NORTH-WEST CONTINENT OF AMERICA.

joining tribes, the Red-Knives and Chepewyans; they procure, in barter
for marten {kins and a few beaver, fmall pieces of iron, of which they
manufacture knives, by fixing them at the end of a fhort ftick, and with
them and the beaver’s teeth, they finifh all their work. They keep them
in a fheath hanging to their neck, which alfo contains their awls both of
iron and horn.

Their canoes are fmall, pointed at both ends, flat-bottomed and co-
vered in the fore part. They are made of the bark of the birch-tree and
fir-wood, but of fo flight a conftruétion, that the man whom one of thefe

light veflels bears on the water, can, in return, carry it over land. with~

out any difficulty. Itis very feldom that more than one perfon embarks.
in them, nor are they capable of receiving more than two. The
paddles are fix feet long, one half of which is occupied. by a: blade,
of about eight inches wide. Thefe people informed us, that we
had pafled large bodies of Indians who inhabit the mountains on the
Eaft fide of the river.

At four o’clock in the afternoon we embarked, and our Indian ac-
quaintance promifed to remain. on the bank of the river till the fall, in
cafe we fhould return. Our courfe was Weft-South-Welt, and we foon
paffed the Great Bear Lake River, which is of a confiderable depth, and.
an hundred yards wide: its water ts clear, and has the greenifh hue of the
fea. We had not proceeded more.than fix miles when we were obliged
to land for the night, in confequence of an heavy guft of wind, accom-
panied with rain. We encamped beneath a rocky hill, on the top of

which, according to the information of our guide, it blew a florm every

day