CoIOHial CI)urrl) M^tovit^* 
 
 DIOCESE OF MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 BY RIGHT REVEREND 
 
 WILLIAM CARPENTER BOMPAS, D.D. 
 
 BISHOr OF THE DIOCESE. 
 
 WITH MAP. 
 
 PUBLISHED UNUEK THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE. 
 
 LONDON : 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, W.C. ; 
 43, Qt'EEN VICTORIA STREET K.C. ; 
 
 BRIGHTON: 135, North Streht. 
 New York : E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO. 
 1SS8. 
 
^(.(. \ {^^^^oy 
 
 *' ^RTHERf* AFFAIRS 
 PHONAL RE-UUR';- 
 
 ^AR 13 195. 
 "Morlhem Affairs Library 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAl'TER 
 
 I. EARLY EXPLORERS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I 
 
 n. 
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION 
 
 15 
 
 in. 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND MISSIONS . 
 
 • 27 
 
 IV. 
 
 INHABITANTS 
 
 39 
 
 V. 
 
 LANGUAGES 
 
 51 
 
 VL 
 
 FAUNA AND FLORA .... 
 
 • 59 
 
 VII. 
 
 ARCTIC LIFE 
 
 . 69 
 
 VIII. 
 
 METEOROLOGY 
 
 • 79 
 
 IX. 
 
 DRESS AND HABITS .... 
 
 . 90 
 
 X. 
 
 RESOURCES AND PROSPECTS*. 
 
 . 100 
 
■•1 
 
DIOCESE OF MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY EXPLORERS. 
 
 The ecclesiastical history of this diocese is but a 
 short one It may be allowed, then, to preface it 
 with some account of the progress of discovery in 
 this region, previously to the commencement of 
 missionary enterprise. 
 
 The explorers in the region now comprised in the 
 diocese of Mackenzie River have been many and 
 distinguished, so that even their names form a goodly 
 list. The following may be referred to : — Mr. Samuel 
 Hearne (17 71), Sir Alexander Mackenzie (1789), 
 Sir John Franklin (1820), and a second voyage in 
 1826, Admiral Sir (Icorge Back and Mr. King in 
 1833, Messrs. Dease and Simpson (1837 to 1839), 
 Captain l.efroy (1844), Commander Pullen (1849), 
 Sir John Richardson and Dr. Rae (1848), and 
 others. 
 
 The narratives of these voyages may be very 
 shortly reviewed. 
 
 Mr. Samuel Hearne, of the Hudson's Bay 
 Company's service, starting from Hudson's Bay, 
 
 B 
 
2 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 travelled with Chipewyan Indians westward overland 
 as far as the Great Slave Lake, and thence northward 
 to Coppermine River, which he struck within about 
 fifty miles of its mouth. He then returned by a 
 similar route. 
 
 The most unpleasant part of Mr. Hearne's story 
 is that the party of Indians with whom he travelled^ 
 entirely without his sanction, made an unprovoked 
 attack on a number of Esquimaux encamped on the 
 Coppermine River, and, in the night, barbarously 
 massacred the whole body of men, women, and 
 children, and spoiled their tents. The site of the 
 massacre became known afterwards as the Bloody 
 Falls. 
 
 It is remarkable that there is a bird in those parts 
 which the Indians there call the alarm bird, or bird 
 of warning, a sort of owl, which hovers over the 
 heads of strangers, and precedes them in the direc- 
 tion they go. If these birds see other moving 
 objects tliey flit alternately from one party to the 
 other with screaming noise, so that the Indians place 
 great confidence in the alarm bird, to apprise them 
 of the approach of strangers, or to conduct them to 
 herds of deer or musk oxen. 
 
 Mr. Hearne remarks that all the time the Indians 
 lay in ambush, preparatory to the above-mentioned 
 horrid massacre, a large flock of these birds were 
 continually flying about and hovering alternately 
 over the Indian and the Esquimaux tents, making a 
 noise sufticient to wake any man out of the soundest 
 sleep. The Esquimaux, unhappily, have a great 
 
EARLY EXPLORERS. 3 
 
 objection to be disturbed from sleep, and will not be 
 awakened — an obstinacy which seems to have cost 
 that band their lives. 
 
 In comparing the character of the country and its 
 inhabitants loo years ago, as detailed by earlier 
 travellers, with the present time, the following 
 reniarks occur. P^irst, there appears a great dimi- 
 nution during the past century, in the number of 
 native inhabitants, and still more in the number of 
 wild animals. The decay of the human race here 
 has been much owing to the ravages of small-pox, 
 which is described as having formerly cut off nine- 
 tenths of the inhabitants, having been communicated 
 from the more southern Indians, shortly after the 
 date of the earliest explorations. The diminution of 
 the animals may be attributed in great part to their 
 wasteful and excessive destruction after the intro- 
 duction of firearms among the Indians. 
 
 The cruelty and vice of the earlier natives, as 
 disclosed by Mr. Hearne, who resided among them, 
 are quite enough to have called for a visitation of 
 heaven for their chastisement ; and it is pleasant 
 to witness a considerable improvement in the Indian 
 character in later days, especially in regard to the 
 moderating of their habits of cruelty and violence 
 to one another. 
 
 The accounts of the domestic habits and customs 
 of the Indians a century since are still a good deal 
 applicable at the present time, though some of 
 their superstitions fall into disuse as they mingle 
 with Europeans. Their implements and utensils 
 
 B 2 
 
4 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 remain much the same, except so far as stone axes 
 and knives, and kettles of roots and dishes of board 
 have since been replaced by metal purchased from 
 European traders. 
 
 The narrative of Mr. Hearne is very detailed and 
 graphic, and is only far too true to be agreeable in 
 regard to his description of the native character. No 
 greater contrast could be imagined than between 
 such a history and modern works of fiction about 
 Indian life. The utter absence of all knowledge of, or 
 obedience to, any one of the ten commandments, or 
 rather the glory found in the habitual and delighted 
 breach of every one of them, especially those of the 
 second table, is the melancholy characteristic of the 
 book. The abandonment of the aged, sick, and help- 
 less ones to death ; unrestrained plunder and liber- 
 tinism ; wife murder, polygamy, war, and massacre ; 
 kidnapping, and worse crimes, — such things form the 
 staple of the description of the natives in Mr. 
 Hearne's book. 
 
 In the year 1789 the great Mackenzie River was 
 descended by Sir Alexander Mackenzie. It is hard 
 to overpraise the intrepid courage, cool prudence, 
 nnd inquiring intelligence of that noble traveller. 
 To that time the large country to the north-west of 
 Great Slave Lake had been wholly unexplored. 
 Sir Alexander Mackenzie, leaving Athabasca Lake in 
 June 1789, by canoe, descended the Slave and 
 Mackenzie Rivers till he met the tidal waters of 
 the Arctic Sea. Thence he returned safely to Atha- 
 basca by the same route, before winter of that year. 
 
EARLY EXPLORERS. 5 
 
 He may be said to have discovered far more than he 
 saw, for he ascertained, by careful examination of 
 Indians met along the Mackenzie, the existence and 
 course of the Youcon River, more accurately than that 
 river was laid down in the maps fifty years afterwards. 
 For he stated his conviction that the Youcon River 
 debouched in Norton Sound, while there are maps 
 of far later date, and still existing, which place that 
 river as flilh'ng into the Arctic Sea, confounding it with 
 the Colville. 
 
 Sir Alexander Mackenzie took the greatest pains 
 to conciliate all Indians whom he met, by presents 
 and promises of peaceful trade, and he energetically 
 restrained all attempts at murder or rapine made by 
 the Indians who accompanied him. He did not 
 meet with Esquimaux, and it is little wonder that 
 these and the Mackenzie River Indians were shy of 
 him, as it was then customary for the Athabasca 
 Indians to make annual war expeditions down the 
 Mackenzie for purposes of plunder, massacre, and 
 rapine, as well as for kidnapping of women and slaves. 
 
 As the dependence of the expedition for provisions 
 was chiefly on their guns and fishing-nets, and on the 
 Indian hunters who accompanied them, considerable 
 delay was occasioned, their success was j)recarious, 
 and often endangered by scarcity. Under the care 
 of a gracious Providence all returned safely, without 
 casualty or mishap. A foundation was thus laid for 
 the peaceable prosecution of the fur trade in these 
 regions, which has since been carried on successfully 
 for a century. 
 
6 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 As in the case of Mr. Hearne's narrative, so that 
 of Sir A. Mackenzie leads to the observation how 
 much both men and animals have since diminished 
 in that region. Moreover it was then a country of 
 war, and has since been one of peace. For this 
 result the policy and success of the Hudson's Bay 
 Company deserve much credit, and make it worth 
 while to consider how far the pursuit of useful trade 
 should be credited as a handmaid to the gospel in 
 spreading the peace of Christ's kingdom. 
 
 The next expedition was conducted in 1820 by 
 Mr. afterwards Sir John Franklin, accompanied by 
 Messrs. Back, Hood, and Dr., afterwards Sir John 
 Richardson. 
 
 The expedititon proceeded first from York Factory 
 to Athabasca and Cireat Slave Lake. The winter 
 of 1820 was spent at Fort Enter])rise, situate at 
 the head of Yellowknife River, which falls into a 
 bay at the north-western side of Great Slave Lake. 
 Thence the following spring tlie exj)edition pro- 
 ceeded first over land and then by boat to the moutli 
 of the Coppermine River. But even to weather the 
 first winter was a matter of much difficulty, as it was 
 a time of famine among the Indians, many of whom 
 were starving at no great distance from the wintering 
 place of the expedition. 
 
 It was thought needful that the expedition to 
 the Arctic Sea coast should consist of not less 
 than twenty persons, for fear of a collision witli 
 the Escjuimaux, of whose treachery many warnings 
 were received. From the first the men of the cxpc- 
 
EARLY EXPLORERS. 7 
 
 dition were overloaded with heavy packs, including 
 instruments for surveying, and tents, Sec, besides 
 provisions. 
 
 The descent of the Coppermine River was not 
 managed without much peril and delay, it being 
 full of falls and rapids. The sea being reached, 
 the course was continued along shore to the east- 
 ward, but not without much impedimer;t from ice. 
 A civiHsed Esquimaux from Hudson's Bay accom- 
 panied the expedition as interpreter, who succeeded 
 in having communication with a small party of the 
 coast Esquimaux. He assured these of the peace- 
 able intentions of the voyaging party. The natives 
 could not, however, be ]jersuaded to approach the 
 Europeans. The expedition having reached as far to 
 the eastward as Bathurst Inlet, were warned l)y the 
 lateness of the season and the exhaustion of their 
 provisions to return. 
 
 After returning westward as far as Arctic Sound 
 the sea travelling was abandoned, and an effort made 
 to cross the country in a direct line to Fort Enter- 
 prise, to winter there again. This, however, proved 
 one of the most woeful journeys ever undertaken 
 by men. Provisions failed ; and the men, hungry 
 and frost-bitten, fainted under their loads. At last 
 the pnrty was divided. Dr. Richardson and those 
 with him subsisted for about six weeks on the lichen 
 growing on the rocks, known as " tripe des roches," 
 together with a drink known as swami)-tea, made 
 from a country herb. 
 
 At last treachery and murder assailed the band. 
 
S MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 A treacherous Iroquois Indian shot one of the 
 officers, Lieutenant Hood, to satisfy on his flesh the 
 cravings of hunger ; and after threatening the other 
 officers, he was himself ohot by them for self- 
 protection. A diminished party at length reached 
 Fort Enterprise only to find the post deserted and 
 without provisions. The waste heaps were searched 
 for rotting bones and skins thrown off the spring 
 before, and at their extremity the survivors were 
 rescued when too weak to rise by the arrival of 
 friendly Indians with provisions. Dr. Rae also 
 afterwards soon joined the party, and their sufferings 
 were ended. 
 
 In 1826 Sir John Franklin again descended the 
 Mackenzie River in boats, and explored the sea- 
 coast to the westward as far as about half-wav to 
 Point Barrow, whence returning, he mounted the 
 Mackenzie again, and wintered at Great Bear Lake. 
 The following summer he reached England from 
 thence by way of Canada. 
 
 In 1833 an expedition was undertaken under the 
 command of Captain Back, accompanied by Mr. 
 King as naturalist, to descend Great Fish River 
 (afterwards called also Back River) to the Arctic 
 coast with the view of offering succour to Sir John 
 Ross, then engaged in Arctic survey. Captain Back's 
 expedition was, however, pursued by intelligence 
 of the safe return of Sir John Ross, .so that his 
 voyage was confined afterwards to geographical 
 interest. 
 
 Proceeding by way of Montreal and Canada, and 
 
EARLY EXPLORERS. 9 
 
 tiience to J.akes Superior and Winnipeg by the 
 north-west canoe route, Captain Back pursued the 
 usual course taken by the traders and Arctic 
 voyagers as far as Great Slave Lake, and wintered at 
 Fort Reliance, situate on a bay at the north-eastern 
 extremity of that lake. 
 
 This winter was marked by great suffering and 
 famine among the Indians, many of whom perished 
 of want; and it is a remarkable circumstance that 
 the earlier narratives of travels in this northern land 
 tell of much more serious and constant starvation 
 among the Indians formerly tlian now, even though 
 the wild animals have in later days grievously 
 diminished. The fact may be explained by the 
 diminishing numbers of the natives, and by the 
 survivors being supplied with ammunition and fire- 
 arms, as well as with twine for fishing nets, by the 
 European traders. 
 
 After the necessary boats had been built, the 
 expedition descended in these the Great Fish River 
 in the summer of 1834. 'I'hc river was found 
 impeded by rapids, but the coast was reached without 
 misliap. The ice along shore, however, seemed to 
 preclude the successful exploration of the coast, and 
 the further prosecution of the voyage was abandoned 
 from that point, the exi)edition jiarty returning by the 
 way they came. 
 
 In 1837 Messrs. Dease and Simi)son again de- 
 scended the Mackenzie, and explored the Arctic 
 coast to the westward of that river much further 
 than Sir John Franklin had previously reached. 
 
10 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 Messrs. Dease and Simpson proceeded overland 
 from Manitoba to Athabasca in winter, and thence 
 descended by boat with several canoes to the 
 Mackenzie, and thence by a like route with that of 
 Sir A. Mackenzie to the Arctic Sea. Turning 
 westward, the expedition soon reached along the 
 coast as far as Return Reef, the extremity of Sir 
 John Franklin's voyage in 1826. Proceedmg for- 
 ward thence with caution and despatch, the boat 
 reached the neighbourhood of Point Barrow, en- 
 •countering several parties of Esquimaux, whom they 
 tried to conciliate with presents; but they were 
 exposed to some danger from the treachery of these 
 natives. No great discoveries were made along the 
 coast, which proved shallow, much indented, and 
 somewhat ice-hampered. 
 
 From Point Barrow the expedition returned to 
 the mouth of the Mackenzie River, which they 
 mounted as far as Bear River, and proceeded thence 
 to Great Bear Lake, which they crossed. They 
 reached their wintering ground at Fort Confidence, 
 in the north-east extremity of Great Bear Lake, on 
 September 25, 1837, after being reinforced by the 
 arrival of a boat with winter supplies from the south. 
 The ensuing winter at Fort Confidence seems to 
 have been passed by them pleasantly and without 
 scarcity of i)rovisions, either for the expedition party 
 or the neighbouring Indians. In June, 1838, 
 Messrs. Dease and Simpson crossed overland t<» 
 the Coppermine River, and thence descended to 
 the Arctic Sea. I'hcy hauled the boat overland 
 
EARLY EXPLORERS. II 
 
 from Dease River, which falls into Great Bear Lake, 
 to the Coppermine, over a portage of six miles. 
 Descending the Coppermine with the spring freshet, 
 the expedition had some peril in passing the tur- 
 bulent rapids. At the mouth of the river some 
 delay was caused by ice ; but when this cleared 
 off, the exploration of the coast to the eastward 
 was proceeded with. Though Esquimaux were seen 
 they proved shy of approach ; but the boats made 
 good their course along the coast a good deal 
 further than Sir John Franklin had previously at- 
 tained. The return was made from W. long. io6°, 
 opposite the south coast of Victoria land. 
 
 The return voyage to the former winter quarters 
 iit Fort Confidence was effected without mishap 
 by September 14, 1838, and another year's supply 
 of provisions was there received from Mackenzie 
 River. The following winter saw considerable 
 distress among the neighbouring Indians, who were 
 relieved as far as means admitted by the party at 
 Fort Confidence. 
 
 Next year (1839) another summer excursion was 
 made along the Arctic coast to the eastward, in 
 the same direction as before ; and, the season being 
 more favourable, a point much further to the east- 
 ward was reached. In fact, the point abutting on 
 <jreat Fish River, which had been visited by Messrs. 
 33ack and King in 1834, was touched. Some 
 Esquimaux were interviewed, but no great infor- 
 mation obtained from them. From the mouth 
 of (Ireat Fish River, south of Boothia Felix, this 
 
12 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 enterprising party of explorers turned once more 
 westward. Favr ^ed by fine weather and a 
 late fall, they again reached the Coppermine, 
 and, ascending it, regained Fort Confidence. 
 Passing this establishment and re-crossing Great 
 Bear Lake, the tcpedition was enabled to gain 
 Fort Simpson in time to winter there. 
 
 Mr. Simpson, however, leaving Fort Simpson in 
 December, 1839, journeyed in winter on snow-shoes 
 to Manitoba, a distance of 1,800 miles. Manitoba 
 he reached in February, and proceeded thence towards 
 Canada in hopes of organising another Arctic ex- 
 pedition, which was indeed sanctioned by the 
 Hudson's Bay Company. Mr. Simpson met his 
 death on the road to St. Paul's, Minnesota, ap- 
 parently through some treachery of his native com- 
 panions : but the mystery attending this has never 
 been cleared up. Any further prosecution of Arctic 
 research was, consequently, for the time abandoned. 
 
 The last Government exploring expedition con- 
 ducted in this direction was the Arctic Overland 
 Search Expedition for Si" John Franklin, under 
 the charge of Sir John Richardson, in 1848. Sir 
 John descended the Mackenzie River and ex- 
 plored the Arctic coast, thence to the eastward 
 toward the Coppermine River, wintering at Fort Con- 
 fidence. He penned and published, in 1852, a very 
 interesting narrative of his voyage, with a full list of 
 the flora of the country; but the work is now, un- 
 fortunately, out of print, as well as the narratives 
 of previous expeditions. So great has been the 
 
EARLY EXPLORERS. 1 3 
 
 perseverance and endeavour shown in the various 
 Arctic expeditions that it seems a pity their records 
 should perish. Copies of the printed volumes nar- 
 rating them may probably be found preserved at 
 the Hudson's Bay House, London. 
 
 It may be added that in another overland journey 
 to explore the western shores of Boothia Felix in 
 1 849, Dr. Rae obtained from the neighbouring Esqui- 
 maux information of the loss of Franklin's crew. 
 
 In 1849 Commander PuUen, exploring the Arctic 
 coast from the westward by way of Behring's F traits, 
 left his ship at Point Barrow% and proceeded in 
 boats to the mouth of Mackenzie River, which he 
 mounted as far as Fort Simpson, where he wintered. 
 His boats' crews were wintered in part at Great 
 Bear Lake, and in part at Great Slave Lake, and 
 all returned to England the next season by way of 
 Canada. 
 
 In the spring of 1844 Captain Lefroy was occu- 
 pied, under Government auspices, in conducting 
 magnetic observations at Fort Simpson. 
 
 The exploration of the country to the west of the 
 Rocky Mountains, included within the limits of the 
 Mackenzie River Diocese, has been conducted by 
 officers of the Hudson's Bay Comi)any in the course 
 of their trading operations, especially by ISIr. Camp- 
 boll, formerly in charge of Fort Selkirk, on the Upper 
 Youcon. Mr. John McDougall has l^een lately en- 
 gaged in such an exploring trip in tliat country in 
 the interest of the fur trade. 
 
 The islands of the Arctic Ocean are not con- 
 
14 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 sidered to form part of the Mackenzie River Diocese. 
 No reference is therefore here made to the various 
 Arctic and Polar voyages by sea, which have mapped 
 out the Archipelago fringing the northern shores of 
 the American continent. It may be mentioned, 
 however, that the sea along the coast to the east 
 and west of the Mackenzie was explored by Com- 
 mander McClure in H.M.S. Investigator in 1850. 
 
 The above inadequate sketch of the contents of 
 above a dozen printed volumes of large size, besides 
 unpublished narratives, may suffice to show how 
 much there is that has been known, and might yet 
 be told, about a region that is generally considered 
 untraversed and without a history. 
 
 Captain Dawson, of the Royal Artillery, passed 
 the winter of 1882 at Fort Rae, Great Slave Lake, in 
 charge of a branch of the Circumpolar Expedi- 
 tion, under Government auspices, for purposes of 
 magnetic observation. It is said that the winter 
 temperature registered at Fort Rae was, with one 
 exception, the lowest recorded at any of the Circum- 
 l)olar stations. 
 
MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION. 
 
 The Diocese of Mackenzie River is considered to 
 extend from loo^ to 141® W. longitude, and from 60° 
 to 70*^ N. latitude. It contains therefore about 800,00a 
 square miles. 
 
 It is bounded on the North by the Arctic Ocean ; 
 on the East by the District of Keewatin and Diocese 
 of Moosonee ; on the South by the District of Atha- 
 basca and the Province of British Columbia, or 
 ecclesiastically by the Diocese of Athabasca and 
 New Caledonia ; and on the West by the United 
 States Territory of Alaska, which has not yet been 
 formed into a diocese. 
 
 The great Mackenzie River, which forms the chief 
 feature of this diocese, is the longest in the British 
 dominions, being, from its source to its mouth, up- 
 wards of 3,000 miles long. It bears the name of 
 Mackenzie River only after passing through Great 
 Slave Lake, whence its course to the sea is about 
 1,200 miles. It averages about a mile in breadth, 
 with a swift current running about three to four 
 miles an hour. From about 150 miles above Great 
 Slave Lake to the sea there is no great obstruction 
 to the navigation, the few rapids being inconsiderable. 
 In the upper part of its stream it is called by the 
 
l6 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 names of the Athabasca and Slave River, but the 
 former of these is wholly, and the latter partly, out- 
 side the limits of Mackenzie River Diocese. 
 
 The banks of the Mackenzie River are mostly high 
 and clothed with pines. The shores are stony, 
 except in reaches where soil is being cut from muddy 
 banks by the encroaching water. Islands occur at 
 intervals in the course of the stream. The chief 
 features of interest along the river occur where the 
 mountains or jutting crags border the channel. 
 There are first the Nahany mountains (about lat. 
 63''), to avoid which the river takes a sudden bend 
 to the north. Next is noticed the bold precipice 
 known as the Hill by the river-side, a sheer cliff 
 which drops into the water on the right bank of the 
 stream. About 150 miles below this is Bear Rock, an 
 imposing headland immediately below Fort Norman. 
 In the same vicinity are seen constant natural fires 
 burning on the river banks, and fed by underground 
 coal or mineral pitch. These have been on fire for 
 at least a century, in fact, ever since the discovery of 
 the river. 
 
 These fires were fully described by Sir John 
 Richardson, who considered that extensive coal-beds 
 lay there. 
 
 The matter will, doubtless, be further investigated 
 by the Canadian Government Surveyors, shortly ex. 
 pected in Mackenzie River. 
 
 Such fires are not infrequent in other parts of the 
 country, especially in Upper Peace River, on a stream 
 called from them Smoky River. 
 
GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION. 1 7 
 
 Petroleum or rock oil springs are also found on 
 Great Slave Lake and Athabasca River, but will not 
 pay for working, so far from civilisation. 
 
 Just above the Arctic Circle, in lat. 67° 30^, the 
 Mackenzie River narrows into a gorge or canon, 
 between high perpendicular cliffs, known as the 
 Ramparts. These cliffs are fantastically scarped 
 bv nature into a semblance of towers and turrets, 
 and present a pleasing aspect. The gorge is 
 about ten miles long, and seems to form a 
 stupendous portal into the Arctic world. Imme- 
 diately beyond these cliffs is situate Fort Good 
 Hope. Below this point the river sometimes expands 
 into the appearance of a lake, and at other times 
 narrows, when hemmed in by rocks, till the single 
 stream reaches Point Separation, about lat. 68^. 
 From thence the river divides into numerous 
 channels, which widely expand as they approach the 
 sea, till at the coast the delta of the river measures 
 probably about fifty miles across. 
 
 The only usual residentii in the Mackenzie River 
 Diocese, besides the native Indians and Esquimaux 
 and the missionaries, are the officers and employes of the 
 Hudson's Bay Company, who are engaged in the fur 
 trade. For the purposes of this commercial under- 
 taking twelve trading posts in the diocese are occu- 
 pied which are mostly called Forts, though of late 
 years entirely destitute of defences. These trading 
 ]iosts consist each of about half a dozen log build- 
 ings, used as residences for the clerk in charge and 
 employes^ and for fur store and trading shop. The 
 
 c 
 
1 8 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 posts arc situate from loo to 300 miles apart, and are 
 mostly along the courses of the rivers and lakes. 
 About 100 families of Indians, more or less, trade at 
 each post. These live in their leather lodges or tents, 
 and hunt the surrounding country for provisions and 
 furs, with which they trade at the post nearest to them 
 about twice in the year. They generally, in visiting 
 the post, remain only a couple of nights, except in the 
 spring time, when they often bring their families and 
 tents, and remain encamped in the neighbourhood of 
 the post for some weeks. 
 
 In early days of the trade, when spirits were dealt 
 out to the Indians, these visits were scenes of riot 
 and debauchery ; but for many years the trade in 
 intoxicating liquors has been abandoned, and the 
 Indians are now free from all turbulence in their visits 
 to the trading establishments. 
 
 The situation of the trading posts is as follows : — 
 On Great Slave Lake are two forts named Rae and 
 Resolution, placed on the north and south sides of 
 the lake respectively. On the Mackenzie River are 
 five posts. Fort Providence is about thirty miles from 
 ■Great Slave Lake, adjoining which post are the head- 
 quarters of the French Roman Catholic Mission. 
 Fort Simpson, situate about 150 miles further down 
 the river, combines the head-quarters of the fur trade, 
 and of the Church of England Missions. Fort 
 Wrigley is about too miles further north, and about 
 200 miles beyond this is Fort Norman, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Great Bear Lake. Beyond this again 
 is the most northern trading post on the Mackenzie 
 
GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION. 1 9 
 
 River, namely, Fort Good Hope, situate almost pre- 
 cisely at the Arctic Circle. 
 
 Three trading posts have their position within the 
 Arctic Circle, namely, one on Peel River for trading 
 with Loucheux Indians and Esquimaux ; one, named 
 I.a Pierre's House, on Rat River ; and the Rampart 
 House on Porcupine River. The remaining trading 
 posts are two lying towards the south of the diocese, 
 and situate on the Liard River. These arc named 
 Forts Liard and Nelson. 
 
 In attempting a succinct view of the natural 
 features of the diocese at large, it may be stated 
 generally that its northern border, consisting of the 
 country within about loo miles of the Arctic coast, 
 is known as the "Barren Lands," from its being 
 quite denuded of trees by the blasts of the frozen 
 ocean. To the south of this belt the whole country 
 is generally clothed with pines, except so far as it is 
 intersected by lakes and small marshes. The lakes 
 are of every dimension, and so numerous that in 
 scanning the country from a height you will some- 
 times deem the surface to be more water than land. 
 The soil among the i)ine-trees is generally covered 
 with a yellowish moss, which forms the natural food 
 of the reindeer, and a more succulent moss generally 
 occupies the marshes, though these and the small 
 lakes are often fringed with grass, which, near the 
 trading posts, is mown for the cattle. 
 — The lakes are mostly well stocked with fish, and 
 the woods are traversed by the migratory reindeer, 
 and are the abode of moose deer and red deer. The 
 
20 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 mountains are the homes of rock goats and a few 
 wild sheep. The mossy dells and open spaces are 
 sprinkled in the autumn season with small wild 
 berries of various kinds, and in spring ard autumn 
 the jiassing flocks of wild ducks, geese, swans, and 
 cranes form the attraction of the sportsman. 
 
 The chief and almost the sole occupation of the 
 native Indians is hunting or fishing, and of the white 
 residents voyaging and trading. The rivers and lakes 
 form the chief highways through the country, for 
 except in winter witli sledges the woods are hardly 
 passable. „ 
 
 The most attractive geographical feature in the 
 diocese is the waterfall in Hay River, which stream 
 runs into (ireat Slave Lake on its southern side. The 
 falls are situate about loo miles from the mouth of 
 the river, and are very imposing and picturesfjue. The 
 principal or unbroken fall may be about 300 feet 
 high and 300 yards wide. An amber tinge in the 
 water, owing to the hay swamps in which the river 
 rises, gives to the waterfall the ai)pearance of auburn 
 tresses. There is a second broken fall of about 100 
 feet two miles further down the river. But few 
 Europeans have visited this cascade, which has 
 received the name of the Alexandra Falls. If better 
 known it would probably be noted as one of the 
 beauties of the Continent. 'I'he cascade is entirely 
 closed by ice in winter. The river is first frozen 
 above and below the falls, and the water and 
 spray falling on the ice below, raises at last a per- 
 pendicular sheet or column of ice, whicli, mounting 
 
<;eographical description. iii 
 
 higher and higher, at last completely encloses the cas- 
 cade as in a drapery and unites with the ice above. 
 
 The northern part of Great Slave Lake is studded 
 with a thousand rocky islets, forming a picturesque 
 and attractive scene. The dark pines cling to the 
 rocks, and are reflected in the pellucid lake. 
 
 On the banks of the Liard River the pine forests 
 are diversified with poplar, as is the case also to the 
 west of the Rocky Mountains, even as far north as 
 the Arctic Circle, for a degree of latitude westward 
 seems to moderate the severity of the climate almost 
 as much as a degree southward. The banks of the 
 Upper Voucon are flowery in the springtime, and 
 the face of nature there seems to wear a softer 
 aspect than on the east of the great mountain range. 
 
 Regarding the mineral productions of the country, 
 a large quantity of native iron ore is exposed on the 
 Upper Voucon, and gold has also been lately found 
 on that river. Coal exists on the Mackenzie near 
 lort Norman, and sulphur is found abundantly on 
 one part of the south coast of (Ireat Slave Lake. 
 .Salt is plentiful on the Slave River, and also on the 
 Mackenzie. Coal oil exists in Creat Slave Lake, 
 and alum is found on the Voucon. Other minerals 
 may await further research. • 
 
 The Rocky Mountains run through the diocese 
 quite up to the Arctic coast ; but they are of no 
 great elevation, nor does the snow remain on them 
 all summer, even within the Arctic Circle. The 
 constant rays of the unsetting sun in the Arctic 
 regions seem to have more i)Ower in melting ice and 
 
22 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 snow than even a tropical sun that is absent for 
 twelve hours out of the twenty-four. So benign are 
 the compensating arrangements of a watchful Pro- 
 vidence. It has, indeed, been said, by those who 
 have experienced both, that the heat of the Arctic 
 summer sun is more scorching than that of the 
 tropics. A coast mountain range borders the Arctic 
 Sea to the westward of the ^Mackenzie River as far 
 as Point Barrow. This may, perhaps, be considered 
 as a continuation of the Rockies. 
 " The Arctic coast has a bleak and weird aspect, as 
 might be expected. The first sensation of walking on 
 the smooth ice off the shore of the frozen ocean is 
 something akin to a feeling of having caught a lion 
 asleep. The Mackenzie River brings down a large 
 ([uantity of drift wood, and the coast traveller is 
 dependent on this for making his camp fire. A& 
 soon as the traveller leaves the coast he is almost 
 helpless in respect to kindling a fire till he reaches 
 the pine-clad country. A clump of green willows in 
 some sheltered dell, or a few stunted pines along the 
 banks of a river, are his only hope. 
 
 Arctic travelling in the mountains is at times 
 severe. Not that the cold is more severe at a higher 
 elevation, for the contrary is the case ; but because 
 the blinding snow-storm urged by the icy blast 
 freezes the voyager's face and seals up his eyes by 
 congealing their exuding moisture. He is thankful 
 if some jutting crag or steej) gully affording a morsel 
 of fuel offers him a temporary refuge from the 
 raging tempest. 
 
GEOCRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION. 23 
 
 The breaking up of the winter ice of the Mac- 
 kenzie River in springtime is often an imposing 
 spectacle. The river freezes in winter to a depth of 
 six or eight feet of ice. It thaws first to the south- 
 ward, and the rush of the spring freshet breaks up 
 tlie ice of the northern part of the river while this is 
 yet in a solid state. Should the ice become blocked 
 in its drifting, the current of the swollen river may 
 be banked back till the water is raised from 50 to 
 100 feet, and floods the banks. Large masses of 
 ice may then be carried far into the woods, the banks 
 may be much scarpfid and denuded, and quantities 
 of trees torn down by the force of the ice-bearing 
 current. Piles of ice fifty feet high often remain 
 for weeks along the shore after the river is open, 
 and islands and headlands are sometimes overswept 
 and bared by the frozen torrent. 
 
 In the autumn the river begins to drift with ice 
 about October 20, and continues drifting for a month 
 before it sets fast. It continues frozen from the 
 end of November to the middle of May, or nearly 
 six months. By the end of May the river is clear of 
 ice unless in the separated channels near the sea, 
 where it may continue clogged with drift-ice till 
 the middle of June. 
 
 The Esquimaux of the coast when travelling up 
 the river in the springtime take both their sleds and 
 tlieir skin boats along with them. When they find 
 open water they place the sleds in the boats, and 
 when blocked by ice they place the boats on the 
 sleds, and thus proceed by either mode of transit. 
 
24 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 One noticeable feature of the country is the burnt 
 wood. From various causes fires are apt to run 
 through the forests in the drought of summer, and 
 these reduce the pine-trees to bare and blackened 
 poles. In a few years after such a fire an under- 
 growth springs up, and soon young saplings begin to 
 replace the timber trees that have been destroyed. 
 The charred poles, however, of the consumed forest 
 remain standing for many years. Such a burning of 
 the forests will often change the course of the mi- 
 gratory reindeer, and perhaps leave a country hungry 
 that has been rich in provisions. The spectacle of a 
 blazing forest when one pine-tree after another flares 
 up in sparkling splendour, is a sight of slartling 
 masfnificence. 
 
 The annual supplies of European trading goods 
 carried into Mackenzie River every summer from 
 outside, consist of about sixty to eighty tons of mis- 
 cellaneous articles, princijjally ammunition, tobacco, 
 clothing, flour, tea, groceries, and utensils. This has 
 to be divided among all the inhabitants, and forms 
 their only dependence, beyond the produce of tlic 
 country, which is almost confined to meat, fish, and 
 leather, besides the exported furs. 
 
 The only returns made in the way of export for the 
 incoming supplies are the furs, which are sent out 
 each summer to the weight of about fifteen tons. 
 The value of these is, of course, calculated to exceed 
 that of the goods imported, or there would be no 
 .success in the commercial venture. A small steamer 
 
GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION. 2$ 
 
 having been placed on the Mackenzie River for the 
 first time in 1886, it is likely that the imports of 
 flour and other conveniences may somewhat increase. 
 Should the gold mines prove lucrative that are being 
 opened on the western borders of the diocese it is 
 likely that communication may be increased with the 
 Pacific coast. 
 
 At present the route to Mackenzie River is by 
 railway from the eastern coast of the Continent, 
 through Canada or the United States to Manitoba, 
 and thence by Canadian Pacific Railway to Calgary, 
 near the Rocky Mountains. From that point the 
 journey is continued by mail-cart, or wagon, across 
 the prairies in a northerly direction to Edmonton, on 
 the north branch of the Sascachewan River, about 
 six days' travel, and thence further north, about 
 100 miles, to Athabasca landing, the head of the 
 navigation on the Athabasca River. From this point 
 the voyage is resumed by boat through a river 
 not without difficulty of navigation, owing to its 
 turbulent rapids. A steamer is met lower down the 
 Athabasca River, at its junction with the Clear Water 
 River, from whence the navigation is less impeded. 
 The Athabasca steamer connects at l*'ort Smith on 
 Slave River with another steamer bound for the 
 Mackenzie. 
 
 There is thus now steam travelling from ICngland to 
 Mackenzie River, with only one interval of about 600 
 miles, or rather more than a fortnight's travel, which 
 is bridged by wagon and boat. Starting from ICngland 
 
26 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 on I St June, about three months' travel, including 
 stoppages, ought to land the traveller in Mackenzie 
 
 River. 
 
 This break in the steam communication is likely 
 to be ere long much reduced in length, by a branch 
 railroad to Edmonton, and a steamboat from Atha- 
 basca landin.Gj. 
 
MACKENZIE RIVER. 2/ 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ^ CHURCH OF ENGLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 Church of England Missions were begun in the 
 country now forming the Diocese of Mackenzie 
 River, in 1858. Archdeacon Hunter was the first 
 Church of England Missionary who reached Mac- 
 kenzie River, but on a visit, spending only one winter 
 there. He visited Forts Liard and Good Hope, and 
 baptised several resident whites and Indians. He 
 made arrangements also for the permanent occupa- 
 tion of the country in the Missionary interest. 
 
 In the following year Mr., afterwards Archdeacon, 
 Kirkby, arrived in Mackenzie River, where he 
 laboured zealously for ten years. He printed several 
 l)rimers in the Indian language, erected a handsome 
 church and substantial Mission house at Fort Simpson, 
 and collected a congregation there of whites and 
 Indians, to whom he faithfully ministered. He was 
 unremitting in his attention to the spiritual needs of 
 the employes of the Fur Company. Every summer and 
 often in winter he voyaged to the other trading posts 
 in the district, and, from his genial disposition, he 
 gained everywhere a welcome. He made two trips 
 across the Rocky Mountains to the extreme north- 
 western limit of the district at Fort Voucon, and he 
 found there even more success among the Indians- 
 
2 8 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 than on the Mackenzie. Though each of his visits to 
 Fort Youcon lasted only about a fortnight, yet these 
 sufficed to induce the Indian tribes there thoroughly 
 to abandon their heathenism, and joyfully to accept 
 instruction in the Gospel. 
 
 In 1862 the Rev. Robert, afterwards Archdeacon, 
 Mac Donald; was sent to the assistance of the Rev. 
 William Kirkby. He proceeded at once to the 
 Youcon, to take charge of the promising Mission 
 work there, and, under his auspices, the converts 
 multiplied and the Mission sphere widened. The 
 Yen. Dr. ^^lacDonald remained an active and as- 
 siduous worker for ten years, and he then took a 
 furlough in England, after which he returned to his 
 labours. By his exertions the entire Testament and 
 Prayer Book, with Psalms and numerous Hymns 
 have been translated and printed in the Tukudh 
 tongue, as also a primer in the language of the tribes 
 on the Lower Youcon River. 
 
 Except the Testament printed by the Bible Society, 
 these works have been almost wholly ])rinted and 
 brought out at the pains and expense of the venerable 
 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 
 
 In 1865 information had reached England, which 
 happily proved groundless, that the Rev. R. I^Iac- 
 I^onald had fallen into a decline, and was obliged to 
 leave his work, and that Romish priests were In 
 readiness to succeed to it. Upon this intelligence, 
 the Rev. W. C. Bonipas was despatched as his 
 intended successor. Mr. Bompas left England July 
 I, 1865, and reached Fort Simpson in Mackenzie 
 
CHURCH OF ENGLAND MISSIONS. 29. 
 
 Kiver on Christmas morning of the same year. He 
 there found the news of the Rev. R. Mac Donald's 
 retirement to have been premature, and consequently 
 took u]3 work in Athabasca District and on Peace 
 River for a time, after first visiting and spending one 
 winter on Great Bear and Great Slave Lakes. 
 
 On the departure of the Rev. W. W. Kirkby from 
 the district in 1868, Mr. Bompas returned to Mack- 
 enzie River, and visited Fort Youcon, spending one 
 winter at Peel River, and paying a visit for six weeks 
 in spring to the Esquimaux at the mouth of the 
 Mackenzie. ; 
 
 Other Missionaries have more recently sustained 
 tlic work in the same field. The Rev. W. I). Reeve, 
 afterwards Archdeacon Reeve, succeeded to the 
 cliarge of the Mission at Fort Simpson after Mr. 
 Kirkby's departure. The Rev. W. D. Reeve laboured 
 there for ten years, and then after taking furlougli in 
 l^ngland, removed to Athabasca. 
 
 The Rev. W. D. Reeve was succeeded at Fort 
 Simpson by the Rev. W. Spendlove, and at the same 
 time the Rev. V. C. Sim proceeded to assist in the 
 important and interesting work on the Youcon. 
 The latter Missionary, after three years of devoted 
 and self-denying labour, succumbed to the severity 
 of the climate and his exertions, as well as scarcity 
 of supplies, and died at his post in 1884. 
 
 The Revs. Messrs. Garton, Wallis, Ellington, and 
 D. N. Kirkby (the last a son of Archdeacon Kirkby), 
 have been the latest recruits in this pioneer Mission- 
 ary army, . ; . 1 
 
30 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 It may be worth while to notice shortly in detail 
 the several Mission stations. Those among the Tenni 
 tribes, or Mackenzie River Indians, are first; Fort 
 Simpson, the earliest station and head-quarters of 
 the Mission. This place being the depot for the 
 trade of the country, forms also the point of distribu- 
 tion of Mission supplies. It is a post that has been 
 much contested with the Protestants by the Romish 
 priests, and the result is, as in other such cases, that 
 the Indians have some of them become only too 
 indifferent to either religion. We can, however, wait 
 confidently for the season of the truth's triumph. 
 
 The station that was next established is that at 
 Fort Norman, in the neighbourhood of Great Bear 
 Lake. At this station is a small church and 
 Mission house, and the Indians are regular in their 
 attendance at divine service, and interested in 
 the instruction given them. Another station exists 
 between Forts Simpson and Norman at Fort Wrigley, 
 where also the Indians have received a good deal of 
 instruction, though no Missionary has yet been per 
 manently fixed there, but the post has been visited 
 from the neighbouring stations. 
 
 Of these a great part of the expense has been 
 generously provided by the Society for Promoting 
 Christian Knowledge. ' 
 
 A Mission House has, however, been lately 
 erected, and a Native Catechist is now in charge 
 there. 
 
 On Great Slave Lake are two Mission stations, 
 namely, at Forts Rae and Resolution, which are 
 
CHURCH OF ENGLAND MISSIONS. 3I 
 
 worked together. The Indians are more numerous 
 at Fort Rae than at other posts, and are of a simple- 
 minded character. 
 
 Another Mission has been entered upon on the 
 Liard River, but has not yet been long occupied. 
 
 In the Tukudh country the chief station is situate 
 on Peel River, where both Indians and Esquimaux 
 are instructed. The other stations of the Tukudh 
 Missions are on the west side of the Rocky Mount- 
 ains, one at La Pierre's house on Rat River, and the 
 other at Rampart House on Porcupine River. The 
 Indian converts at all the stations are zealous and 
 affectionate. Churches are erected, though not 
 yet wholly completed, at Peel River and Rampart 
 House. •■'-^-•' 
 
 Further work is also commencing in connexion 
 with these Missions on the Upper Youcon River. 
 
 The whole of the Missions of the diocese have 
 been hitherto supported from the funds of the Church 
 Missionary Society, with some liberal assistance for 
 Church building and other objects from the Society 
 for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and a small 
 but increasing contribution from the Canadian 
 Church. 
 
 The contributions of the Society for Promoting 
 Christian Knowledge towards Church Building in 
 the diocese have already amounted to ;:^i,ooo, 
 besides numerous grants of Sen'ice books and other 
 Bibles, Prayer-books, Hymn-books, School-books, 
 and Lending Libraries. 
 ~ The same Society has also kindly offered liberal 
 
32 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 grants for the expense of training Native Catechists 
 in the Missions. 
 
 The ecclesiastical development has been as follows : 
 — The first diocese established in 1849 ^o the west 
 of Canada, namely, the original diocese of Rupert's 
 Land, comprised the i)rovinces of Manitoba and 
 British Columbia, and the territories of Keewatin 
 and the North-west. This original diocese was first 
 reduced by the separation of the diocese of British 
 Columbia (since subdivided), and the remainder was 
 in 1S74 divided into four, of which the most westerly, 
 called Athabasca, comprised the districts of Peace 
 River, Athabasca, and Mackenzie River. In 1884 the 
 districts of Peace River and Athabasca were again 
 separated to form exclusively the diocese of Athabasca, 
 while the extreme North-west was assigned as the 
 diocese of Mackenzie River. For its extent of territory 
 this diocese would again bear subdivision, but the 
 smallness of the population may forbid this. 
 
 The Tukudh Missions, however, which are distant 
 about 1. 000 miles from those on the Mackenzie 
 River, are formed into a separate archdeaconry 
 under tlie name of the archdeaconry of the V'oucon. 
 A cojistitution has been framed for the diocese, 
 and (|uadrennial synods have been held. Repre- 
 sentatives of the diocese are appointed to attend the 
 meetings of the Provincial Synod of Rupert's Land. 
 
 It need hardly be said that the Mission work in so 
 remote and isolated a field is often discouraging, 
 and needs mucli faith and perseverance, and the 
 exercise of self-denial. The climate is severe, the 
 
CHURCH OF ENGLAND MISSIONS. 33 
 
 provisions scarce, and supplies uncertain. A calm 
 trust in Providence, however, with a cheerful and 
 prayerful temper, are weapons of defence for every 
 time of need ; and Africa with its fatal malaria, or 
 India with its enervating heat, form much worse 
 homes than the North with its healthful and bracing 
 frost, which with due caution will be found to 
 invigorate and even exhilarate both mind and body. 
 The natives are quiet and submissive, the residents 
 friendly, and the work less overwhelming than that in 
 more populous lands, so that leisure may be found in 
 the long winters for reading and study. 
 
 A history of this diocese to the present time 
 gives but small help to conjecture its course in the 
 future. The country has been hitherto cut off from 
 the civilised world; but now that steam has reached 
 it a connexion may be said to be already esta- 
 blished. When once brought into union with the 
 progress of the age, and the bonds of religion are 
 the strongest link, there is no reason why life in 
 Mackenzie River should be so far behind that of other 
 countries. A (Government mail is another link of 
 connexion that is much needed, and it is hoped that 
 this may be supplied. 
 
 In the Mission work it need hardly be said that 
 much still remains to be done. The first necessity 
 is the founding of a diocesan school, for any educa- 
 tional system in the diocese is still in the future. 
 The Missionaries themselves have hitherto held 
 Sunday and day-school at their several stations, 
 and this often to the embarrassing of more strictly 
 
 D 
 
34 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 evangelising work. Of late there has been no 
 schoolmaster in the diocese beside the Missionaries. 
 And yet education is here the main hope of Mis- 
 sionary success, for the minds of the natives need 
 to be trained and enlarged by education to appre- 
 ciate better the spiritual truths of the Gospel. 
 ' In connexion with the diocesan school it appears 
 very desirable to set on foot an industrial farm for 
 the purpose of encouraging the Indians to agri- 
 cultural pursuits by setting an example of it, and 
 training some of the youths to this work. It seems 
 very desirable that in such a wild Indian country 
 as this, Christianity should not be presented to 
 the natives in separation from some of the blessings 
 which it usually brings in its train, in regard to 
 a more civilised and comfortable and less precarious 
 earthly existence. In . lanitoba he Missionary 
 success realised appears greatly owing to the efforts 
 made to encourage the Indians to settle and farm, 
 at the same time that they have been indoctrinated 
 with the truths of the Gosi)el. 
 
 Sir Alexander Mackenzie, in speaking of the 
 total failure of the Missions that were undertaken 
 in the country between Canada and Manitoba one 
 hundred years since (but these were Romish Mis- 
 sions), uses the following remarkable expressions : — 
 
 " The cause of this failure must be attributed 
 to a want of due consideration in the mode em- 
 ployed by the ^lissionarics to propagate the religion 
 of which they were the zealous ministers. They 
 habituated themselves to the savage life and natu- 
 
CHURCH OF ENGLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 ralised themselves to the savage manners, and by 
 thus becoming dependent, as it were, on the natives, 
 they acquired their contempt rather than their 
 veneration. If they had been as well acquainted 
 wi;h human nature as they were with the articles of 
 their faith, they would have known that the un- 
 cultivated mind of an Indian must be disposed by 
 much preparatory method and instruction to receive 
 the revealed truths of Christianity, to act under its 
 sanctions, and be impelled to good by the hope of its 
 reward, or turned from evil by the fear of its punish- 
 ment. They should have begun their work by 
 teaching some of those useful arts which are the 
 inlets of knowledge, and lead the mind by degrees to 
 objects of higher contemplation. Agriculture, so 
 formed to fix and combine society, and so pre- 
 paratory to objects of superior consideration, should 
 have been the first thing introduced among a savage 
 people. 
 
 " It attaches the wandering tribe to that spot 
 where it adds so much to their comfort, while it 
 gives them a sense of property and of lasting pos- 
 session, instead of the uncertain hopes of the chase 
 and the fugitive produce of uncultivated wilds. 
 Such were the means by which the forests oi 
 Paraguay were converted into a scene of abundant 
 civilisation, and its savage inhabitants introduced 
 to all the advantages of civilised life." 
 
 Additional churches and school buildings are, of 
 course, needed to consolidate the Mission work, 
 and for the erection of these a Mission carpenter 
 
 D 2 
 
36 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 needs to be brought to the diocese, for it is nearly 
 impossible to obtain labour on the spot. 
 
 A good supply of Bibles, Prayer-books and Hymn- 
 books for sale or gift is needed in the diocese, and 
 easy reading-books for loan at the various Mission 
 stations for those acquainted with English. The 
 S.P.CK. has helped in all these things, and is ready 
 to help again. For the Indians, twine and soap are 
 most serviceable gifts : the twine for fishing nets, and 
 the soap for that cleanliness which is intimately 
 connected with health. 
 
 The Liard River and the Upper Youcon P.iver, 
 the two most southerly parts of the diocese, and the 
 best in soil and climate, seem the points that call 
 most for fresh extension and exertion in the Mission 
 cause. 
 
 The following tabular statement may be subjoined 
 of the present Missionary arrangements of the 
 diocese, and the Mission agents that have been 
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MACKENZIE RIVER. 39 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 INHABITANTS. 
 
 The natives of the diocese of Mackenzie River are 
 of three races : the Tenni, Tukudh, and Esquimaux 
 races. The Tenni tribes inhabit the larger part of 
 the diocese, the other races being confined to the 
 north and west. 
 
 In other parts of the world it has generally been 
 observed that the inhabitants of the sea coast or 
 mountainous regions are more lively and intelligent 
 than such as dwell in a flat or inland country. This 
 region forms no exception to the rule, for the Tenni 
 tribes appear much more demure and stolid than the 
 Esquimaux, who live on the Arctic sea coast, or the 
 Tukudh race, whose home is chiefly among the 
 Rocky Mountains and adjoining ranges. 
 
 The Tenni tribes are of a sallow complexion, in 
 this as in features more resembling the Mongolian 
 type than the Red Indians of the south. 
 
 The Tukudh tribes have a national tradition of 
 having reached their present country by crossing an 
 icy strait of the sea, which was probably Behring's 
 Strait ; and the Tenni tribes must have a similar 
 origin, for their language, though nearly as difi'erent 
 from the Tukudh as French from English, yet has 
 sufficient resemblance to betray a common stock. 
 
40 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 The Tenni tribes are rather coarse featured, with 
 thick lips and prominent cheek bones. They are at 
 present inoffensive and submissive in temper, though 
 a century since, before the introduction of European 
 trade, the tribes waged a predatory war on one 
 another, and among the distant bands on the Rocky 
 Mountains this is hardly yet extinct. 
 
 The occupation of all the natives of the diocese is 
 wholly confined to the chase or fishery. The Tenni 
 tribes pursue for their sustenance the moose deer, 
 reindeer, bear, and beaver, and for their skins the 
 fox, wolf, marten, wolverine, and other small animals. 
 The hunting is now carried on chiefly with firearms, 
 the bows and arrows being mostly left to the boys ; 
 but snares and traps are used for all the above 
 animals, at times, and for killing the wolves and foxes 
 poison is occasonally employed. 
 
 The Tenni tribes live in conical tents or lodges, 
 with a frame of poles and covered with dressed deer 
 or moose skin. In spring they make canoes of birch 
 bark for water travel and chase. In the fall of the 
 year they make birch-wood snow shoes for winter 
 voyaging. Their tents are floored with a litter of pine 
 branches, and warmed with a pine-log fire in the 
 centre. Their dress is of moose or deer-skin, 
 trimmed more or less with beads or dyed porcupine 
 quills, except so far as they may be able to purchase 
 clothing of European manufacture. 
 
 It is foreign to the Indian nature to remain long 
 in one place. They mostly shift their camps every 
 few weeks or oftener. If deer or moose have been 
 
INHABITANTS. 4I 
 
 killed, it is more convenient to remove their camp ta 
 the place where the animal fell, than to haul the meal 
 through the woods to a distance. • • 
 
 Many of the Indians have erected wooden log-houses, 
 after the fashion of the whites, which they are quite 
 competent to do, but they seldom inhabit these long. 
 Their fondness for roving, or an increasing scarcity of 
 wild animals round their fixed abode, soon drives 
 them again to their tent. Moreover, if a death 
 occurs in their house, the Indians have a supersti- 
 tious dread of remaining there, and these Indians 
 are not careful enough in their domestic habits to 
 keep their houses cleanly, so that it is hardly con- 
 sistent with health and comfort for them to continue 
 long in one place. 
 
 Though vegetable crops might be grown in the 
 southern part of the diocese, the Indians have not 
 yet found patience and perseverance enough to con- 
 tinue to cultivate these. When wild animals are 
 scarce, the Indians are generally driven to stay with 
 their nets at the fish lakes, where they make, perhaps, 
 a scanty living. The easiest time for them is when 
 the rabbits are plentiful, for these are easily snared ; 
 but the rabbits, like most of the small animals of the 
 north, have periodical times of increase and decrease 
 in number, having their maximum about once in 
 every eight years, and between these periods dwindhng 
 to a very few. 
 
 The Tenni tribes are not quick at learning when 
 adults, but if children are taken from the tents and 
 placed at school along with the children of Euro- 
 
42 MACKENZIE RIVER^ 
 
 peans, the Indian children may keep pace with the 
 others in their learning or even outstrip them. They 
 are also docile and easily managed. 
 
 The whole of the Tenni race seem to be of a sickly 
 habit, and rather dwindling in numbers. They do 
 not seem to be much addicted to ardent spirits, nor 
 are these now supplied to them ; but they have an 
 inveterate propensity to gamble. Though almost 
 wholly free from crimes of violence, and not much 
 inclined to thieve, yet heathen habits of impurity 
 chng, alas, still too closely to them, and they exhibit 
 the usual Indian deficiency in a want of stability and 
 firmness of character. This Indian race seems to 
 have been free from idolatry before the arrival of 
 Europeans among them, and they had some know- 
 ledge of a good and evil Spirit, and of rewards and 
 punishments after death. 
 
 The different Tenni tribes inhabiting the country 
 speak different dialects, and bear different names, 
 such as the Chipewyans, Yellow Knives, Dog Ribs, Big 
 River Indians, Slave Indians, Nahany or Mountain 
 Indians, &:c. 
 
 The Yellow Knives are so called from their formerly 
 using knives and other tools or weapons made by 
 themselves of native copper found near Coppermine 
 River. The Chipewyan tribes extend in some of 
 their members from Hudson's Bay to the Pacific 
 coast, or the whole width of the continent of America. 
 The Dog Rib tribes live to the north of Great Slave 
 Lake, or between that and Great Bear Lake ; and the 
 Hare Indians to the north of Great Bear Lake. 
 
INHABITANTS. 43 
 
 The Tukudh race are rather more sharp featured 
 and more lively and intelligent, as well as more 
 cordial and affectionate than the Tenni. Their eyes 
 are inclined to be small and pointed, rather as the 
 Chinese. From this circumstance, probably, they 
 obtained from the French the soubriquet of the 
 Loucheux or Squint-eyed, for they are not really 
 affected with squint. 
 
 The Tukudh make their tents in the shape of a 
 beehive, with bent poles for the frame, and the tent 
 covering is formed of deer- skins with the hair on 
 and turned inside, the skins being softened by scrap- 
 ing. Their camps become thus nearly as warm as a 
 log-house, and quite comfortable. Their dress in 
 winter consists also of deer-skins with the hair on, 
 and in cold weather the hair is turned inside. Their 
 country lies mostly north of the Arctic circle, but 
 these deer-skin dresses are almost impervious to 
 cold. 
 
 These Indians receive instruction with avidity, 
 whether in religion or other subjects ; and they have 
 taught one another to read the Gospels printed in 
 their own language, though the words are of for- 
 bidding length. They had some national dances 
 and songs of their own, and were fond of making 
 harangues at the feasts, which it was their custom to 
 make for one another. On such occasions a distri- 
 bution of property took place somewhat as is usual 
 with the tribes on the Pacific coast. Before Chris- 
 tianity was introduced among this tribe they were 
 much under the power of their medicine men or 
 
44 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 conjurors, who deceived them with their charms, and 
 sometimes even frightened them to death. 
 
 The food of the Tukudh Indians is almost exclu- 
 sively the reindeer, with salmon taken in the Youcon 
 river. The deer are mostly killed by being driven 
 into grounds or enclosures hedged with felled trees. 
 The salmon are taken in weirs or traps made with 
 willows in the bed of the river. The salmon are 
 dried in the sun or over the camp fire for winter 
 store. The flesh of the reindeer is also dried and 
 sometimes pounded for preservation. The reindeer 
 tongues are considered the most delicate part. In 
 summer time the reindeer migrate to the Arctic 
 coast to escape among the sea breezes of the barren 
 grounds from the flies and mosquitoes which torment 
 them at that season in the woods. In winter the 
 deer return to the more southern forests to avoid 
 the too-piercing cold and exposure of the extreme 
 north. 
 
 The Tukudh Indians do not make many canoes, 
 but travel on the rivers in summer mostly on rafts, 
 which they construct and manage with a good deal 
 of skill. Their snow-shoes are distinguished from 
 those of the Tenni tribe by being round instead of 
 pointed in front. 
 
 These Indians are kind to Europeans, whether 
 traders or missionaries, and they are hospitable to 
 visitors at their camps. The winter in their country 
 lasts eight months out of the twelve, and it may be 
 as well so, for it is much easier to traverse their 
 country walking on the level snow of winter than 
 
INHABITANTS. 45 
 
 over the uneven swamps in summer. The surface of 
 the swampy ground is broken up by the rains into 
 high and slippery lumps locally called tetes des 
 fetnmes^ or women's heads, from the likeness of the 
 dependent tufts of grass to dishevelled hair. Cer- 
 tainly the wresting of the ancles in sliding among 
 these yielding knobs and their interstices suggests 
 the idea of walking on the heads of a crowd. 
 
 When the snows have fallen and snow-shoes are 
 donned there is no such impediment to smooth and 
 even travel, unless by an occasional trip of the snow- 
 shoes among the ground willows or bushes. 
 
 The Tukudh Indians are of various tribes, as the 
 River, Lake, Mountain, Valley Indians, &c., but their 
 dialects do not differ so much as among the Tenni. 
 On the Upper Youcon, however, the races inter- 
 mingle v/ith others speaking a different tongue, and 
 some appear more allied to the coast tribes to the 
 west. Since peace has been established among them 
 the Tukudh tribes often visit the Esquimaux of the 
 Arctic coast, chiefly for the purpose of trading furs 
 from them, and sometimes such visits are returned. 
 
 The Esquimaux observe and admire the change of 
 character wrought in the Indians by the introduction 
 of Christianity among them, because they are now 
 sometimes fed and saved when starving or distressed 
 by the very Indians who would formerly have only 
 sought to surprise and massacre them as their here- 
 ditary foes. _^^...^^.^^...^-..^^^-^-^^A-^^^^^-^^--.- 
 
 The Esquimaux differ much in appearance and 
 habits from the Indians. In complexion they are 
 
46 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 as fair and fresh-coloured as ourselves, and do not 
 differ much in feature from northern Europeans, but 
 their eyes are rather smaller, and their faces and 
 hands somewhat chubby. This seems caused by 
 nature having provided them with a layer of fat or 
 oil beneath the skin as a preservative from the cold. 
 If you shake hands with an Esquimaux in winter 
 you will find his skin in a glow at the lowest tem- 
 perature. Their animal heat is sustained in winter, 
 not by external fires, as with us, but by consuming 
 a sufficiency of fat and oil to support a process 
 of combustion within. For avoiding frost-bites 
 their fingers and noses seem naturally short and 
 dumpy. 
 
 In stature the Esquimaux of the mouth of the 
 ]\Iackenzie are, many of them, large and tall and of 
 muscular frame ; but the women are mostly below 
 the average height of Europeans. The dress of men 
 and women is nearly alike, but the coats differently 
 shaped. The material is white deer-skin, tastefully 
 decorated with beads and trimmed with fur. The 
 men wear a circular tonsure on the head similar 
 to that of a Romish priest. They have also the 
 inconvenient custom of piercing each check with a 
 hole to admit of the insertion of a large '-ead, often 
 surrounded by a white disk or tablet of ivory nearly 
 two inches in diameter. This awkward ornament 
 somewhat interferes with the process of drinking and 
 eating, forming too many outlets to the orifice in- 
 tended for admission. 
 
 The Esquimaux-, both men and women, arc im- 
 
INHABITANTS. 47 
 
 moderately fond of tobacco, which they smoke 
 differently from other people. The bowl of their 
 pipe is less than half the size of a thimble, and two 
 or three whiffs are all they use on each occasion. 
 This smoke, however, they swallow, which produces 
 a transient intoxication or even unconsciousness, 
 under the influence of which they occasionally fall 
 from their seat. When the process is gone through 
 in an unsteady canoe in the water it is not altogether 
 free from danger. 
 
 The Esquimaux wives have also an awkward habit 
 of weaving in a pile or parcel on the top of their 
 heads, by way of chignon, every particle of their own 
 hair which has become disconnected from their 
 youth up, so that the woman's age may be surmised 
 from the relative size of her top knot. The Esqui- 
 maux mothers seem fond of their children, but 
 seldom have more than one or two. If the number 
 exceeds this it seems to be thought a superfluity, 
 and they may probably sell or barter away the extra 
 ones. 
 
 The skill of the Esquimaux workmanship is con- 
 siderable, especially in carving needle-cases and 
 other small ornaments out of the ivory of the walrus 
 tusks. Their spears, bows and arrows, and other 
 implements are all neatly contrived. Tiicir canoes 
 are well framed and covered with sealskin. These 
 have no natural tendency to keep upright, but the 
 reverse ; yet the owner will ride them over the 
 ocean waves as on a prancing steed. When his 
 waterproof coat is secured over the mouth of the 
 
48 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 canoe he will turn a somersault, canoe and all, from 
 side to side in the water. They have a singular 
 way of throwing a spear from a hand-rest at the 
 musk-rat, so as not to overbalance the canoe, the 
 management of which probably resembles somewhat 
 that of a bicycle. 
 
 Their provision consists mostly of the flesh and oil 
 of whale, walrus, and seal. These they hunt, not in 
 their canoe, but embarked ten or a dozen together in 
 a larger boat covered with walrus hide. In their 
 common travels this large boat is managed by the 
 women, who convey the tents, bedding, and utensils 
 therein, while the men paddle about and hunt in 
 their light canoes. The Esquimaux wives thus 
 become superior oars women. 
 
 The dwellings of the Esquimaux vary at different 
 seasons of the year. In the fliU and early winter 
 they dwell in houses partly excavated and lined with 
 logs covered with poles, and over these with earth or 
 snow. They arc thus much warmer than they would 
 be (^uite above ground, and it is not their habit to 
 use fire in their dwellings. If fire is required for 
 cooking, they make one outside. If fuel is at hand 
 they prefer to cook their food ; but if fuel is wanting 
 or cooking inconvenient, they cat their meat or fish 
 raw without trouble. In fact, meat or fish frozen can 
 be eaten raw without so much distaste, the freezing 
 having an effect on the tissues somewhat similar to the 
 cooking. The taste of whale blubber is not unlike 
 raw bacon, and it cannot easily be cooked, as it 
 would licjucfy too soon. Seal oil is the favourite 
 
. INHABITANTS. 49 
 
 luxury of the Esquimaux; and it is indeed sweet, 
 but somewhat mawkish and sickly. 
 
 When the winter is advanced, the Esquimaux 
 leave their excavated dwellings, and build houses 
 or even villages of frozen snow. These are con- 
 structed with such ease and speed that, as Milton's 
 imagined palace, they seem to rise like an exhalation 
 from the earth. The blocks of frozen snow are cut 
 out of the mass with large knives, and built into 
 solid masonry, which freezes together as the work 
 proceeds, without the aid of mortar. Being arched 
 over, a dome-shaped house is formed ; with a piece of 
 clear ice for a window, and a hole, through which 
 you creep on all fours, for a door or entrance. One 
 half of the interior is raised about two feet, and 
 strewn with deer-skins, as beds and sofas, in which 
 the long nights are passed in sleep, for which an 
 Esquimaux seems to have an insatiable capability 
 and relish. 
 
 In summer the Esquimaux camp in deer-skin 
 tents. They then visit the trading establishment 
 of the Hudson's Bay Company at Peel River, about 
 100 miles from the seacoast, and there they barter 
 their furs for tobacco, kettles, and axes. They do 
 not purchase European clothing. In the autumn 
 they often hunt for reindeer, or fish for herring, 
 which they store for winter use ; and they seem to 
 l)rcfer these when somewhat rotten. 
 
 The character of the Esquimaux is, unhapi)ily, 
 still rather treacherous and murderous. They are 
 great thieves, and soon angry. They are, however, 
 
 E 
 
50 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 capable of attachment and gratitude, and are some 
 of them quite free from ill-will. They are willing to 
 accept instruction in the Christian religion, though 
 they have not yet learned to obey its dictates. 
 Though in some respects disgusting in their domestic 
 habits, yet in their manners to a stranger they are 
 courteous and even ceremonious. 
 
 Before the introduction of iron among them the 
 Esquimaux tools and implements were, of course, of 
 stone or bone. They made fire by twisting through 
 means of a bow-string a piece of hard wood in a 
 hole made in a piece of soft friable wood, till the 
 friction produced smoke and flame. They also 
 picked up pieces of iron pyrites on the Arctic coast, 
 and struck fire with these and pieces of flint gathered 
 from a place called Flint Mountain. 
 
MACKENZIE RIVER. \ 51 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 LANGUAGES. 
 
 It will not be expected that a philological account 
 be here given of the languages spoken in the Diocese 
 of Mackenzie River, but some observations on them 
 may be permitted. 
 
 The first is the Tenni language, of which the dialects 
 are as numerous as the tribes of Indians composing 
 that widely-spread race. It appears to be the design 
 of Providence that a difference of speech should 
 operate to confine each nation or tribe to the 
 country or district allotted to it. This is specially 
 needful in the Indian country, where, from the 
 scarcity of provision, all would soon be starved if 
 the population were to accumulate in one spot. The 
 difference of dialects is so arranged that the speech 
 of each tribe is generally intelligible to their imme- 
 diate neighbours, but not to those more remote, as 
 the distinction of dialect increases with each remove. 
 
 The general characteristic of the Indian languages 
 is that they admit of great precision in the descrip- 
 tion of external objects and of ordinary occupations 
 or actions, but these tongues are greatly deficient, or 
 almost wanting, in abstract terms or the representa- 
 tion of mental ideas. The language then may be 
 said to be a reflection of the life of the speakers of it» 
 
 F. 2 
 
52 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 and unless speech and language are gifts of heaven, 
 it seems impossible to account for the regularity of 
 structure and beauty of arrangement of a language 
 spoken by people incapable perhaps of the mental 
 effort of counting from one to twenty. 
 
 That many of these languages had a common origin 
 seems betokened by the fact that some resemblances 
 of words may be noticed among them, and also 
 some analogies of structure. A distant affinity to 
 the Tenni tongue may be recognised even among the 
 languages spoken on the Pacific coast, and these 
 again may be probably traced to the languages of 
 Asia. The Tenni language was originally mono- 
 syllabic, but in some of its dialects it exhibits now. 
 very long words, arising by a process of agglutination. 
 The names, however, of elementary objects continue 
 mostly monosyllabic, as kon^ fire: /"//, water; tsnZj 
 firewood. 
 
 It might be thought difficult to convey religious 
 teaching, or to translate the Gospels, in a language 
 so destitute of abstract expressions ; but a careful 
 examination of the Gospels in Greek will show that 
 nearly every radical word is based upon some out- 
 ward act or object. It has thus been found not 
 impossible to render the Gospels and other instruc- 
 tions into the Tenni tongue, and the effort has been 
 a fresh proof of the universal adaptation of the 
 Gospel to the wants of every nation. 
 — Extracts from the Prayer-book, with Hymn-books 
 and Primers, have been with much liberality printed 
 in the Tenni language by the Society for Promoting 
 
LANGUAGES. ^ 53 
 
 Christian Knowledge, and presented by them as a 
 free gift to the Mission. 
 
 The same Society has also printed a Primer in 
 Western Esquimaux, and still continues to offer 
 important aid to the Missions of a similar kind. 
 
 The Tukudh language, though having an affinity 
 to the Tenni, is much more full and complex. The 
 conjugation of the verbs is more elaborate than in 
 Greek, and the New Testament, Prayer-book, and 
 Psalms have been rendered into the language with- 
 out the vocabulary being found inadequate. The 
 Tukudh tongue, in its purest dialect, is probably 
 spoken by not more than 500 adults; yet its gram- 
 matical structure is complete, and its phraseology 
 flexible. 
 
 That the language is the invention or elaboration 
 of the people who speak it appears as incredible 
 as that the forests of their land are their handi- 
 work, and the only alternative seems to be that their 
 language is to each race the gift of their Creator. 
 
 The Esquimaux language appears to have no 
 affinity either to the Tenni or Tukudh, but in its 
 structure and in a few words seems to have a distant 
 resemblance to the Cree tongue. The Esquimaux 
 words are long, and the grammar complicated princi- 
 pally by the pronominal subject and object of the 
 verbs being denoted by inflexions, as in the Cree. 
 From the Esquimaux tongue one word has been 
 naturalised in English, namely, harpoon^ which is 
 Esquimaux for a fish spear; and igloo^ the Esquimaux 
 for a house, is not altogether unknown. i 
 
5i MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 Some casual resemblances between words in these 
 languages and European expressions may be hap- 
 pened on, as Napoleon is Esquimaux for a sledge- 
 brace ; and in Tukudh sun means a star ; and in 
 Tenni, to-day is to-dzifie, the prefix being the same as 
 in English. In Esquimaux dark is tak, which is 
 sounded so much like the English word that it might 
 be mistaken for it. It does not appear that any 
 words have yet been incorporated into English from 
 the Tenni or Tukudh tongues. 
 
 The same language obtains among the Esquimaux 
 from Greenland to the Pacific Ocean, but the dialects 
 vary a good deal between the east and west. The 
 translations of Scripture made for the Greenland or 
 Labrador Esquimaux, or even for those in Hudson's 
 Bay, are quite unserviceable for the same race at the 
 mouth of the Mackenzie River. A native from one 
 part would, however, probably be able to make him- 
 self understood by the others in subjects of easy dis- 
 course. -- ■' — ■ • ■" - ■■ •■■- - ' '-^■--' '-' 
 
 The Esquimaux language is nearly confined to the 
 latitude north of the Arctic Circle. The Tukudh and 
 Tenni languages may be said, generally, to stretch 
 across the American continent to the south of the 
 Esquimaux tongue, down to about lat. 53^, south of 
 which the Cree language predominates. But this 
 does not apply to the country east of Hudson's Bay, 
 where the Esquimaux race extends further south, as 
 do also the cold and ice. i, ._ . 
 
 For a specimen of the languages, John iii. 16 is 
 subjoined in Tenni and Tukudh, and in Western 
 
LANGUAGES. 55 
 
 Esquimaux as spoken at the mouth of the Mackenzie 
 River : — 
 
 Tenni. 
 
 Ekaonte Niotsi nun gonito, te Yazi thligi yi 
 koganiti, tene oyi yekeinithet, tsiedethet ka ile, ithlasi 
 kondih katheon oli. 
 
 TUKUDH. 
 
 Vittekwichanchyo kwikit nunhkug kettinizhun 
 ettevirzi ti Tinji kwunttlantshi chootyinte yikinjizhit 
 elyet rsyetet gititethii ko sheg kwundei tettiya. 
 
 Western Esquimaux. 
 
 Nonamik Chuneyouk mutomuni nonami kobiagiait 
 Notakak atoutsik mounga kontaga; keakia okperitpuni 
 tamaita igilaitait ami witawak pugnichi nakchoami. 
 
 It may be noticed that the word for world is similar 
 in the above three specimens — Tenni, min ; Tukudh, 
 7mnh ; Esquimaux, 7wo?ia. This may be a casual 
 resemblance as regards the Esquimaux. 
 
 In all these languages the system of counting is 
 founded on the principle of reckoning the fingers, and 
 the Esquimaux include the toes. Thus, in Tenni, five 
 is literally one hand, and a hundred is ten on 
 each finger. In Tukudh nine is literally "one 
 thumb held down," because this number is so repre- 
 sented in holding up the hands. In Esquimaux 
 twenty is one man's fingers and toes, forty, two men's 
 fingers and toes, &c. 
 
 The name adopted for God in the Tenni and 
 
56 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 Esquimaux languages has been chiefly the Creator 
 or Maker of the world. Occasionally the expression 
 " Our Father in Heaven " is also used. In the 
 Tukudh language a native word is used (or God 
 that had been already applied by themselves to 
 the Good Spirit. The expressions implies "The 
 Propitious One." 
 
 The name given to the English by the Tenni and 
 Tukudh Indians is " the dwellers in stone houses." 
 The origin of the name consists in the fact that the 
 Chipewyans of Athabasca first found the English at 
 the Stone Fort erected by them at the mouth of 
 English River, Hudson's Bay. 
 
 There are some characteristics which the Tenni and 
 Tukudh languages present in common with most or all 
 of the Indian tongues of North America, even though 
 these betray no affinity in their words. Such are the 
 following pecu'iarities : — Parts of the body cannot be 
 spoken of apart from some individual, expressed or 
 implied, to which they belong. An Indian will say 
 his or her, or its head, or a man's or a deer's head, 
 but not a head or the head simply; and the same with 
 the other members. Again, a different word is used 
 for an elder brother or sister and a younger one, for an 
 imcle on the father's side and on the mother's, and a 
 father and mother will use respectively different words 
 to express their son or daughter. The word " to give," 
 receives various terminations according to the size, 
 shape, and quality of the article given, and whether 
 one or more, and the same with the word " to throw," 
 and many others. . * 
 
LANGUAGES. 57 
 
 In the Tiikudh tongue the verbs have a negative 
 form, which is often so very like the affirmative expres- 
 sion, as to create much difficulty for one unpractised 
 in the tongue. Even in English, the words literate 
 and illiterate have been confounded by the un- 
 learned. Adjectives and adverbs are mostly con- 
 jugated as verbs. The verb " to take," in the Tukudh 
 tongue will have different forms, according as it means 
 to take a person, or thing, one or many, for oneself, 
 or for another, and with the foot, hand, mouth, word, 
 or mind ; and all these in the singular, dual, or plural 
 number, and past, present, or future time, and each 
 of these forms in various combinations together, till 
 the ultimate number of variations is almost illimitable. 
 
 The Lord's Prayer may be added as a further 
 specimen of the languages for those interested in such 
 study. 
 
 Tenni. 
 
 Nakhe Tah yake, Nizi Edarie tsenidhun ka. Nine 
 ko tsun Kaodhet neli ka. Ayi ninedhun kezi agote 
 tidi ninike yake ente. Mego sheiti enete tidi dzine 
 ke nakhegadindi. Nakhe othlini nakhega naonili 
 tene ga kothlini nakhetsun ageti koga naoniyi kezi. 
 Nakhetsunea kotsun ninakhonili ile. Ojidi cha nak- 
 hinchu. Tta nine kotsun Kaodhet neli, nanetset chu 
 Edarie chu ithlasi. Amen. 
 
 Tukudh. 
 
 Nyiwho Ttyi zyeh zit nyikwilnjik Nyoohrzi rsin joo 
 chootinyoo. Ni koo ke kwadhut nichoozhit. Ni 
 
58 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 yinji zyehzit kwikit nunh kug akontekonji. Chih 
 ttrinzit nyiwhon enyantsit ttrin ndo thlekwitunazya 
 nyiwhoh ssih. Nyiwho trigwandyoth nyiwhet ooun- 
 kwichili nittso einut trigwandyoth nyiwhet tungittiyin, 
 ko tsut oounkwichitili Kookukwutundai kwutsut 
 nyiwho tunoe rsho. Ko trigwandyoth kwutsut nyiwhoh 
 yunnounji. Kwnggutyoo nitsun nili kookekwadhut 
 ttei ako ekwandit sheg ako sheg kenjit. Amen. 
 
 Western Esquimaux. 
 
 Angotwot kalangmioyouk, Inuit atkan ikchiouk 
 chinaglo. Kalangmin Kadetsi ikpukkaitpun. Chuna 
 ichoomugibichion inuit taimuna iliokoyait muni 
 nonami kailakton ililogo. Oblomi nukiikparaini 
 nukiptignik. 
 
 Chuinukpot iktiga, inuit chuinuk itkutputigot 
 ikchiniakutka taimuna. 
 
 Kachagiaini ililugo. Chuinagmin totkokligot. 
 
 Kisiani Kadetsi igiogni niaktotin. Ilwi choo- 
 kungaiotin. Ilwi kisiani koumayooktotin, kungiak- 
 totin, taimonga. Amen. 
 
MACKENZIE RIVER. 59 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FAUNA AND FLORA. 
 
 The animals are the most numerous denizens, and 
 form a main interest of the sub- Arctic clime, in which 
 is included the diocese of Mackenzie River. The 
 first to be mentioned are the bears, from which the 
 Arctic world derives its name. 
 
 The common black and brown bears are not 
 dangerous, but timid. They flee at the approach of 
 man, and will not even fight to defend their cubs. 
 The grisly bear is fiercer, and dangerous when 
 wounded. It is much stronger than the common 
 bear, but is chiefiy confined to the Rocky Mountains 
 or their neighbourhood. 
 
 The polar bear inhabits the ice of the Arctic sea,. 
 and lives on fish. It will attack a man if hungry,. 
 and is dangerous when provoked. The hair of this 
 bear, which lives among snow, has such a natural 
 quality of keeping unencumbered by the fallen snow, 
 that it is used as a snow-whisk by the Esquimaux to 
 clear of snow the deer-skins or other furs to which 
 the snow more readily adheres. Such a polar bear- 
 skin snow-whisk, which is usually made in the form 
 of a mitten, is called by them, through a curious 
 coincidence, "poalerin." "Poals" is a polar bear- 
 skin. "~~ T\^~~^^r"- • « 
 
^)0 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 The common bear is greedily fond of berries, and 
 fattens in the fall when they are ripe. Afterwards it 
 betakes itself to its hole for hybernation. The bear's 
 hole is either some natural cavity found on a bank or 
 hollow, or else is scraped out by itself Here the 
 bear lives without food or motion, or other sign of 
 life but breath, throughout the winter, and in spring 
 it is still fat. This foodless life seems almost 
 miraculous till we consider that food is to supply 
 waste of structure, and in perfect inaction there is no 
 wasting. Is this revival, after a death-like hybernation, 
 no aid to faith in the possibility of a resurrection ? 
 
 The predatory animal next in size to the bear, and 
 to which it bears some resemblance, is the wolverine 
 or glutton. Many are the tales told of its rapacity 
 and cunning. It is an enemy to the hunter from its 
 habit of robbing his traps of their baits, or even of 
 the animals caught in them. From its wary shrewd- 
 ness it is not itself easily trapped. 
 
 Wolves are common, and are seen both black and 
 white, both singly and in bands, but not in large 
 packs ; and as they do not attack man unless mad, 
 they are not feared. They are great enemies to the 
 moose and reindeer, and to nearly every other 
 animal. Fastening on its haunches they will drag down 
 a large moose. They will then mostly leave the animal 
 to freeze to death before returning to feast on the 
 carcase. 
 
 The large animals hunted for food are chiefly the 
 moose and reindeer. The former of these is a 
 solitary animal, the latter gregarious. The moose 
 
FAUNA AND FLORA. ^l- 
 
 being highly nervous and of keen scent, needs to be 
 approached by the hunter with great caution. It is 
 mostly hunted in windy weather, when the crackling 
 of boughs by the breeze drowns the sound of the 
 hunter's cautious tread. Otherwise his footfall, how- 
 ever soft, would alarm his prey too soon. The 
 moose is sometimes hunted with dogs, by which 
 it is baited or badgered as a bull by bull-dogs, 
 till the hunter approaches. If the moose is chased 
 to any distance by running, before its death, the meat 
 becomes frothy and unpalatable. 
 
 The reindeer is hunted by running, not so much 
 after it, as parallel to it, for this deer will seldom flee 
 at once from the hunter, but rather circles round him 
 or returns to and fro in front of him. When on 
 their annual migrations, the deer take a straight 
 course in large bands, and are not easily turned aside 
 from the route they have chosen. They are then 
 easily shot by the hunters in passing. At times 
 both moose and reindeer are taken by being 
 strangled nith snares or slip-nooses of twisted 
 sinew placed in their expected track, and firmly fixed 
 
 to some wood. 
 
 The deer are also driven into pounds con- 
 structed of felled timber, and to which the deer 
 are guided by rows of pine branches or upturned 
 turfs placed over the snow and radiating in expand- 
 ing lines from the pound. These, like scarecrows, 
 though placed twenty feet apart, are viewed by the 
 timid deer as a fence, which he is indisposed to cross, 
 and he is thus led to his destruction. The flesh 
 
62 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 of both moose and reindeer is pleasant and very 
 easily digested, more so than the meat of domestic 
 animals. The moose meat bears somewhat such 
 relation to the deer's meat as beef to mutton, being 
 of coarser texture and less tender. 
 
 The smaller animals, hunted for the value of 
 their fur, are numerous. Such as foxes, marten, 
 beaver, lynx, otter, minx, and muskrat. The foxes are 
 of various colours, chiefly white or blue toward the 
 sea coast, and red or black inland. They are mostly 
 taken in steel traps. 
 
 The most valued fur is that of the black fox which 
 is worth about ^,^15 in the country, and more in 
 England after it has been dressed. 
 
 The marten are similar to the Russian sable. 
 They are taken in wooden traps, with a trip stick and 
 fish bait. The lynx and beaver are good eating, as 
 well as valued for their fur. The beaver are taken 
 either by breaking open their houses in winter, after 
 stopping their means of egress, or else by the gun in 
 spring. The industry of the beaver is proverbial Mul- 
 titudes of small trees are felled by their teeth for the 
 purpose of either stemming back the current to 
 produce still water for their convenience, or else in 
 building their lodges. The young poplars are also 
 felled by them for a supply of food, as they nibble 
 the bark. 
 
 To fell a tree the beaver sits up on its hind 
 legs and tail, and, placing its fore paws against the 
 tree, it nibbles all round the trunk, working down- 
 wards with its teeth as with a foot adze. The animal is 
 
FAUNA AND FLORA. 6$ 
 
 careful to gnaw the wood most deeply on the side the 
 tree is intended to fall, and it seldom fails in bringing 
 the tree down in the intended direction, though with 
 even a human workman the contrary event not un- 
 frequently happens. It has been doubted whether 
 the beaver uses its tail in building. That it carries 
 mud on its tail is fabulous. For such purpose its fore- 
 paws only are used, but that it may smooth the mud 
 with its tail is generally considered fact. 
 
 The beaver's lodge consists of a heterogeneous pile 
 of tree stems and branches, with mud chambers 
 arranged among them, on the edge of the stream. 
 As a dead beaver soon sinks, much smartness is 
 needful to secure the prey if shot in the water. The 
 beaver tail, being wholly composed of fat, is one of 
 the luxuries of the north. Indeed, the meat of the 
 beaver generally, is often as much fat as lean. 
 
 Another small animal of which the flesh is very 
 good is the porcupine, which tastes something like 
 sucking pig. The porcupine of the north is much 
 smaller than that of southern countries. The quills 
 are only about three inches long, and supple. When 
 dyed, they are much used in ornamental leather work 
 by the Indian women. 
 
 Rabbits are numerous and very wholesome. As 
 these do not burrow, they are called Arctic hares by 
 the naturalist. But as their not burrowing is probably 
 a provision of Providence, to suit the fact of the 
 ground bci»g mostly frozen, it seems a pity that this 
 animal shoutcl thereby lose the name of a rabbit, 
 wliich it certainly resembles. The rabbit skins arc of no 
 
 Ml 
 ( 
 
 1 *^ 
 
64 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 value for trade, from the hair being loose, but they are 
 much used by the Indians in the woods for their 
 own clothing, being the warmest of all coverings. 
 The rabbit skins are cut in strips and twisted, and 
 are then laced into coats or other garments. Robes 
 for bed coverings are mostly made of the dressed 
 skins of the reindeer or mountain goat, or of the 
 siffleux or marmot. The wild goats inhabit the 
 rocks of the mountains, where they are hunted with 
 the gun by the Mountain Indians. Their flesh 
 is good for food. The wild sheep of the mountains 
 are less numerous. 
 
 There is a wood deer or stag, of a size half way 
 between the reindeer and the moose. This animal 
 keeps to the woods, and is not numerous. 
 
 The musk-rat is numerous in the streams, and is 
 eaten by the Indians, though rather strong-tasted. 
 Squirrels and field mice are plentiful. Otters are 
 found, though not plentifully, in the lakes, and fishers 
 on the land. 
 
 Confined to the barren grounds towards the Arctic 
 sea coasts, are the musk oxen. These are smaller 
 than the buffalo or domestic cattle, but are fierce and 
 dangerous when wounded. Their hides make good 
 rugs. Their flesh is rather strong-tasted, with a 
 musky flavour. The whale, walrus, and seal are the 
 larger animals of the Arctic seas in these quarters. 
 The walrus tusks are good ivory, and are valuable in 
 trade. The walrus skins cover the boats of the 
 Esquimaux, for these have no boat-building timber, 
 but split ihc frames of their boats and canoes out of 
 
FAUNA AND FLORA. 65 
 
 drift wood. The walrus skins are never cut by the 
 ice, a quality essential to an animal living amongst it. 
 The walrus flesh is but coarse food. The seal-skins 
 are used by the Esquimaux to cover their canoes, and 
 for waterproof boots and shoes, and for various other 
 purposes. The flesh and fat of the seal are much 
 esteemed as delicacies by the Esquimaux. 
 
 The fish of the Mackenzie River and of the ad- 
 joining lakes are chiefly the white-fish, blue-fish, 
 jack-fish, perch, loach, and one commonly called the 
 inconnu, or unknown fish, but which seems to be 
 known to naturalists as only a different species of 
 corigenus from the white-fish, which is designated 
 Corigenns albiis. Trout of a large size are taken 
 in Great Bear and Great Slave Lakes, weighing 
 commonly about 30 lb., and sometimes as high as 
 50 lb to 60 lb. The white-fish are numerous in the 
 lakes, about 50,000 being netted every autumn at one 
 fishery in Great Slave Lake, and weighing 2 lb. to 3 lb. 
 each. This fish, for week^, or even months, often 
 forms the sole food of the employes at the Hudson's 
 Bay Company's trading posts, and it is a sort of pro- 
 vision that as an exclusive diet it seems less wearisome 
 than meat. 
 
 The birds of Mackenzie River are numerous, 
 especially the migratory class. Those which pass in 
 large flocks in spring and fall are the geese, swans, and 
 cranes. These proceed to the Arctic coasts for the 
 breeding season in summer, and return south to pass 
 the winter somewhere in the LTnited States. Many 
 other kinds of birds arrive in spring and leave in fall, 
 
 V 
 
66 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 as the eagles, ducks, grouse, and robins. Owls, hawks, 
 crows, gulls, and some others continue more or less 
 all the year. The cinereous crow, or whisky jack, is 
 a saucy bird that frequents the camps of voyagers to 
 eat their scraps, and in this wild country it appears 
 the only thing that is tame by nature. 
 
 The grouse are of various kinds. Many sorts, like 
 the rabbits, change their colour from brown to white 
 on the approach of winter. This is an arrangement 
 of a benign Providence to defend them from their 
 depredators, such as hawks, owls, lynx, marten, 
 minx, &:c. ; for on the white snow a moving brown 
 speck is very conspicuous, and white almost unseen. 
 White is also the warmest coloured dress for winter 
 Avear. 
 
 Kingfishers, woodpeckers, redbreasted thrushes, 
 plovers, snipes, sandpipers, martins, and other small 
 birds, are noticed in summer; and large flocks of 
 snow buntings skim the ground in spring and fall, 
 in going and returning between the north and south. 
 Gulls are numerous on the rivers and lakes, where 
 they breed on rocky islands ; and pelicans frequent 
 the broken waters of rapids and cascades, where they 
 fish in the shallows. 
 
 The different kinds of geese, waveys and ducks, 
 teal, tern, loons, and other waterfowl, need not be 
 <letailed here, but they are numerous, and afford food 
 iind amusement to the sportsman in summer, and 
 especially in spring and fiill. 
 
 Before dismissing the animal kingdom, the insects 
 should be noticed, for Mackenzie River is a land of 
 
FAUNA AND FLORA. ^ 
 
 flies. The common house-flies are not specially 
 numerous, but the large horse-flies are very tenacious 
 and tormenting in early summer, both to men and 
 cattle, and they soon spoil any uncovered food. 
 The mosquitoes for the three months, June, July, and 
 August, are a wearisome discomfort, especially in the 
 evenings and at night, unless kept off by a curtain. 
 Relief from them is obtained otherwise only in the 
 smoke of a wood fire, except that they are dispersed 
 by strong wind, and somewhat allayed by a scorching 
 sun-heat. On a soft delicate skin their sting is pro- 
 ductive of a burning inflammation, amounting almost 
 to a fever, but to smear the skin with oil or grease is 
 a temporary preservative. About the middle of 
 summer large dragon-flies appear in numbers. They 
 are known as mosquito hawks, and are welcome 
 visitors, for they thin the mosquitoes to a wonderful 
 extent. Spiders, wasps, ants, and butterflies are 
 common, but not more numerous than in Europe. 
 
 To turn to the vegetable kingdom, the forest trees 
 of the Mackenzie River are chiefly the pine and 
 birch, the latter only sprinkled here and there among 
 the pines. Each of these trees is of essential use 
 to the inhabitants. The former builds the houses 
 and boats, and provides the fuel. The harder wood 
 of the latter tree forms the sledges, snow shoes, axe 
 handles, and other implements. The red pine, or 
 tamarack, is also found, but not often of large size. 
 In the southern district, on the Liard River and the 
 Upper Youcon, poplar mingles with the i)ines. Of 
 bushes or undergrowth there is little beside willow, 
 
 V 2 
 
68 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 red and grey, and alder, and juniper, and wild roses, 
 besides various berry trees. 
 
 The wild berries of the country are numerous, 
 though small. Those on bushes are the high buoh cran- 
 berry or mooseberry, the bearberry, raspberry, goose- 
 berry, black and red currant, and another locally known 
 as the poire, which, when dried in the sun, forms a 
 passable substitute for dried currants. All these are 
 edible, but without the sweetness or flavour of the 
 cultivated fruit, except the raspberry, which is not 
 much different from that of the gardens. On the 
 
 \^ ground are cranberries, eyeberries, dewberries, part- 
 ridge berries, crowberries, blue berries, yellow berries, 
 and small strawberries. These are all more or less 
 acceptable to palates not too fastidious. The incon- 
 venience of gathering them in summer is chiefly from 
 the swarms of mosquitoes. The cranberries and crow- 
 berries remain on the ground under the snow all 
 winter, and may still be picked in spring, when the 
 snows melt off. 
 
 The rapidity with which vegetation progresses, and 
 the berries mature, during the short summer is very 
 remarkable. Of the gtoiid-berries the buds and 
 blossoms are already opening when the snows^ m^lt^ 
 off" them, and in a few weeks fresh berries are already 
 ripening before the old ones disappear. The chief 
 carpet of the North is the moss, both green and 
 white. This forms the reindeer's food. Even on the 
 rocks the lichen is edible, and forms the last resort 
 
 ~ of the starved voyager. — ^ 
 
MACKENZIE RIVER. 69 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ARCTIC LIFE. 
 
 I r may be desired to know of what sort is the Hfe of 
 an European resident in an Arctic or sub- Arctic clime, 
 and how great is the difference of habits caused by 
 the climate. In respect to dress, very little change 
 of clothing is needful from that usual in Europe. By 
 a benign arrangement of Providence, the sharp cold of 
 the North quickens the circulation, and exercise only 
 is needful for warmth. To admit of the walking being 
 unimpeded, wraps are as far as })ossible dispensed 
 with, and an overcoat is seldom worn. The hands, 
 feet, and ears, however, need much protection. 
 Under soft mooseskin shoes are generally worn two 
 thick socks of blanketing, and the leather mittens for 
 the hands are also lined with blanketing. A fur cap 
 is worn on the head, with covering for the ears. 
 
 One chief characteristic of Arctic life is the 
 precarious supply of provisions. To have no cer- 
 tainty whence next week's meals are to come, and 
 the knowledge that these could not be bought for 
 their weight in gold if absent or lacking, is a new 
 experience for one used to the neighbourhood of 
 butchers' and bakers' shops and the powerful aid of 
 present cash. Scarcity of food obliges to a trust in 
 Providence which is not disappointed. When one 
 
70 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 source of supply fails, another opens. If moose are 
 scarce, deer are plentiful. If meat fails, fish appears. 
 When fish are absent, rabbits swarm. When these 
 decline, birds arrive. Thus by a kind Heaven the 
 wants of all are met. The Indians are so confident 
 in fresh supplies that they finish their last mouthful 
 without anxiety, and seem to need no more store- 
 house or barn than the sparrows or ravens. 
 
 An Arctic life, except among the Esquimaux, makes 
 fire and fuel of next importance to food. The dead 
 pines are cut down with the woodmen's axes, 
 chopped into suitable lengths, and hauled on sledges 
 to the houses by oxen or dogs. The logs are again 
 cut and split into billets of about two feet long, and 
 an armful of these is placed upright in the open 
 chimney, unless there is a stove to contain them. 
 The sparks and burning splinters from these billets 
 often fly about the flooring, but do not ignite the 
 boards, and the snows on the roof prevent these 
 being set on fire by the sparks which issue from the 
 chimney above. 
 
 The construction of the houses is usually as 
 follows : — Four upright corner posts are mortised 
 above and below into rectangular frames of square 
 beams, and the side walls are then filled in with 
 pine logs with their pointed ends fixed in grooves 
 in the corner posts. The roof is formed of smaller 
 sticks laid from the eaves to a ridge pole in the 
 centre, and these are covered with layers of pine 
 bark. The walls of the house are then coated 
 inside and out with mud ; and, if possible, washed 
 
ARCTIC LIFE. 71 
 
 over with white earth for the sake of appearance. 
 The chimney is built with stones and mud ; and 
 if there are no stones, then with mud over a frame of 
 wood. The better houses are ceiled inside with 
 boards. Where gkss is wanting, the windows are 
 filled with parchment. 
 
 As meat and fish and even milk will keep when 
 frozen all winter, there is no danger of provision 
 spoiling at that season ; but the frozen meat will 
 need to be cut up with the axe, unless previously 
 thawed. The inkstand may have to be taken to bed 
 to avoid freezing the ink, which pales it. 
 
 In winter walking, a white spot on the cheek or 
 nose is a sign that these are freezing. Such an 
 accident is thus visible to a companion, though the 
 patient may be unconscious of it from the loss of 
 sensation in the part affected. Warming the part 
 with the hand or rubbing with snow affords a cure. 
 
 The chief characteristics of an Arctic life, how- 
 ever, consist not so much in vv'hat is present, as 
 in features that are conspicuous by their absence. 
 No cities, towns, or villages, streets, roads, or lanes ; 
 no markets, farms, or bazaars ; no flocks or herds, 
 or carriages ; no money, whether coin or notes ; no 
 railways, mails, or telegraphs ; no Government, or 
 soldiers, or police ; no prisons or taxes ; no lawyers 
 or doctors. Newspapers three months old, and 
 letters three or four times a year. The absence 
 of all these sources of interest is apt to render the 
 mind vacant and listless, or to engender idle gossip 
 or thoughtless amusement. 
 
72 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 There is, however, time and opportunity in the 
 quiet Nort' 'or study and self-improvement if the 
 disposition c. id the books are not wanting. For, 
 after all, the best quality of this northern life is its 
 peaceful tranquillity. The country is quiet ; the 
 people are quiet; the occupations are quiet, and 
 there is little to disturb those who are fond of 
 their own society. The Indians, it is true, are 
 restless, and often repeating their visits to the 
 houses, but these can be excluded when necessar}-. 
 An outdoor life, however, to v.hich the bracing 
 climate invites, is apt to dissipate the mind from 
 study, and it is doubtful how far complete solitude 
 is advantageous for improvement of character. 
 
 In winter the days are very short. To take a 
 moderate case. If the sun rise at ten and set at two, 
 there is none too much time for reading by daylight, 
 and candles may be scarce for evening study. The 
 long summer days, when there is no night, n'^'^^t 
 be thought to make amends for this ; ba'i 
 summer's heat seems somev.hat to enervate 
 mind by a reaction from the bracing cold of winter 
 
 The outdoor occupations are hunting, shooting, 
 and sledge-driving. The winter travelling is not 
 disagreeable to a hardy pedestrian. The night 
 encampment is then made in the snow each evening 
 under the open sky. Pine branches are laid on the 
 ground when the snow is cleared off it, and with a 
 large pine - log fire, a good supper, and enough 
 blankets to wrap in, the traveller sleeps well enough. 
 The provisions taken for a winter trip are mostly 
 
ARCTIC LIFE. 73 
 
 dried meat and tea for the travellers, and frozen fish 
 for the dogs, of which ^our haul the sled load ot 
 blankets and provisions each day, from 3 or 4 o'clock 
 in the morning till sunset, with an hour's rest for 
 dinner. Toward spring the glare of the sun on the 
 snow is very strong, and inflammation of the eyes, 
 ending in snow blindness, is often painful and dis- 
 tressing. When the voyage is finished, a drop of 
 laudanum in the eye will generally effect a cure. 
 
 Walking on snow-shoes in winter sometimes pro- 
 duces a sort of cramp in the muscles of the shin, 
 which is called snow-shoe sickness. This at times 
 causes the limbs to become so swollen and stiff that the 
 feet have to be lifted by a line attached to the front 
 of the snow shoe. If the end of the journey is yet 100 
 miles off, this is far from agreeable. In crossing the 
 large lakes in a blinding snowstorm sometimes the 
 right direction is lost, and the travellers have to sleep 
 without fire on the ice. There is, however, no danger 
 in this when caution is used. The voyagers may lie 
 down to sleep in a hollow scraped in the snow, with 
 their sled as a partial shelter from the wind, and they 
 will awake in the morningnone the worse. 
 
 There are few countries more safe for the traveller 
 than the Mackenzie region, and weapons of defence 
 are not required against man or animals. In winter 
 the bears are in their holes, and the wolves, though 
 they may follow up the sled track, yet will seldom 
 approach very close to the night encampment, being 
 deterred by the smell of the fire embers. Summer 
 travel has been in the past entirely by row-boat or 
 
74 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 canoe. Both summer and winter the average day's 
 journey is from twenty-five to thirty miles, unless in 
 descending the current. In mounting the stream, when 
 the river banks admit of it, the boats are hauled by 
 four men on the beach with a tow-line. For a canoe one 
 man will suffice to haul. A fair breeze will permit of 
 hoisting a sail, which in the case of a canoe usually 
 consists of a spread blanket. The sight of a moose 
 deer or beaver in the water is the signal for a chase. 
 In winter hundreds of miles may be traversed without 
 encountering a human being. In summer, once in 
 two or three days a few Indian tents may be found 
 on tlie river bank, and a few fish or a little meat may 
 be obtained from the natives in exchange for a little 
 tea or tobacco. 
 
 The boats in use on Mackenzie River are rowed 
 with eight or ten long and heavy oars, to which the 
 rowers rise from their seats at every stroke. They 
 hold six or seven tons of merchandise. About twelve 
 of such boats will bring in the entire annual outfit of 
 supplies for Mackenzie River. One boat-load will 
 be exclusively tobacco ; two more, ammunition ; 
 another, flour ; another, tea ; another, sugar and 
 other groceries ; the rest mostly clothing and iron 
 utensils and axes. It is surely by the j)rovision of a 
 benign Providence that in this way the needful wants 
 of each scattered band of wandering Indians through- 
 out the whole country are adetpiately supplied in 
 exchange for the one commodity wliicli the country 
 affords, the furs, which are coveted by Kuroi)can 
 traders. We arc told that extremes meet, and it 
 
ARCTIC LIFE. 75 
 
 might be hard to find a better example of this proverb 
 than in the contrast between West-end fashion 
 dressed in extravagantly high-priced furs, and the 
 squalid and pitiful Indian who procures those furs in 
 his wanderings among the Arctic snows. 
 
 The Es(}uimaux houses, as is well known, arc 
 warmed, not with fires but with lamps. A stone tray 
 is provided, round which a circle of moss is arranged, 
 and over it a piece of whale fat is hung. Oil is put 
 in the tray, and the moss being ignited, gives both 
 light and heat. The oil is replenished from the 
 dripping fat above. The effect is not very dissimilar 
 to that of a gas-stove. 
 
 A chief contrast between civilised and Arctic life 
 consists in the slowness with which the affairs of life 
 appear to proceed in the North, comi)ared with the 
 railway speed and bustle with which everything is 
 transacted in Europe. There seems a contrast in 
 two opposite respects. In resi)ect to the events 
 crowded into it, a week of civiHsed life seems to 
 equal a year of Arctic experience. On the other 
 hand, a month of solitude may at times drag so 
 heavily as to equal a year of bustle and engagement. 
 
 One groat blessing of the Arctic climate is tlie 
 healthiness of it. Sickness is rare among the resident 
 Europeans. Lung diseases seem often cured among 
 them by the dry, bracing air of the North. Consump- 
 tion appears to be generated or fostered by damp and 
 impure air and confinement, and to be banished by 
 free exposure to a dry and bracing almosj)here. Let 
 the consumptive patients be despatched to Macken/ic 
 
76 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 River for recovery, rather than to ^Madeira to die. 
 It is singular, however, that this cHmate, healthful to 
 the resident Europeans, does not conduce to good 
 health among the native Indians. These are often con- 
 sumptive, a tendency which seems due to a scrofulous 
 constitution. Vicious and uncleanly habits, irregular 
 diet, alternate gluttony and starvation, exposure and 
 self-neglect, may also be among the causes of the 
 Indian sickliness. We find here a strange contrast 
 with the hot climates of Africa and India, which, while 
 healthful to the natives, are insalubrious to the 
 European. In the North, on the other hand, we 
 find an aboriginal population failing from disease, and 
 Euroi)eans thriving in health. There is little doubt 
 that in exchanging their original garments of furs for 
 the products of the European loom, these northern 
 Indians made for their own health a poor exchange. 
 The fur clothing was not only much the v^armest, but 
 the skins, in the absence of soap, were easily cleansed 
 by scraping or currying, while a woven garment, 
 especially if of cotton, both admits the cold and con- 
 tracts the dirt. The Indians have also become exposed 
 to some contagious diseases from the residence of 
 Europeans among them, and even the goods packed 
 in England for their use have at times brought the 
 seeds of fever along with them. 
 
 Regarding temperature, the thermometer in winter 
 in Mackenzie River fails frcfjuently as low as 50" 
 below zero, Fahrenheit. Occasionally it stands at 
 60° below zero, but chiefly within the .\rctic circle. 
 A range of 30° below zero is considered a moderate 
 
ARCTIC LIFE. 77 
 
 cold for travelling or outdoor labour, and it is 
 amusing to hear the \s'eather complained of as too 
 hot for working or walking comfortably, if the 
 temperature stands above zero. 
 
 In summer, on the other hand, the heat is scorch- 
 ing, but only in the daytime, and at most for a few 
 weeks. Toward the end of winter it is not unusual 
 to see in a single day as great a range of temperature 
 as is found in the whole year in England. The 
 thermometer may stand at 30° below zero, or lower, 
 in the early morning, and in the afternoon at 40° 
 above it. The dry cold of the North is not so 
 penetrating as the damp chills of an English winter, 
 and a change of temperature is less immediately felt. 
 It is possible to emerge from a hot room with a tem- 
 perature of, say, 80°, and stand outside for a few 
 minutes in a cold 30° below zero before the person 
 feels chilled, and brisk exercise will sustain a glow. 
 
 In summer it is customary with the Indians and 
 Esquimaux, and partly with the white residents, to 
 sleep in the day and rise by night, if it can be called 
 night, when the sun does not set, but only approaches 
 the liorizon in the North at midnight. The Es(jui- 
 maux are compelled to this habit by wearing only 
 clothes of reindeer skin, which are very uncomfortable 
 in the heat of a summer's day. They sub.sist also on 
 the musk-rat, fish, ^c, which are best hunted in 
 the night-time. Similar motives obtain with the 
 Indians. 
 
 It is pleasant to be able to read throughout the 
 night in summer without being interrupted by dark- 
 
78 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 ness ; but the compensation for this comes in mid- 
 winter, when there may be only dayhght for two 
 hours at midday to take a book. After all, the 
 constant daylight of the Arctic summer becomes 
 wearisome, and repose is sounder and sweeter when 
 sheltered in the shadow of the dusk. Though the 
 winter is cold and bleak, dark and dreary, yet most 
 residents prefer this season to the short summer, 
 which is fatiguing with the heat, glare, and mos- 
 quitoes. A kind Creator adapts men's homes to 
 their tastes, and it would seem that few natives are 
 so home-sick when removed from their native land 
 as the Esquimaux. 
 
MACKENZIE RIVER. f^ 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 METEOROLOGY. 
 
 One chief peculiarity of the Arctic regions lies in 
 the strange position and movements of the sun, 
 moon, and stars. About these some remarks may be 
 permitted. Regarding the sun, the place of its 
 rising and setting changes so quickly that every week 
 brings a noticeable difference. Instead of the sun 
 rising always in the east, it rises in the winter near the 
 south and in summer near the north, and the same 
 positions Avill be those of sun-setting. This makes 
 the length of the day vary with equal rapidity, so 
 that each week in the year the days are an hour 
 longer or shorter than the previous week. 
 
 These last statements apply, however, only to the 
 region strictly within the Arctic Circle. In latitude 
 Co° the sun will rise on the shortest day in the south- 
 east about nine o'clock and set in the south-west 
 about three. 
 
 Thus, in the Mackenzie River Diocese we have in 
 mid-winter at Fort Liard about six hours sunlight ; at 
 Tort Simpson about five hours ; at Fort Wrigley about 
 four hours ; at Fort Norman about three hours. At 
 ('iof)d Hope there would i)robably benbout one hour's 
 sunlight on the shortest day but for the hills which 
 conceal the sun altogether. At Peel River, La Punas 
 
8o INIACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 House and Rampart House the sun in mid-winter 
 does not rise at all. 
 
 By the end of May, however, or in less than twenty- 
 four weeks after the days begin to lengthen at the 
 three last - named posts, the sun stays above the 
 horizon all the twenty-four hours. There is thus an 
 average gain of one hour in the length of the day 
 every week. 
 
 In winter the noonday sun appears, if at all, only 
 among the tree tops in the south, while in summer 
 the midnight sun will be seen among the tree-tops 
 in the north. The mid jay sun then shines as 
 high as the English noonday sun in April. In 
 the latitude of Peel River, the most northerly of 
 the Mission stations in Mackenzie Diocese, the 
 midsummer sun is continuously above the horizon 
 for six weeks. In winter, however, it is far from 
 being continuously below the horizon for the same 
 time. This difference is owing to the happy effect of 
 the atmospheric refraction, which makes the sun 
 when near the horizon in these latitudes appear 
 about 5° higher than its real position. In fact, at 
 the latitude we have named the sun is hardly out of 
 sight entirely for a single day. From the housetop a 
 small edge of the ui)per limb of the sun's disc will be 
 visible on the shortest day, which appears to be 
 December 22nd or 23rd in those regions. By the 
 ist of January about half the sun's disc is visible, 
 and in a few days more the whole of it (the astro- 
 nomical sunrise). When once the noonday sun 
 leaves the horizon it mounts very rapidly, and each 
 
METEOROLOGY. - Si 
 
 day witnesses an observable increase of altitude. 
 By the end of April there is continuous daylight, 
 and by the end of May continuous sunlight. 
 
 In the short days of winter throughout the North 
 the twilight is very long, according to the benign 
 principle of compensation which obtains throughout 
 nature. The average winter twilight is about three 
 hours in the morning and the same in the evening, 
 counting as twilight the time from daybreak to sun- 
 rise ; and within the Arctic circle in mid-winter the 
 time is longer still. In the latitude of Peel River, 
 even on the shortest day, when the sun does not 
 rise at all, the first streak of dawn will still be visible 
 in the south-eastern horizon soon after 7 a.m. About 
 an hour later the day sky will have extended to mid- 
 heaven, but the ground will still be dark. In an- 
 other hour, or soon after nine, there will be light 
 enough to see the ground and bushes and track for 
 walking, but only in dim twilight. In another hour, 
 or about ten, it will be clear daylight outside, but 
 still dim in the house. About eleven it will be light 
 enough to see to read in the rooms. 
 
 At the same time red clouds will appear toward 
 the south, holding out an expectation of approaching 
 sunrise. These will increase in brightness till at 
 noon they are gilded with the brilliancy that imme- 
 diately i)recedes the beaming forth of the orb of day, 
 and even the sunbeams will shoot up from the 
 horizon. All these lengthened preparations, however, 
 end at last only in disappointment, for the sun does 
 not really apjjear at all. The appearances of the 
 
 G 
 
82 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 morning are then repeated in a reverse order, and 
 with lingering decHne, until before 5 p.m. the last 
 streak of daylight in the south-west sinks into black 
 night. 
 
 But an Arctic night has many illuminations, and 
 this brings us to speak of the seeming irregularities 
 of the moon's progress. The place of the moon's 
 rising circles the horizon every month in a similar 
 way to that of the sun every twelvemonth. Every 
 moon in one part of its monthly course circles the 
 heavens without setting like the midsummer sun, and 
 at another of its phases it will appear only among the 
 tree-tops, or else not rise at all, like the sun in winter. 
 
 And here comes in a beneficent arrangement of 
 Providence. In mid-winter, in the sun's absence, it 
 is the full moon that never sets, but circles in un- 
 broken splendour throughout the twenty-four hours, 
 while the new moon does not rise at all. In summer 
 this is reversed, and the full moon hardly rises, while 
 the new moon never sets, but in the perpetual sun- 
 light of summer the moonlight would be wasted if 
 present, and is just as well dispensed with. 
 
 From the place of the moon's rising being so 
 rapidly changed, its hour of daily rising becomes 
 also more irregular in these northern climes. It rises 
 sometimes about the same hour for several succes- 
 sive nights, and at other times will rise two or three 
 hours later than the previous evening. This depends 
 upon the moon's position with regard to the celestial 
 equator, in other words, its declination. 
 _ Regarding the stars, it may be remarked as one 
 
METEOROLOGY. 
 
 noticeable feature of the Arctic heavens, that the 
 pole-star is, in winter, nearly overhead, and round 
 this the northern constellations circle rather than rise 
 and set. The stars appear brilliant when the sky is 
 clear, and " Arcturus and Orion, and the Pleiades " 
 shine high in full splendour. The planets in the winter 
 nights appear near the horizon, and with their discs 
 much enlarged. They are in this position because 
 they travel nearly on the ecliptic, which is the sun's 
 path. In this way the bright evening or morning 
 stars of Christmas time often call to mind the star of 
 Bethlehem. 
 
 In Mackenzie River, from the difference of time, 
 the constellations appear in similar positions at four 
 o'clock in the morning to that seen in England at 
 eight in the evening ; so that the Arctic voyager 
 starting on his winters trip before the dawn, will 
 recognise the same stars that have attended his 
 evening walks in Europe. Shooting stars are not very 
 frequent in the far North, a fact which is easily 
 explicable, for these cosmical bodies are more readily 
 encountered further south, by our earth in her travels 
 through space. 
 
 The meteors like the sun's rays strike the atmo- 
 sphere more obliquely towards the poles, and so are 
 rarer or more dispersed in the far North. 
 
 The aurora is almost a nightly phenomenon in the 
 far North when the sky is clear. It seems to be apt 
 to follow the course of a moisture rising from any 
 lake or river, so that along the Mackenzie River the 
 aurora often appears as a continuous line of light, 
 
 G 2 
 
84 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 Stretching across the sky high overhead, but its Hnes 
 have a tendency to be at right angles to the magnetic 
 north. The coruscations of the aurora are often 
 brilliant, and of varied hues — blue, green, and lilac. 
 Its waving light has the appearance of the rustling of 
 silken banners, and its varying colours resemble the 
 flashes of shot silk. Its sound also, by those who 
 have heard it, is compared to the rustling of silk, and 
 the testimonies that it is audible are too general and 
 consistent to be disregarded. It is doubtful whether 
 the aurora can be displayed without some moisture to 
 which to affix itself, for often at morning's dawn a 
 slight cloud will be seen in the part of the sky from 
 which its brilliance seemed to emanate. 
 
 Within the Arctic circle the display of the aurora 
 will usually appear rather to the south than to the 
 north, in which direction the heavens are generally 
 dark. When the sky is cloudy the light of the 
 aurora, veiled by the clouds, often simulates the 
 dawn, and may betray an unwary traveller to rouse 
 himself hastily long before day. 
 
 The difference of longitude between England and 
 Mackenzie River gives about eight hours earlier time, 
 so that our friends in England are already up again 
 the next morning before we retire to rest the night 
 before, and Monday morning's bustle has begun in 
 Europe while Sabbath evening services are still held 
 in Mackenzie River. Respecting the seasons, both 
 countries being in the northern hemisphere, summer 
 and winter, of course, recur at the same time in 
 England and Mackenzie River ; but for all this the 
 
METEOROLOGY. 85 
 
 seasons can hardly be called entirely contempo- 
 raneous. In the far North there is scant spring time. 
 Winter reigns till May, and summer begins in June; a 
 longer autumn, and the pleasantest season of the year 
 begins in August and lasts till October, when stern 
 winter resumes its sway. 
 
 Indeed, a foretaste or warning of frost and snow 
 generally begins at the end of September or 
 beginning of October, after which there is often 
 a return of fine warm weather for two or three 
 weeks, which are locally known as the Indian 
 summer. In winter the weather is not of continued 
 equal severity, but alternations of colder and milder 
 weather, enduring for a week or two, succeed each 
 other throuhgout the season. The severe weather is 
 accompanied by a clear sky, and the milder tem- 
 perature by cloud ; but whether the cloud is the cause 
 or effect of the warmth is not so plain. It appears 
 probable that a downward deflection of a warmer 
 equatorial current in the upper atmosphere may cause 
 the breaks in the cold, and that the moisture of that 
 warmer air is condensed in its descent in the form of 
 cloud. This hypothesis accords with the experience 
 that the mountain tops have a milder temperature 
 in Arctic latitudes in winter than the lower levels. 
 
 The readiest wav to thaw frozen fincrers in Arctic 
 latitudes is to plunge them into water, for though 
 the water may be full of ice it will not be below^ the 
 temperature of freezing-point, or 32*^ Fahrenheit, 
 though the temperature of the air may be 60'' to 70^ 
 lower. The temperature of the Arctic ocean in 
 
S6 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 winter, even though frozen, seems to be somewhat 
 milder than that of the adjoining land. It has been 
 questioned whether or not the climate of "he Arctic 
 regions was ever a tropical one, or of a higher 
 temperature than at present. Evidence in the 
 affirmative has been said to lie in fossil leaves or 
 impressions of tropical flora and fauna found in 
 high latitudes. 
 
 In Mackenzie River it has been stated that fossil 
 impressions of large leaves were found in the exposed 
 coal-beds, but this does not seem to be substantiated. 
 The coal-beds adjoining the Mackenzie River have 
 been dn fire for a century past, and the subterranean 
 fires bake the river-side clay into a hardened brick or 
 biscuit. The recent impressions of autumn leaves 
 drifted down the river are imprinted on the clay and 
 then baked into simulated fossils. These loaves may 
 come from many hundreds of miles south, though not 
 from the tropics. The Es(]uimaux, however, at the 
 mouth of the Mackenzie appear acquainted with the 
 elephant, of which they state the remains to be 
 found in their country, and bones of mastoda have 
 been lound in the Youcon. The elephants, however, 
 found here and in Siberia may have been imbedded 
 in ice ever since the Deluge, or they may be of a 
 species adapted to an Arctic habitat. 
 
 'Ihe cperaiions of nature ap[)ear to have been less 
 subdued formerly than now, and it is possible that a 
 more violent tropical oceanic or a 'Sphcric current 
 in former ages may have moderated the riyjour of the 
 poles. At present the warm cqur ''■ a\ < urrent 
 
METEOROLOGY. . ; |^ 
 
 makes the Pacific coast of North America without a 
 winter at a latitude where at loo miles inland there 
 is six months snow, just as the Gulf Stream warms 
 northern Europe. In Mackenzie River a westerly 
 wind for two or three days, by bringing the warm 
 Pacific breezes across the Rocky Mountains, will 
 produce a thaw even in winter. 
 
 Astronomers state that any alteration in the 
 inclination of the earth's axis is but slight and 
 within fixed limits, so that if the Arctic climate was 
 ever tropical it would probably be owing to a change 
 in the position of the earth's poles, irresi)ective of its 
 inclination, similar to the change which is constantly 
 taking place in the magnetic pole. For such a 
 change it may be hard to find an astronomical test, 
 but it could hardly obtain unless the earth's crust 
 were less rigid than at present. 
 
 It is generally believed that even since the first 
 arrival of Europeans in Mackenzie River the winters 
 have become less severe, and there seems to be some 
 evidence that the extremes of heat and cold are less 
 at present throughout the earth's surface than in 
 ancient times, when vineyards are spoken of in 
 Northumberland and snow on Vesuvius. 
 
 Terrestrial magnetism and electricity have much 
 force in the far North, thougli thunder and lightning 
 are infrequent. Furs and woollen clothes often 
 si)arkle with electric light, and hair stands bristling. 
 This may tend to the healthfulness of the region. 
 Halos and ])arhelia, or mock suns, are common in 
 the North, and rainbows, solar and lunar, are seen. 
 
88 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 Full meteorological tables for Mackenzie River have 
 been published with Government authority by Capt. 
 Lefroy. 
 
 The winds of the North are various and irregular^ 
 though northerly winds seem to prevail most in the 
 spring, and southerly in the fall of the year. The 
 coldest winds are easterly, and the warmest 
 westerly. No special equinoctial gales are noticed, 
 though March, as elsewhere, is a windy month. 
 Happily the severest cold is mostly in calm weather ; 
 for a gale at 50** below zero is nearly intolerable. 
 Even at zero a strong wind makes the temperature 
 appear 30*^ colder. 
 
 Regarding the rainfall or depth of snow, this, 
 also is irregular. Some summers are wet and some 
 dry ; some winters the snows are deep, and other 
 seasons the reverse. The average winter's depth of 
 snow may be about four feet, but more in the drifts. 
 When there is sufficient rain in the summer, good 
 crops may be expected, unless these are cut off by 
 too early frosts. At times by a sudden and severe 
 frost the potatoes, though ripened, may be frozen in 
 the ground before there is time to dig them up. 
 
 On the whole the Mackenzie River is a country of 
 sunshine, much more so than the English climate. 
 Both summer and winter a clear sky i)redominates. 
 This is a great contrast to the Pacific coast, not far 
 distant, where the dry days count hardly one in five. 
 In the Mackenzie River a whole month may elapse 
 without rain. The most snow generally falls in 
 November. In the neighbourhood of the mountains 
 
METEOROLOGY. 89 
 
 there may be an occasional snowstorm in any month 
 in the year, but in summer this soon melts again. 
 On the level country ti>e snow generally disappears 
 by the end of April in the more southern parts, and 
 in the month of May in the extreme north. The 
 end of October, or the beginning of November, 
 mostly brings the fresh snowfall 
 
90 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DRESS AND HABITS. 
 
 The Mackenzie River being supplied with domestic 
 requisites from England has not in this respect the 
 appearance of a foreign land. Not only the white 
 residents have their clothing and utensils from 
 Europe, but the Indians also purchase these articles 
 of English manufacture. Even when they make 
 clothes of their own native leather, they now affect 
 European shapes and costumes, and their ancient 
 national dress, ornaments, implements, and weapons 
 are falling into disuse. Still it may be worth while to 
 offer a few words on Indian drc^s and habits. The 
 Indian dress is naturally made of fur, deer-skin, or 
 dressed leather, and consists of coat, leggings, cap 
 and shoes, with a skin blanket by way of a cloak. 
 Marten or beaver skins formed at first rich coats for the 
 Indians, but these are now traded off for necessaries. 
 The cap is usually of fur in winter. The shoes are 
 always of soft dressed leather. The native Indian 
 coat in the North was formerly pointed both before 
 and behind. In fact, the name Chipewyan is a Cree 
 Indian term meaning the pointed coat, but this shape 
 has fallen into disuse. 
 
 The women's dress mostly consists of a long 
 leather coat trimmed with cloth or beads, and some- 
 
DRESS AND HABITS. 9 1 
 
 times a cloth hood for the head. The women's faces 
 were till recently often slightly tattoed with dark lines 
 on the chin, formed by drawing a thread loaded with 
 gunpowder or colouring matter under the skin. The 
 men were formerly much addicted to painting their 
 faces with vermilior, but this has 'fallen into disuse 
 among the tribes in contact with Europeans. The 
 Esquimaux young men stripe their faces with ver- 
 milion as a distinguishing mark when they have killed 
 an enemy. 
 
 The Indians are fond of rings, earrings, bracelets, 
 and necklaces, and they formerly pierced the cartilage 
 of the nose for the insertion of a shell ornament. 
 Belts are tastefully manufactured by the Indian 
 women of porcupine quill work. This or bead work, 
 and the making of shoes, form their chief employ- 
 ment. The old women employ themselves in twisting 
 grass, roots, or sinew into twine for sewing, or fishing 
 nets. The men and boys are often busied in shaping 
 bows, arrows, snow-shoes, sledges, or other articles. 
 
 The Indians were formerly accustomed, instead of 
 burying their dead, to place them on high scaffolds 
 above ground, but this habit was probably owing to 
 the ground being for many months in the year frozen 
 too hard to dig it. The raising on scaifolds was also 
 a safer preservative than burying under ground from 
 the ravagcG of animals of prey. Since mingling 
 with the whiteii, however, the Indians conform to 
 European habits of burial. It was also formerly a 
 superstitious custom to place with the deceased his 
 bow, arrows, and other necessaries; and even in later 
 
92 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 times a gun, ammunition, tobacco, fire bag, and 
 other articles, have been buried in the grave of a 
 dead Indian. Such a superstition it is hard to eradi- 
 cate, and perhaps it needs some care not to quench 
 too roughly the idea of a life continued after death, 
 until the knowledge of a spiritual immortality and a 
 final resurrection can be instilled, to supplant the 
 instinctive notion of a continued mundane life. 
 
 The old stone axes, knives, and spear and arrow- 
 heads of the Indians have naturally now been ex- 
 changed for iron. Still however, a blunt stone axe 
 is used for grubbing up edible roots, and flint arrow- 
 heads are still occasionally used by the boys, and a 
 sharp flint is preferred for a bleeding lancet. 
 
 The view of these stone implements still existing 
 seems a warning to antiquarians not to dogmatise too 
 much as to the date of similar remains found as relics 
 of a past age ; and as to judging of such date by fine- 
 ness of workmanship, a guess may be quite illusory. 
 The good shape of the flint arrow-heads may de- 
 pend on the question whether they were made by 
 a man or boy, or the inferior skill may be a sign 
 of more degradation, and thus of a later period. 
 Stone knives are still used by Indian women in 
 currying skins. It has been already remarked that 
 copper was made use of for knives by the Indians 
 near the Coi)permine River before the arrival of 
 Europeans, and pieces of meteoric iron were used by 
 the Esquimaux for striking fire. 
 
 For cooking, the Indians were formerly accustomed 
 to weave baskets of roots closely enough to hold 
 
DRESS AND HABITS. 93 
 
 water. This water was then heated for cooking pur- 
 poses, by immersing in it a succession of hot stones. 
 Meat was baked by being buried in the earth and a 
 fire made over it. At present the boihng is done in 
 iron or copper kettles, and the roasting on wooden 
 spits or skewers before the fire. 
 
 The Tukudh Indians had formerly regular tracks or 
 roads cut through the forests throughout their country 
 for communication between the different tribes. They 
 used sleds mounted on runners, as the Esquimaux do 
 now. 
 
 None of the Indians of Mackenzie River seem to 
 have been acquainted with the use of plants or herbs 
 for medicines. In their medicine making they used 
 only the charms of drumming and singing. The 
 Esquimaux, with the drumming and singing, com- 
 bine an address as to an invisible spirit supposed to 
 have power over the disease. 
 
 The women in the Indian lodges were formerly 
 obliged to eat after the men, but they are now 
 learning of the Europeans to mess in common. 
 Indians were formerly accustomed to have a private 
 cup of their own, and v/ould object to others, and 
 especially to a woman, drinking from it; but this 
 superstition is also dying out. 
 
 The Indians had formerly much superstitious dread 
 of using any clothing or other articles belonging to a 
 person deceased. In case of a death all the clothing 
 and effects of the departed were thrown away or 
 destroyed, and even the relatives would destroy their 
 tents, guns, and other property, either out of grief or 
 
94 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 from dread of using again anything that the deceased 
 had come in contact with. These inconvenient cus- 
 toms are being gradually relinquished. A hunter was 
 considered bound to eat the head of an animal killed 
 by him in order to secure further success in the chase. 
 Some Indians attribute to the chase of particular 
 animals, such as the w^olf, the effect of spoiling their 
 gun ; but it would be idle to enumerate further the 
 Indians' vain superstitions. 
 
 The Esquimaux are accustomed to angle with an 
 imitation fish carved in ivory having an iron hook 
 protruding from it, so that the one instrument forms 
 hook and bait together without more. Their fishing- 
 nets are often netted of split whalebone. 
 
 The use of an almost exclusively animal diet does 
 not appear productive of any ill effects among the 
 European residents, nor is it distasteful when it has 
 become habitual. In fact, the cold climate calls for 
 strong food, and fat or sweets as generators of heat 
 are adapted to the country. The sicknesses of the 
 Indians may, however, be partly attributable to their 
 free use of animal blood, in which disease may be 
 communicated, for skin diseases are common among 
 the wild animals as among the Indians. The health 
 of the Indians seems to have improved since they 
 have been more plentifully supplied with tea, the use 
 of which has moderated their indulgence in blood as 
 a beverage. Their neglect of the use of salt may also 
 be a means of their unhealthiness, and if they were 
 more plentifully supplied with this article, it might 
 tend to counteract their scrofulous habit. 
 
DRESS AND HABITS. 95 
 
 The taste for tea and tobacco has, of course, been 
 acquired by the Indians only since the arrival of 
 European traders among them. It is doubtful whether 
 their large use of tobacco conduces to their welfare. 
 An idle Indian may be more inclined to allay the 
 pangs of hunger with his pipe than to brave the cold 
 of winter in hastening to the chase. Many of the 
 Indians complain of pains in the chest, which may 
 arise from their incautiously imbibing the caustic 
 ashes with which they often load their empty pipes 
 in lighting these at their fire embers. 
 
 The infant Indians are, as is well known, enveloped 
 in bags of moss, which, in this severe climate, are 
 admirable preservatives against cold and exposure. 
 In these bags the infant is tightly laced up, confining 
 the limbs and leaving only the head exposed. This 
 process of mummification does not seem to weaken 
 the hmbs, nor to give discomfort to the patient. The 
 swing is the usual accompaniment of the moss bag, 
 where the swaddled mfant is lulled to rest. Slung 
 over her shoulder, this moss bag is the constant 
 burden of the mother's travels. 
 
 When the Indians shift camp, which they often 
 do every week or two, the men-folk start first, un- 
 encumbered but with their guns, and after making 
 a track for ten or twelve miles, they mark out a spot 
 for the next encampment, and then proceed on the 
 chase till evening. The women with their families 
 and dog-sleds, loaded with tent, bedding, and 
 utensils, trudge slowly after, and on arriving at the 
 intended camp, after clearing the snow, they strew 
 
•96 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 the space with pine branches and erect the tent. 
 After arranging this by disburdening the sleds of 
 their loads, they proceed to collect fuel for firing, 
 and have all ready for a repast by evening, when 
 the husbands return, bearing the produce of their 
 hunt. If a large animal has been killed, the wives 
 walk to the spot the next day to carry home the 
 meat and hide. The men, however, now more than 
 formerly take a share in the camp duties. 
 
 In Indian marriages it seems to be a part of 
 the etiquette that the bride should show great 
 reluctance to be wedded, till she has at times to be 
 forcibly dragged from her camp. Her friends also 
 may exhibit great opposition to the intended match ; 
 and yet this may be, in fact, only a part of the 
 •ceremony. Among some Indians it is understood to 
 be absolutely forbidden to a mother-in-law to look 
 her son-in-law in the face, at least until the birth of 
 his first child. This does not seem to be enforced 
 nmong the more northern Indians, but a son-in-law 
 is looked upon as a sort of hunter for his wife's 
 parents. Their daughter does not leave her parents' 
 camp, and even after marriage appears to be more 
 under their control than that of her husband. 
 
 As soon as a child is born, its parents usually 
 drop their own name and assume that of the child ; 
 and this is continued a good deal, even in the case 
 of baptised Indians ; so that you may hear John's 
 father or Jane's mother so spoken of, in preference to 
 their own name. A wife, instead of speaking of 
 her husband, will prefer to speak of her boy's father. 
 
DRESS AND HABITS. 97 
 
 Polygamy was practised among the non-Christian 
 Indians chiefly by the chiefs and leading men, and 
 in the excuse that more than one wife was required 
 by them, to dress their furs and skins, and ca.uy their 
 meat and effects, and do other camp duties. 
 
 In sickness the Indians are veiy pitiful. They 
 soon lose heart, and seem to die more from de- 
 spondency than disease. Their need is often not so 
 much medicine as good nourishment and nursing ; 
 but this is hard to obtain. Food is often scarce 
 even for those in health to seek it, and for a sick 
 Indian it may be hard to find a friend in need. 
 The constant removals are trying to the weak and 
 infirm, and in times of distress those who cannot 
 follow the band ar*^ left behind to perish. Indians 
 have been known to devour their own children in 
 cases of absolute starvation ; but such instances are 
 rare, and may, perhaps, be attributed to a temporary 
 mania. Those who are believed to have perpetrated 
 such an act are feared and shunned. 
 
 The dying are often hastily wrapped up and laid 
 aside, even before the last sigh has escaped, for there 
 is a reluctance to handle the dead. There is no fear 
 of the resuscitation of the corpse, which is, for the 
 most part, stiffly frozen as soon as removed from the 
 camp fire. Chocolate is a favourite beverage with 
 the sick where it can be obtained, and it is looked 
 upon as a medicine. The Indians universally give 
 it thii name of ox blood, because it was mistaken by 
 them for the blood of the musk ox when first they 
 saw it used by the whites. Rice, which is called 
 
 H 
 
98 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 white barley, is another luxury coveted by the sick. 
 Flour is known by the Tukudh Indians as " ashes 
 from the end of heaven." Tobacco is warmth or 
 comfort, and the pipe the comforting stone. 
 
 All articles in use by the whites are named by the 
 Indians without hesitation, according to their employ- 
 ment. A table is what you eat on ; a chair, what 
 you sit on ; a pen, what you write with. A watch 
 is called the sun's heart. A minister is with them, 
 the s])eaker, and a church the speaking-house- 
 So a lion is called the hairy beast, and the camel 
 the one with the big back. A bat is called the 
 leather wing, because such is its appearance. Thus^ 
 an Indian is never at a loss for a name. A steam- 
 boat, before it was seen by the Indians, used to 
 l)e called the boat that flies by fire ; but since they 
 have seen it, the fire-boat seems to be name enough. 
 
 The Indians are quick at learning by the eye, but 
 slow if taught by the ear. Even in Christianity it is 
 ])robable they would be better schooled by example 
 than by i)recept. In the Tukudh language there is a 
 different mode of expression used in speaking of the 
 works of God, from that api)lied to the works of mcn^ 
 the former implying some sort of awe and reverence. 
 Before the advent of whites or Missionaries, the 
 Tukudh youth were advised by their elders to good 
 behaviour, and they were warned not to be deceived 
 by the garish pleasures of youth, but to remember 
 a hereafter. 
 
 The Esquimaux have a tradition that in the first 
 family in the world two brothers quarrelled, and the 
 
DRESS AND HABITS. 99 
 
 one killed the other, and had afterwards to wander 
 from his home and was lost On the arrival of 
 Europeans among them, the Esquimaux thought these 
 might be descendants of the long-lost murderer. So 
 far as the white men have come among them armed 
 with the fatal fire-water, or other weapons of destruc- 
 tion, there may be only too much truth in this view, 
 l^uropeans, however, seem to liave leturned the 
 compliment by affiliating the Esquimaux upon ancient 
 cave - dwellers in France and Switzerland, an 
 hypothesis which appears nearly as arbitrary as the 
 former one. The Esquimaux have still a word for d 
 world above, and acknowledge that a system of 
 religion was known to their forefathers, but say they 
 have forgotten it. They seem to have some super- 
 stitious ideas connected with the sun. 
 
 -f 
 
lOO MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 RESOURCES AND PROSPECTS. 
 
 It has been already said that the sole present trade in 
 Mackenzie River is in furs. It may be asked what 
 other resources the country presents. The leather 
 ilerived from the dressed hides of the moose and 
 reindeer is of some value, but at present nearly the 
 whole of the leather obtained is used in the country 
 for shoes and clothing. The reindeer in the woods 
 and the fish in the lakes are somewhat abundant, but 
 no more are killed than are required for provisions 
 used in the country. Walrus tusks for ivory, and seal 
 skins, and oil of both whales and seals, may be traded 
 to a limited extent from the Esquimaux on the coast, 
 but not in large quantities. Vegetable crops might 
 be much increased in the countrj', but it is unlikely 
 that these would be exported. For resources to be 
 consumed in the country, agricultural ])roduce will 
 probably in the end prove the most reliable, notwith- 
 standing the severe climate. Animal provisions seem 
 always diminishing, and it is surprising what a vast 
 expenditure of animal life is required to sustain even 
 a very small population on meat only. 
 
 When a reindeer is killed, the meat of its r1bs fs 
 cut off and dried, and this is usually the only part of 
 the animal furnished to the trading establishments for 
 
RESOURCES AND PROSPECTS. 10 1 
 
 provision for the resident whites. These ribs form 
 just one day's provision for one man, so that in one 
 sense it may be said to require the life of a deer to 
 sustain each man for a da v. Then about 1,200 fish 
 are required to feed a train of dogs for the winter, and 
 the dogs are needed for hauling fresh meat, if not 
 fuel. Altogether, with the sparsest of populations, 
 there is an enormous expenditure of animal life every 
 year in Mackenzie River for provisions. When to 
 this is added the number of animals slaughtered for 
 their fur, the total is very great. It is a country of 
 death. It seems an instinct in an Indian to destroy 
 every living animal he sees. 
 
 Little pains have yet been bestowed on the 
 cultivation of the soil in Mackenzie River, but where 
 patience and perseverance have been used, the result 
 has been encouraging. The crops cannot be said 
 to be altogether certain, but are dependent on 
 the season. 13y working the soil regularly the frost 
 seems to leave it. A considerable amount of provi- 
 sions could no doubt be raised from the soil by real 
 efforts at farming. It has sometimes been suggested 
 that a penal settlement might be placed in Mackenzie 
 River similar to these in Siberia, but such a scheme 
 the scarcity of provisions forbids. The meat and 
 fish are insufficient to support any considerable 
 number in one place, and the crops could not be 
 trusted for the support of a convict establishment 
 with enforced labour, though hardy emigrants work- 
 ing with a will might force a livelihood. 
 
 The climate Is not one to invite immigration on any 
 
102 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 considerable scale, unless the half-breed or Indian 
 population of the Sascachewan plains or adjacent 
 country should retire to the north before the advance 
 of civilised Europeans. It might, Indeed, be more 
 hunfiane to the Indian population of the south to 
 banish them to the uncoi strained freedom of the 
 northern forests, where they might still pursue the 
 chase to which their instincts guide ihem, rather than 
 to confine them to reserves of limited area and to 
 farming pursuits, for which they are less fitted, and 
 which often prove distasteful. 
 
 In case any further expedition should be 
 organised with a view to reach the North Pole, 
 it has been suggested that the mouth of the 
 Mackenzie River would form a favourable basis of 
 operations. 
 
 After laying deposits of provisions along the route 
 in advance, sledge journeys on the ice might be 
 arranged from the Mackenzie River toward the 
 Pole, to be conducted not by English sailors but by 
 those more habituated to rapid snow-shoe travelling 
 and inured to Arctic cold. 
 
 The timber of Mackenzie River region is, doubtless, 
 valuable, but would not pay the cost of exportation. 
 When saw-mills are introduced, the lumber will be 
 more used for building in the neighbourhood. 
 Regarding the mineral resources of the district, it 
 has been already said that gold has been found in the 
 extreme west of it, on the Upper Youcon. This 
 discovery may attract more population in that 
 direction, and open a route from the Pacific coast, 
 
RESOURCES AND PROSPECTS. IO3 
 
 which is certainly much the shortest distance from 
 the ocean to the Mackenzie River country. 
 
 Formerly, trade was carried from jNIackenzie River 
 through the Rocky Mountains by the west branch of 
 the Liard River as far as Dease Lake, and access 
 from the west may hereafter be obtained to the 
 Mackenzie River by the same route. The river is, 
 however, difficult and dangerous for navigation, and 
 impeded by numerous rapids. The route from Dease 
 Lake to the western coast is also mountainous, and 
 traversed in parts by mule trains only, w'hich may 
 forbid any heavy traffic by that route. The new 
 route from the coast to the mines of the Upper 
 Youcon runs more to the north than the one last 
 mentioned. This road lies through the country 
 of the Chilcats^ a rather wild and murderous race of 
 Indians, but who will probably be taught good 
 manners by the miners, for whose i)rotection an 
 American gunboat has visited the coast. Other 
 mineral resources may possibly develop in the 
 country, but it is unlikely that any metal besides 
 gold would pay the cost of exportation. 
 
 Communication with the south will probably soon 
 be improved. The Inter-Oceanic Railway will pro- 
 bably extend branches northward suflicicr.tly far to 
 connect with the navigable rivers that run to the 
 Arctic Ocean, and on these rivers steamers are 
 already being placed. 
 
 - Government mail communication, and some system 
 of law and police, may be expected to extend, in the 
 future, even as far as Mackenzie River, for the tide 
 
104 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 of civilisation is ever flowing westward, and even a 
 framework of civil political government may be 
 added. The Mackenzie River Diocese alone is about 
 as large as the peninsula of Hindostan, and it seems 
 strange that so vast a region of British territory 
 should be ignored, so far as respects Government 
 supervision. A Government survey is already locating 
 the boundary-line between the American country of 
 Alaska and British territory ; and this may probably 
 be followed by some custom-house authority, to 
 regulate trade crossing the border. 
 
 Some Government aid towards education in the 
 Mackenzie River country may be expected, and 
 has, indeed, been promised, and toward the sup- 
 port of Missionary clergy some assistance may be 
 hoped for from the older provinces of Canada ; but 
 self-help must be the watchword, and an effort after 
 independence and self-support should be made by 
 all. To admit of any number of children being 
 gathered for schooling, it appears essential that a 
 Mission-farm should be set on foot to raise crops for 
 their support ; and at all the Missions it seems de- 
 sirable that an industrial lay agent should be asso- 
 ciated with the clerical staff, both for the support of 
 the Mission and to encourage the Indians to aim 
 after more settled habits, and to attempt the cultiva- 
 tion of the soil. Farming and education arc the 
 two levers to be used, in subservience to a preached 
 Gospel, for raising the Mackenzie River country to 
 civilisation and improvement. 
 
 Probably the most striking impression conveyed to 
 
RESOURCES AND PROSPECTS. I05 
 
 the mind by the appearance of this country is that 
 here we are brought into immediate view of stupen- 
 dous natural works of the great Creator unsullied by 
 hi man handiwork, undisguised by hu'^:ij.n artifice. 
 Magnificent lakes, rivers, mountains, meet the eye, 
 and these at one time buried under deep ice or 
 snow, and chained with the iron grasp of winter, and 
 at another time smiling in summer's glow and free- 
 dom, and flowing with melted streams. Few opera- 
 tions of the powers of nature are more forcible and 
 striking than the binding back of the swift current of 
 a mighty stream, in the severe frosts of early winter, 
 and the loosing of these icy fetters on the return of 
 spring. An equal contrast is seen in the congealing 
 of the tossing waves of a large inland lake or of the 
 Arctic Ocean. As the power of nature, so also the 
 care of Providence, is exhibited to perfection in the 
 far North, as shown by the safe protection and pro- 
 vision afforded to the wandering tribes, apparently 
 helpless amid Arctic frost and snow. 
 
 In the huge carcases of the whales, and other 
 marine monsters of the Arctic deep, and the swarming 
 land animals of the northern wastes, nature and 
 Providence seem to have been, in some respects, 
 more lavish and ])rodigal in care for the sparse inhabit- 
 ants of the far North than for the teeming pojmlations 
 of more favoured climates. Yet the provision is not in 
 excess of the need, and in that forbidding climate 
 both natives and FAiropcan residents maintain a 
 constant struggle to keep aloof the foe of famine, or 
 in familiar figure of speech, to " keep the wolf from 
 
I06 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 the door." A restful trust in heaven's bounty will, 
 however, lead to a cheerful Ljntent, even in the far 
 North, and the fact that in God's Word, and espe- 
 cially in the Book of Job and in the Psalms, the 
 regions of ice and snow are so vividly pourtrayed, 
 will induce an Arctic Christian to acknowledge, and 
 exult in the consciousness, that his God is still 
 present with him there. 
 
 The Mackenzie River may be regarded as the 
 Ultima Thule, and, in some respects, as the forlorn 
 hope of Missionar}' enterprise ; for no zeal can tame 
 the elements, or soften the rigour of an Arctic clime. 
 Still, however, the Gospel wins its triumphs amid 
 Arctic snows, and shows itself sufficient for the com- 
 fort of the wanderer in the frozen North. 
 
 Russian Missions from the East, in connexion 
 with the Greek Church, long since penetrated to the 
 neighbouring country of Alaska, so that in the borders 
 of Mackenzie River Diocese east and west may be said 
 to join. Alaska having now fallen under the domi- 
 nion of the United States, the work of its evangelisa- 
 tion is being taken up from thence, and the American 
 Episcopal Church, with Presbyterians, Methodists, 
 and Moravian brethren, are already occui)ying Mis- 
 sion fields in Alaska, to the immediate west of the 
 Diocese of Mackenzie River. 
 
 On the south border of the diocese, Mission work 
 is also being zealously carried on in the province of 
 British Columbia. The Society for the Propagation 
 of the Gospel have supported a Missionary at the 
 Cassiar Mines, near Dease Lake, and immediately 
 
RESOURCES AND PROSrECTS. I07 
 
 adjoining Mackenzie River Diocese on the south-we«;t. 
 A little further south again are the Church Missionary- 
 Society's stations on the Naas River and at Metla- 
 katla. 
 
 In the adjoining diocese of Athabasca, Mission work 
 is also zealously carried on in connexion with the 
 same Church Missionary Society by the bishop and a 
 staff of Mission clergy, as is also the case immediately 
 to the eastward, on the shores of Hudson's Bay, in 
 the diocese of Moosonee. 
 
 The Missions in ^Mackenzie River are therefore 
 far from isolated when the continent of America s 
 viewed as a whole, for similar IMissionary efforts 
 surround it on all hands, unless only to the frozen 
 North. Yet within the diocese itself we speak of a 
 Missionary being isolated when his nearest colleague 
 may be 300 miles distant. Ten or a dozen Mission 
 agents are but a small band to cover a country as 
 large as Western Europe, for France, Germany, Italy, 
 Holland, Belgium, and Switzerland could probably 
 all be included in the space occupied by Mackenzie 
 River Diocese. 
 
 The Mackenzie River Diocese need no longer be 
 reckoned as a heathen country, for none of the 
 Indian tribes therein refuse or oppose the Gospel, 
 and they are all in the main under the instruction of 
 Church of England Missionaries or Romish Priests, 
 though they are by no means yet fully enlightened. 
 The Esquimaux, though not yet Christianised, may 
 be reckoned as also under instruction. 
 
 The staff of French Roman Catholic Missionaries, 
 
Io8 MACKENZIE RIVER. 
 
 including bishop, priests, friars, and nuns, exceeds that 
 of the Church of England Mission. The numbers 
 under the instruction of each Church may not greatly 
 differ, but the adherents of the English Church 
 Mission are most numerous in connexion with the 
 Tukudh Missions. As the Missionaries in this 
 diocese may be considered in the vanguard of the 
 Christian Missionary army, their position is no dis- 
 honourable one, though their lot may be humble and 
 their victories unfamed. 
 
 The Church of England Missionaries are not sworn, 
 like those of Rome, to uphold the glories of Mary, or to 
 support the falsehood of her Immaculate Conception, 
 but they are engaged in the pioneer work of making 
 straight in the desert a highway for their God, and in 
 laying the foundation there of the spiritual and ever- 
 lasting kingdom of Christ our Lord, who has been 
 promised the utmost parts of the earth for His pos- 
 session, and Whom all the ends of the world shall 
 fear. : - 
 
 WYMAN ANU SON, I'KINTERS, 74-76, GREAT QUEliN STREET, W.C. 
 
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