Of which gave for
its longitude 111 degrees 18 minutes 20 seconds West, its latitude was
observed to be 58 degrees 42 minutes 38 seconds North, and the variation
of the compass 22 degrees 49 minutes 32 seconds East. Fresh rates were
procured for the chronometers and their errors determined for Greenwich
time by which the survey to the northward was carried on.
CHAPTER 6.
MR. HOOD'S JOURNEY TO THE BASQUIAU HILL.
SOJOURNS WITH AN INDIAN PARTY.
HIS JOURNEY TO CHIPEWYAN.
MR. HOOD'S JOURNEY TO THE BASQUIAU HILL.
March, 1820.
Being desirous of obtaining a drawing of a moose-deer, and also of making
some observation on the height of the Aurora Borealis, I set out on the
23rd to pass a few days at the Basquiau Hill. Two men accompanied me with
dogs and sledges who were going to the hill for meat. We found the
Saskatchewan open and were obliged to follow it several miles to the
eastward. We did not then cross it without wading in water which had
overflowed the ice, and our snowshoes were encumbered with a heavy weight
for the remainder of the day. On the south bank of the Saskatchewan were
some poplars ten or twelve feet in circumference at the root. Beyond the
river we traversed an extensive swamp bounded by woods. In the evening we
crossed the Swan Lake, about six miles in breadth and eight in length,
and halted on its south side for the night, twenty-four miles
South-South-West of Cumberland House.
At four in the morning of the 24th we continued the journey and crossed
some creeks in the woods and another large swamp. These swamps are
covered with water in summer to the depth of several feet which arises
from the melted snow from the higher grounds. The tracks of foxes,
wolves, wolverines and martens were very numerous. The people employed in
carrying meat set traps on their way out and take possession of their
captures at their return, for which they receive a sum from the Company
proportioned to the value of the fur.
In the evening we crossed the Goose Lake which is a little longer than
Swan Lake and afterwards the river Sepanach, a branch of the Saskatchewan
forming an island extending thirty miles above and forty below Cumberland
House. We turned to the westward on the Root River which enters the
Sepanach and halted on its banks, having made in direct distance not more
than twenty miles since the 23rd.
We passed the Shoal Lake on the 25th and then marched twelve miles
through woods and swamps to a hunting tent of the Indians. It was
situated in a grove of large poplars and would have been no unpleasant
residence if we could have avoided the smoke. A heavy gale from the
westward with snow confined us for several days to this tent. On the 30th
two Indians arrived, one of whom, named the Warrior, was well known at
the House. We endeavoured to prevail upon them to set out in quest of
moose which they agreed to do on receiving some rum. Promises were of no
avail; the smallest present gratification is preferred to the certainty
of ample reward at another period; an unfailing indication of strong
animal passions and a weak understanding. On our compliance with their
demand they departed.
The next day I went to the Warrior's tent distant about eleven miles. The
country was materially changed: the pine had disappeared and gentle
slopes with clumps of large poplars formed some pleasing groups: willows
were scattered over the swamps. When I entered the tent the Indians
spread a buffalo robe before the fire and desired me to sit down. Some
were eating, others sleeping, many of them without any covering except
the breechcloth and a blanket over the shoulders, a state in which they
love to indulge themselves till hunger drives them forth to the chase.
Besides the Warrior's family there was that of another hunter named
Long-legs whose bad success in hunting had reduced him to the necessity
of feeding on moose leather for three weeks when he was compassionately
relieved by the Warrior. I was an unwilling witness of the preparation of
my dinner by the Indian women. They cut into pieces a portion of fat
meat, using for that purpose a knife and their teeth. It was boiled in a
kettle and served in a platter made of birch bark from which, being
dirty, they had peeled the surface. However the flavour of good moose
meat will survive any process that it undergoes in their hands except
smoking.
Having provided myself with some drawing materials I amused the Indians
with a sketch of the interior of the tent and its inhabitants. An old
woman who was relating with great volubility an account of some quarrel
with the traders at Cumberland House broke off from her narration when
she perceived my design, supposing perhaps that I was employing some
charm against her; for the Indians have been taught a supernatural dread
of particular pictures. One of the young men drew with a piece of
charcoal a figure resembling a frog on the side of the tent and, by
significantly pointing at me, excited peals of merriment from his
companions. The caricature was comic, but I soon fixed their attention by
producing my pocket compass and affecting it with a knife. They have
great curiosity which might easily be directed to the attainment of
useful knowledge. As the dirt accumulated about these people was visibly
of a communicative nature I removed at night into the open air where the
thermometer fell to 15 degrees below zero although it was the next day 60
degrees above it.
In the morning the Warrior and his companion arrived; I found that,
instead of hunting, they had passed the whole time in a drunken fit at a
short distance from the tent.
