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116 THROUGH T H E MACKENZIE BASIN
women to take their place. Their chiefs seemed to have
no power save over their own families, and their conjurers
were supported by voluntary contributions of provisions.
These are some of the chief characteristics Franklin
notes of the Indians who frequented Fort Chipewyan, at
which point he spent several months. One extraordinary
circumstance, however, remains to be mentioned. It is that
of a young Chipewyan who lost his wife in her first pregnancy.
He applied the child to his left breast, from which
a flow of milk took place. " The breast," he adds, " became
of an unusual size." Here he and Back, afterwards
Admiral Back, were joined by Dr. Richardson and Mr.
Hood, who had come from Cumberland House by the difficult
Churchill River route, and on July 18th, at noon, the
whole party left the fort on their tragic expedition, the
party, aside from those named, consisting of John Hepburn,
seaman, an interpreter and fifteen voyageurs, including,
unfortunately, an Iroquois Indian, called Michel Teroa-hante.
At two p. m. they entered Great Slave River, hen
three- quarters of a mile wide, and, passing Red Deer Islands
and Dog River, encountered the rapids, overcome by seven
or eight portages, from the Casette to the Portage of the
Drowned, all varying in length from seventy to eight
hundred yards.
On the 21st they landed at the mouth of Salt River to
lay in a supply of salt for their journey, the deposits lying
twenty- two miles up by stream. These natural pans, or salt
plains, he describes— and the description answers for to- day
— as " bounded on the north and west by a ridge between
six and seven hundred feet high. Several salt springs issue
at its foot, and spread over the plain, which is of tenacious
clay, and, evaporating in summer, crystallize in the form
of cubes. The poisson inconnu, a species of salmon which
ascends from the Arctic Ocean, is not found, he says, above
this stream. A few miles below it, however, a buffalo
plunged into the river before them, which they killed, and
those animals still frequent the region.
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| Title | Page 132 |
| OCR | 116 THROUGH T H E MACKENZIE BASIN women to take their place. Their chiefs seemed to have no power save over their own families, and their conjurers were supported by voluntary contributions of provisions. These are some of the chief characteristics Franklin notes of the Indians who frequented Fort Chipewyan, at which point he spent several months. One extraordinary circumstance, however, remains to be mentioned. It is that of a young Chipewyan who lost his wife in her first pregnancy. He applied the child to his left breast, from which a flow of milk took place. " The breast," he adds, " became of an unusual size." Here he and Back, afterwards Admiral Back, were joined by Dr. Richardson and Mr. Hood, who had come from Cumberland House by the difficult Churchill River route, and on July 18th, at noon, the whole party left the fort on their tragic expedition, the party, aside from those named, consisting of John Hepburn, seaman, an interpreter and fifteen voyageurs, including, unfortunately, an Iroquois Indian, called Michel Teroa-hante. At two p. m. they entered Great Slave River, hen three- quarters of a mile wide, and, passing Red Deer Islands and Dog River, encountered the rapids, overcome by seven or eight portages, from the Casette to the Portage of the Drowned, all varying in length from seventy to eight hundred yards. On the 21st they landed at the mouth of Salt River to lay in a supply of salt for their journey, the deposits lying twenty- two miles up by stream. These natural pans, or salt plains, he describes— and the description answers for to- day — as " bounded on the north and west by a ridge between six and seven hundred feet high. Several salt springs issue at its foot, and spread over the plain, which is of tenacious clay, and, evaporating in summer, crystallize in the form of cubes. The poisson inconnu, a species of salmon which ascends from the Arctic Ocean, is not found, he says, above this stream. A few miles below it, however, a buffalo plunged into the river before them, which they killed, and those animals still frequent the region. |
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