencing the hardships they endured. The men much reminded me of Plain tribes, with their " birds and feathers, nose jewels of tin, and necklaces of brass," and plentiful supply of paint, which was almost the first time I had seen it used in the district. Instead of the nose jc^wels being of " tin" they were composed of the Hyaqua shells which gave the expression of the face a singular appearance. The women did not use of a tunic or shirt beads, and Hyaqua attached, and orna- r 1 : -n»'■ %' v'i ^:, ' '' •'t-y'>^;-' ^•^ .:^- . **■«?•">■ .>i ^v V. w 'i, r ■> '* Xi , . /, »* >! " \ '^*^, •■! \ ; ■/* V i r*'^. J t * ' ( ' 1 Si..-P.LT.^ JtM'! , i 'Ira* * j: