Chapter XII: Siberia and Kamchatka 275 (6)

The children began comparing words in the vocabulary in Mr. Gallatin’s book, and trying to learn them. Here is the Indian for “man,” from one language of each of the nine great Eastern races. Mr. Gallatin gives specimens of forty-four languages, which are all grouped under these nine divisions:--

MAN in a language of

_Eskimaux_ is TUAK.
_Athapescans_ is TENNEE.
_Algonkins_ is WOSKETOMP.

And, among Algonkins, the children took the Massachusetts language, so as to know what Blanche’s “nice” Waban said.

_Iroquois_ is UNGUOH.
_Sioux_ is WONGAHAH.
_Catawbas_ is YABRECHA.
_Cherokees_ is ASKAYA.
_Choctaws_ is HOTTOK NOKNI.
_Muskhogees_ is ISTAHOUANUAH.

The _Pawnees_, west of these divisions, called “man” TSAEKSH.

“And now,” said Uncle Fritz, who had been looking among his Arctic books, “if you want to find about your nice Algonkins of Hudson’s Bay and their neighbors, look at my marks in Hearne’s Travels here.”

“I remember in an old atlas the Arctic Ocean was marked ‘Sea seen by Mr. Hearne.’”

“This is that man. On the night between July 17 and July 18, 1771, while your grandfather, Tom, was discussing with other assembly-men here in Boston, how they should circumvent Gov. Hutchinson, Hearne, by the light of a sun which was above the horizon, was making the drawing from which this map which I showed you was made. And I am sorry to say your ‘nice’ Algonkins, who were with him, were destroying some tents they found of Northern Indians.

“Now you will find some curious things in Hearne’s book.”

And the children followed Uncle Fritz’s book-marks and read these passages:--

[Sidenote: 1771.]

When on the northwest side of Seal River I asked Captain Chawchinahaw
the distance and probable time it would take before we could reach
the main woods, which he assured me would not exceed four or five
days’ journey. This put both me and my companions in good spirits,
and we continued our course between the west by north and northwest,
in daily expectation of arriving at those woods, which we were told
would furnish us with everything the country affords. These accounts
were so far from being true that, after we had walked double the time
here mentioned, no signs of woods were to be seen in the direction we
were then steering, but we had frequently seen the looming of woods
to the southwest.

The cold being now very intense, our small stock of English
provisions all expended, and not the least thing to be got on
the bleak hills, we had for some time been walking on; it became
necessary to strike more to the westward, which we accordingly did,
and the next evening arrived at some small patches of low, scrubby
woods, where we saw the tracks of several deer and killed a few
partridges. The road we had traversed for many days before was in
general so rough and stony that our sledges were daily breaking, and
to add to the inconveniency the land was so barren as not to afford
us materials for repairing them; but the few woods we now fell in
with amply supplied us with necessaries for those repairs, and as
we were then enabled each night to pitch proper tents, our lodging
was much more comfortable than it had been for many nights before
while we were on the barren grounds, where, in general, we thought
ourselves well off if we could scrape together as many shrubs as
would make a fire. But it was scarcely ever in our power to make any
other defence against the weather than by digging a hole in the snow
down to the moss, wrapping ourselves up in our clothing and lying
down in it, with our sledges set up edgeways to windward.... By this
time I found that Captain Chawchinahaw had not the prosperity of
the undertaking at heart; he often painted the difficulties in the
worst colors, took every method to dishearten me and my European
companions, and several times hinted his desire of our returning back
to the factory. But, finding I was determined to proceed he took such
methods as he thought would be most likely to answer his end; one
of which was that of not administering toward our support, so that
we were a considerable time without any other subsistence but what
our two home-guard Indians procured, and the little that I and the
two European men could kill, which was very disproportionate to our
wants, as we had to provide for several women and children who were
with us. Chawchinahaw finding that this kind of treatment was not
likely to complete his design, and that we were not to be starved
into compliance, at length influenced several of the best Northern
Indians to desert in the night, who took with them several bags of my
ammunition, some pieces of iron-work, such as hatchets, ice-chisels,
files, etc., as well as several other useful articles. When I became
acquainted with this piece of villany, I asked Chawchinahaw the
reason of such behavior. To which he answered that he knew nothing
of the affair, but as that was the case it would not be prudent, he
said, for us to proceed any farther, adding that he and all the rest
of his countrymen were going to strike off another way in order to
join the remainder of their wives and families; and, after giving us
a short account of how to steer our course for the nearest part of
Seal River, which he said would be our best way homeward, he and his
crew delivered me most of the things they had in charge, packed up
their awls, and set out toward the southwest, making the woods ring
with laughter, and left us to consider our unhappy situation, near
two hundred miles from Prince of Wales’s fort, all heavily laden,
and our strength and spirits greatly reduced by hunger and fatigue.
Our situation at that time, though very alarming, would not permit
us to spend much time in reflection, so we loaded our sledges to the
best advantage, but were obliged to throw away some bags of shot and
ball, and immediately set out on our return. In the course of the
day’s walk we were fortunate enough to kill several partridges, for
which we were all very thankful, as it was the first meat we had had
for several days; indeed, for the five preceding days we had not
killed as much as amounted to half a partridge for each man, and
some days had not a single mouthful. While we were in this distress
the Northern Indians were by no means in want, for as they always
walked foremost they had ten times the chance to kill partridges,
rabbits, or any other thing which was to be met with than we had.
Besides this advantage they had great stocks of flour, oatmeal,
and other English provisions, which they had embezzled out of my
stock during the early part of the journey, and as one of my home
Indians, called Mackachy, and his wife, who is a Northern Indian
woman, always resorted to the Northern Indians’ tents, where they
got amply supplied with provisions when neither I nor my men had a
single mouthful, I have great reason to suspect they had a principal
hand in the embezzlement; indeed, both the man and his wife were
capable of committing any crime, however diabolical. In our course
down Seal River we met a stranger, a Northern Indian, on a hunting
excursion, and though he had not met with any success that day yet
he kindly invited us to his tent, saying he had plenty of venison
at my service, and told the Southern Indians that as there were two
or three beaver-houses near his tent, he should be glad of their
assistance in taking them, for there was only one man with three
women at the tent.

Though we were at that time far from being in want of provisions, yet
we accepted his offer, and set off with our new guide for his tent,
which, by a comparative distance, he told us, was not above five
miles from the place where we met him, but we found it to be nearer
fifteen, so that it was the middle of the night before we arrived at
it. When we drew near the tent the usual signal for the approach of
strangers was given by firing a gun or two, which was immediately
answered by the man at the tent. On our arrival at the door the good
man of the house came out, shook me by the hand, and welcomed us to
his tent, but as it was too small to contain us all he ordered his
women to assist us in pitching our tent, and in the mean time invited
me and as many of my crew as his little habitation could contain,
and regaled us with the best in the house. The pipe went round pretty
briskly, and the conversation naturally turned on the treatment
we had received from Chawchinahaw and his gang, which was always
answered by our host with “Ah! if I had been there, it should not
have been so!” But, notwithstanding his hospitality on the present
occasion, he would most assuredly have acted the same part as the
others had done, if he had been of the party....

When the Indians design to impound deer they look out for one of the
paths in which a number of them have trod, and which is observed to
be still frequented by them. When these paths cross a lake, a wide
river, or a barren plain, they are found to be much the best for the
purpose, and if the path run through a cluster of woods capable of
affording materials for building a pound, it adds considerably to
the commodiousness of the situation. The pound is built by making
a strong fence with brushy trees, without observing any degree of
regularity, and the work is continued to any extent, according to
the pleasure of the builders. I have seen some that were not less
than a mile round, and am informed that there are others still more
extensive. The door, or entrance of the pound, is not larger than a
common gate, and the inside is so crowded with small counter-hedges
as very much to resemble a maze, in every opening of which they
set a snare, made with thongs of parchment deer-skins well twisted
together, which are amazingly strong. One end of the snare is usually
made fast to a growing pole, but if no one of a sufficient size
can be found near the place where the snare is to be set, a loose
pole is substituted in its room, which is always of such size and
length that a deer cannot drag it far before it gets entangled among
the other woods, which are all left standing except what is found
necessary for making the fence, hedges, etc.

The pound being thus prepared, a row of small brushwood is stuck up
in the snow on each side the door or entrance, and these hedge-rows
are continued along the open part of the lake, river, or plain, where
neither stick nor stump besides is to be seen, which makes them the
more distinctly observed. These poles, or brushwood, are generally
placed at the distance of fifteen or twenty yards from each other,
and ranged in such a manner as to form two sides of a long acute
angle, growing gradually wider in proportion to the distance they
extend from the entrance of the pound, which sometimes is not less
than two or three miles; while the deer’s path is exactly along the
middle, between the two rows of brushwood. Indians employed on this
service always pitch their tent on or near an eminence that affords a
commanding prospect of the path leading to the pound, and when they
see any deer going that way, men, women, and children walk along
the lake or riverside under cover of the woods till they get behind
them, then step forth to open view, and proceed towards the pound in
the form of a crescent. The poor timorous deer, finding themselves
pursued and at the same time taking the two rows of brushy poles to
be two ranks of people stationed to prevent their passing on either
side, run straight forward in the path till they get into the pound.
The Indians then close in and block up the entrance with some bushy
trees that have been cut down and lie at hand for that purpose. The
deer being thus enclosed the women and children walk round the
pound to prevent them from breaking or jumping over the fence, while
the men are employed spearing such as are entangled in the snares,
and shooting with bows and arrows those which remain loose in the
pound....

Agreeably to my instructions, I smoked my calumet of peace with the
Copper Indians, who seemed highly pleased on the occasion; and, from
a conversation held on the subject of my journey, I found they were
delighted with the hopes of having a European settlement in the
neighborhood, and seemed to have no idea that any impediment could
prevent such a scheme from being carried into execution. Climates
and seasons had no weight with them, nor could they see where the
difficulty lay in getting there; for though they acknowledged that
they had never seen the sea at the mouth of the Copper River clear
of ice, yet they could see nothing that should hinder a ship from
approaching it, and they innocently enough observed that the water
was always so smooth between the ice and shore that even small boats
might get there with great ease and safety. How a ship was to get
between the ice and the shore never once occurred to them.

Whether from hospitality, or from the great advantages which they
expected to reap by my discoveries, I know not; but I must confess
that their civility far exceeded what I could expect from so
uncivilized a tribe, and I was exceedingly sorry that I had nothing
of value to offer them. However, such articles as I had I distributed
among them, and they were thankfully received by them. Though they
have some European commodities among them, which they purchase
from the Northern Indians, the same articles from the hands of an
Englishman were more prized. As I was the first whom they had ever
seen, and in all probability might be the last, it was curious to see
how they flocked about me, and expressed as much desire to examine me
from top to toe as a European naturalist would a nondescript animal.
They, however, found and pronounced me to be a perfect human being,
except in the color of my hair and eyes; the former, they said, was
like the stained hair of a buffalo’s tail, and the latter, being
light, were like those of a gull. The whiteness of my skin also was,
in their opinion, no ornament, as they said it resembled meat which
had been sodden in water till all the blood was extracted. On the
whole, I was viewed as so great a curiosity in this part of the world
that during my stay there, whenever I combed my head, some or other
of them never failed to ask for the hairs that came off, which they
carefully wrapped up, saying, “When I see you again, you shall see
your hair.”...

When a friend for whom they have a particular regard is, as they
suppose, dangerously ill, they have recourse to another extraordinary
superstition, which is no less than that of pretending to swallow
hatchets, ice-chisels, broad bayonets, knives, and the like, out of
a superstitious notion that undertaking such desperate feats will
have some influence in appeasing death, and procure a respite for
their patient. On such extraordinary occasions a conjuring-house is
erected, by driving the ends of four long small sticks, or poles,
into the ground at right angles, so as to form a square of four,
five, six, or seven feet, as may be required. The tops of the poles
are tied together, and all is close covered with a tent-cloth or
other skin, exactly in the shape of a small square tent, except that
there is no vacancy left at the top to admit the light. In the
middle of this tent the patient is laid, and is soon followed by
the conjuror or conjurors. Sometimes five or six of them give their
joint assistance, but before they enter they strip themselves quite
naked, and as soon as they get into the house, the door being well
closed, they kneel round the sick person and begin to blow at the
parts affected, and then in a very short space of time sing and talk
as if conversing with familiar spirits, which they say appear to them
in the shape of different beasts and birds of prey. When they have
had sufficient conference with those necessary agents, or shadows, as
they term them, they ask for the hatchet, bayonet, or the like, which
is always prepared by another person with a long string fastened to
it by the haft, for the convenience of hauling it up again after they
have swallowed it, for they very wisely admit this to be a necessary
precaution, as hard and compact bodies, such as iron and steel, would
be very hard to digest, even by the men who are enabled to swallow
them. Besides, as those tools are in themselves very useful, and not
always to be procured, it would be very ungenerous in the conjurers
to digest them, when it is known that barely swallowing them and
hauling them up again is fully sufficient to answer every purpose
that is expected from them.

At the time when the forty and odd tents of Indians joined us,
one man was so dangerously ill, that it was thought necessary the
conjurers should use some of those wonderful experiments for his
recovery; one of them therefore immediately consented to swallow a
broad bayonet. Accordingly, a conjuring-house was erected in the
manner above described, into which the patient was conveyed, and he
was soon followed by the conjurer, who, after a long preparatory
discourse, and the necessary conference with the familiar spirits,
or shadows, as they call them, advanced to the door and asked for
the bayonet, which was then ready prepared, by having a string tied
to it, and a short piece of wood tied to the other end of the string
to prevent him from swallowing it. I could not help observing that
the length of the bit of wood was not more than the breadth of the
bayonet; however, as it answered the intended purpose, it did equally
well as if it had been as long as a handspike. Though I am not so
credulous as to believe that the conjurer absolutely swallowed the
bayonet, yet I must acknowledge that in the twinkling of an eye he
conveyed it to--God knows where; and the small piece of wood, or one
exactly like it, was confined close to his teeth. He then paraded
back and forth before the conjuring-house for a short time, when he
feigned to be greatly distressed in his stomach and bowels; and,
after making many wry faces, and groaning most hideously, he put his
body into several distorted attitudes very suitable to the occasion.
He then returned to the door of the conjuring-house, and after making
many strong efforts to vomit, by the help of the string he at length,
and after tugging at it for some time, produced the bayonet, which
apparently he hauled out of his mouth, to the no small surprise of
all present. He then looked round with an air of exultation and
strutted into the house, where he renewed his incantations, and
continued them without intermission twenty-four hours. Though I
was not close to his elbow when he performed the above feat, yet
I thought myself near enough to have detected him. Indeed, I must
confess that it appeared to me to be a very nice piece of deception,
especially as it was performed by a man quite naked.

Not long after this sleight-of-hand work was over some of the Indians
asked me what I thought of it, to which I answered that I was too
far off to see it so plain as I could wish, which indeed was no more
than the strictest truth, because I was not near enough to detect the
deception. The sick man, however, soon recovered, and in a few days
afterwards we left that place and proceeded to the southwest.[17]...

I do not remember to have met with any travellers into high northern
latitudes who remarked their having heard the Northern Lights make
any noise in the air as they vary their colors or position, which may
probably be owing to the want of perfect silence at the time they
made their observations. I can positively affirm that in still nights
I have frequently heard them make a rustling sound and crackling
noise, like the waving of a large flag in a fresh gale of wind.
This is not peculiar to the place of which I am now writing, as I
have heard the same noise very plain at Churchill River, and in all
probability it is only for want of attention that it has not been
heard in every part of the northern hemisphere where they have been
known to shine with any degree of lustre....

The beaver being so plentiful the attention of my companions was
chiefly engaged on them, as they not only furnished delicious food,
but their skins proved a valuable acquisition, being a principal
article of trade as well as a serviceable one for clothing, etc. The
situation of the beaver-houses is various. Where the beavers are
numerous they are found to inhabit lakes, ponds, and rivers, as well
as those narrow creeks which connect the numerous lakes with which
this country abounds, but the two latter are generally chosen by them
when the depth of water and other circumstances are suitable, as
they have then the advantage of a current to convey wood and other
necessaries to their habitations, and because, in general, they are
more difficult to be taken than those that are built in standing
water.

There is no one particular part of a lake, pond, river, or creek,
of which the beavers make choice for building their houses on, in
preference to another, for they sometimes build on points, sometimes
in the hollow of a bay, and often on small islands; they always
choose, however, those parts that have such a depth of water as
will resist the frost in winter and prevent it from freezing to
the bottom. The beavers that build their houses in small rivers or
creeks, in which the water is liable to be drained off when the
back supplies are dried up by the frost, are wonderfully taught by
instinct to provide against that evil by making a dam quite across
the river, at a convenient distance from their houses. This I look
upon as the most curious piece of workmanship that is performed by
the beaver; not so much for the neatness of the work as for its
strength and real service, and at the same time it discovers such a
degree of sagacity and foresight in the animal of approaching evils
as is little inferior to that of the human species, and is certainly
peculiar to those animals.

The beaver-dams differ in shape according to the nature of the place
in which they are built. If the water in the river or creek have
but little motion the dam is almost straight, but when the current
is more rapid it is always made with a considerable curve, convex
toward the stream. The materials made use of in those dams are
drift-wood, green willows, birch, and poplars, if they can be got,
also mud and stones intermixed in such a manner as must evidently
contribute to the strength of the dam, but in these dams there is
no other order or method observed, except that of the work being
carried on with a regular sweep, and all the parts being made of
equal strength. In places which have long been frequented by beavers
undisturbed, their dams by frequent repairing become a solid bank,
capable of resisting a great force both of water and ice, and as the
willow, poplar, and birch generally take root and shoot up, they
by degrees form a kind of regular-planted hedge, which I have seen
in some places so tall that birds have built their nests among the
branches.

Though the beaver which build their houses in lakes and other
standing waters may enjoy a sufficient quantity of their favorite
element without the assistance of a dam, the trouble of getting wood
and other necessaries to their habitations without the help of a
current must, in some measure, counterbalance the other advantages
which are reaped from such a situation, for it must be observed that
the beaver which build in rivers and creeks always cut their wood
above their houses so that the current, with little trouble, conveys
it to the place required.

The beaver-houses are built of the same materials as their dams
and are always proportioned in size to the number of inhabitants,
which seldom exceed four old and six or eight young ones; though, by
chance I have seen above double that number. These houses, though not
altogether unworthy of admiration, fall very short of the general
description of them; for, instead of order or regulation being
observed in rearing them, they are of a much ruder structure than
their dams.

Those who have undertaken to describe the inside of beaver-houses
as having several apartments appropriated to various uses, such as
eating, sleeping, store-houses for provisions, etc., must have been
very little acquainted with the subject, or, which is still worse,
guilty of attempting to impose on the credulous by representing the
greatest falsehoods as facts. Many years residence among the Indians,
during which I had an opportunity of seeing hundreds of these houses,
has enabled me to affirm that everything of the kind is entirely
void of truth; for, notwithstanding the sagacity of those animals,
it has never been observed that they aim at any other conveniences
in their houses than to have a dry place to lie on, and there they
usually eat their victuals which they occasionally take out of the
water. It frequently happens that some of the large houses are found
to have one or more partitions, if they deserve that appellation,
but that is no more than a part of the main building left by the
sagacity of the beaver to support the roof. On such occasions it is
common for those different apartments, as some are pleased to call
them, to have no communication with each other except by water;
so that in fact they may be called double or treble houses rather
than different apartments of the same house. I have seen a large
beaver-house built in a small island that had near a dozen apartments
under one roof; and, two or three of these only excepted, none of
them had any communication with each other but by water. As there
were beaver enough to inhabit each apartment it is more than probable
that each family knew its own, and always entered at their own door,
without having any further connection with their neighbors than a
friendly intercourse, and to join their united labors in erecting
their separate habitations and building their dams where required.
It is difficult to say whether their interest on other occasions was
anyways reciprocal.

Travellers who assert that the beaver have two doors to their houses,
one on the land side and the other next the water, seem to be less
acquainted with those animals than others who assign them an elegant
suite of apartments. Such a proceeding would be quite contrary to
their manner of life, and at the same time would render their houses
of no use, either to protect them from their enemies or guard them
against the extreme cold of winter.

The quiquepatches or wolverines are great enemies to the beaver, and
if there were a passage into their houses on the land side would
not leave one of them alive wherever they came. I cannot refrain
from smiling when I read the accounts of different authors who
have written on the economy of these animals, as there seems to be
a contest between them who shall most exceed in fiction. But the
“Compiler of Wonders of Nature and Art” seems, in my opinion, to have
succeeded best in this respect, as he has not only collected all
the fictions into which other writers on the subject have run, but
has so greatly improved on them that little remains to be added to
his account of the beaver, beside a vocabulary of their language, a
code of their laws, and a sketch of their religion, to make it the
most complete natural history of that animal that can possibly be
offered to the public.... To deny that the beaver is possessed of
a very considerable degree of sagacity would be as absurd in me as
it is in those authors who think they cannot allow them too much. I
shall willingly grant them their full share, but it is impossible
for any one to conceive how, or by what means, a beaver, whose whole
height when standing erect does not exceed two feet and a half, or
three feet at most, and whose fore-paws are not much larger than a
half-crown piece, can “drive stakes as thick as a man’s leg into the
ground, three or four feet deep.” Their “wattling those stakes with
twigs” is equally absurd, and their “plastering the inside of their
houses with a composition of mud and straw, and swimming with mud and
straw on their tails” are still more incredible. The form and size
of the animal, notwithstanding all its sagacity, will not admit of
its performing such feats, and it would be as impossible for a beaver
to use its tail as a trowel, except on the surface of the ground on
which it walks, as it would have been for Sir James Thornhill to
have painted the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral without the assistance
of a scaffolding. The joints of their tail will not admit of their
turning it over on their backs on any occasion whatever, as it has
a natural inclination to bend downwards, and it is not without some
considerable exertion that they can keep it from trailing on the
ground. This being the case they cannot sit erect, like a squirrel,
which is their common posture, particularly when eating, or when
they are cleaning themselves as a cat or squirrel does, without
having their tails bent forward between their legs, and which may not
improperly be called their trencher.

So far are the beaver from driving stakes into the ground when
building their houses, that they lay most of the wood crosswise, and
nearly horizontal, and without any other order than that of leaving
a hollow or cavity in the middle; when any unnecessary branches
project inward they cut them off with their teeth, and throw them in
among the rest, to prevent the mud from falling through the roof.
It is a mistaken notion that the wood-work is first completed and
then plastered; for the whole of their houses, as well as their
dams, are from the foundation one mass of wood and mud, mixed with
stones, if they can be procured. The mud is always taken from the
edge of the bank, or the bottom of the creek or pond, near the door
of the house; and though their fore-paws are so small, yet it is
held close up between them, under their throat, that they carry both
mud and stones, while they always drag the wood with their teeth.
All their work is executed in the night, and they are so expeditious
in completing it that in the course of one night I have known them
to have collected as much mud at their houses as to have amounted
to some thousands of their little handfuls, and when any mixture of
grass or straw has appeared in it, it has been, most assuredly, mere
chance, owing to the nature of the ground from which they had taken
it. As to their designedly making a composition for that purpose, it
is entirely void of truth.... As they are seen to walk over their
work and sometimes to give a flap with their tail, particularly when
plunging into the water, this has, without doubt, given rise to the
vulgar opinion that they use their tails as a trowel, with which they
plaster their houses, whereas that flapping of the tail is no more
than a custom, which they always preserve, even when they become tame
and domestic, and more particularly so when they are startled....

When the beaver which are situated in a small river or creek are
to be taken the Indians sometimes find it necessary to stake the
river across to prevent them from passing, after which they endeavor
to find out all their holes or places of retreat in the banks.
This requires much practice and experience to accomplish, and is
performed in the following manner: Every man being furnished with
an ice-chisel, lashes it to the end of a small staff about four or
five feet long; he then walks along the edge of the banks and keeps
knocking his chisels against the ice. Those who are well acquainted
with that kind of work well know by the sound of the ice when they
are opposite to any of the beaver’s holes or vaults. As soon as they
suspect any they cut a hole through the ice big enough to admit an
old beaver, and in this manner proceed till they have found out all
their places of retreat, or at least as many of them as possible.
While the principal men are thus employed, some of the understrappers
and the women and children are busy in breaking open the house, which
at times is no easy task, for I have known these houses to be five
and six feet thick, and one in particular was more than eight feet
thick on the crown. When the beaver find that their habitations are
invaded they fly to the holes in the banks for shelter, and on being
perceived by the Indians, which is easily done by attending to the
motion of the water, they block up the entrance with stakes of wood,
and then haul the beaver out of its hole, either by hand, if they
can reach it, or with a large hook made for that purpose, which is
fastened to the end of a long stick.

The beaver cannot keep under water long at a time, so that when their
houses are broken open, and all their places of retreat discovered,
they have but one choice left, as it may be called, either to be
taken in their houses or their vaults. In general they prefer the
latter; for where one beaver is taken in the house many thousands are
taken in their vaults in the banks....

On the eleventh of January, as some of my companions were hunting,
they saw the track of a strange snow-shoe, which they followed, and
at a considerable distance came to a little hut where they discovered
a young woman sitting alone. As they found that she understood their
language, they brought her with them to the tents. On examination
she proved to be one of the Western Dog-ribbed Indians, who had been
taken prisoner by the Athapuscow Indians in the summer of 1770, and
in the following summer, when they were near this part, she had
eloped from them with an intent to return to her own country; but the
distance being so great, and having, after she was taken prisoner,
been carried in a canoe the whole way, the turnings and windings of
the rivers and lakes were so numerous that she forgot the track,
so she built the hut in which we found her to protect her from the
weather during the winter, and here she had lived from the first
setting in of the fall.

From her account of the moons past since her elopement, it appeared
that she had been near seven months without seeing a human face,
during all which time she had supported herself very well by snaring
partridges, rabbits, and squirrels; she had also killed two or three
beaver and some porcupines. The methods practised by this poor
creature to procure a livelihood were truly admirable, and are great
proofs that necessity is the real mother of invention. When the few
deer-sinews that she had an opportunity of taking with her were all
expended in making snares and sewing her clothing, she had nothing
to supply their place but the sinews of the rabbits’ legs and feet;
these she twisted together for the purpose with great dexterity and
success. The rabbits, etc., which she caught in those snares not only
furnished her with a comfortable subsistence, but of the skins she
made a suit of neat and warm clothing for the winter. It is scarcely
possible to conceive that a person in her forlorn situation could
be so composed as to be capable of contriving or executing anything
that was not absolutely necessary to her existence; but there were
sufficient proofs that she had extended her care much farther, as all
her clothing, besides being calculated for real service, showed great
taste, and exhibited no little variety of ornament. The materials,
though rude, were very curiously wrought, and so judiciously placed
as to make the whole of her garb have a very pleasing, though rather
romantic appearance.

Her leisure hours from hunting had been employed in twisting the
inner rind or bark of willows into small lines, like net-twine, of
which she had some hundred fathoms by her; with this she intended to
make a fishing-net as soon as the spring advanced. Five or six inches
of an iron hoop made into a knife, and the shank of an arrow-head of
iron, which served her as an awl, were all the metals this poor woman
had with her when she eloped, and with these implements she had made
herself complete snow-shoes and several other articles. Her method
of making a fire was equally singular and curious, having no other
materials for that purpose than two hard, sulphurous stones. These,
by long friction and hard knocking, produced a few sparks, which
at length communicated to some touchwood; but as this method was
attended with great trouble, and not always with success, she did not
suffer her fire to go out all winter.

The singularity of the circumstance, the comeliness of her person,
and her accomplishments, occasioned a contest between several of the
Indians of my party who should have her for a wife, and the poor girl
was actually won and lost at wrestling by near half a score of them
the same evening....

From the middle to the latter end of March, and, again, in the
beginning of April, though the thaw was not general, yet in the
middle of the day it was very considerable. It commonly froze hard
in the nights, and the young men took the advantage of the mornings,
when the snow was hard crusted over, and ran down a good many moose;
for in those situations a man with a good pair of snow-shoes will
scarcely make any impression on the snow, while the moose, and even
the deer, will break through it at every step up to the belly.
Notwithstanding this, however, it is very seldom that the Indians
attempt to run deer down. The moose are so tender-footed and so
short-winded that a good runner will generally tire them in less
than a day, and very frequently in six or eight hours; though I have
known some of the Indians continue the chase for two days before
they could come up with and kill the game. On those occasions the
Indians, in general, only take with them a knife or bayonet, and
a little bag containing a set of fire-tackle, and are as lightly
clothed as possible; some of them will carry a bow and two or three
arrows, but I never knew any of them to take a gun, except such as
had been blown or bursted, and the barrels cut quite short, which,
when reduced to the least possible size to be capable of doing any
service, must be too great a weight for a man to run with in his hand
for so many hours together.

When the poor moose are incapable of making farther speed they stand
and keep their pursuers at bay with their head and forefeet, in the
use of which they are very dexterous, especially the latter, so that
the Indians who have neither a bow or arrows, nor a short gun with
them, are generally obliged to lash their knives or bayonets to the
end of a long stick and stab the moose at a distance. For want of
this necessary precaution some of the boys and foolhardy young men
who have attempted to rush in upon them have frequently received such
unlucky blows from their forefeet as to render their recovery very
doubtful....

When two parties of Indians meet, the ceremonies which pass between
them are quite different from those made use of in Europe on similar
occasions; for when they advance within twenty or thirty yards of
each other they make a full halt, and in general lie or sit down on
the ground, and do not speak for some minutes. At length one of them,
generally an elderly man, if any be in company, breaks silence by
acquainting the other party with every misfortune that has befallen
him and his companions from the last time they had seen or heard
of each other, and also of all deaths and other calamities that
have befallen any other Indians during the same period, at least as
many particulars as have come to his knowledge. When the first has
finished his oration another aged orator, if there be any, belonging
to the other party, relates, in like manner, all the bad news that
has come to his knowledge, and both parties never fail to plead
poverty and famine on all occasions. If these orations contain any
news that in the least affect the other party it is not long before
some of them begin to sigh and sob, and soon after break out into
a loud cry, which is generally accompanied by most of the grown
persons of both sexes, and sometimes it is common to see them all,
men, women, and children, in one universal howl. The young girls
in particular are often very obliging on those occasions, for I
never remember to have seen a crying match but the greatest part
of the company assisted, although some of them had no other reason
for it but that of seeing their companions do the same. When the
first transports of grief subside they advance by degrees, and both
parties mix with each other, the men always associating with the men
and the women with the women. If they have any tobacco among them,
the pipes are passed round pretty freely, and the conversation soon
becomes general. As they are on their first meeting acquainted with
all the bad news, they have by this time nothing left but good,
which in general has so far the predominance over the former that
in less than half an hour nothing but smiles and cheerfulness are
to be seen on every face, and if they be not really in want small
presents of provisions, ammunition, and other articles often take
place, sometimes by way of a gift, but more frequently by way of
trying whether they cannot get a greater present. They have but few
diversions; the chief is shooting at a mark with bow and arrows, and
another out-door game, called Holl, which in some measure resembles
playing with quoits, only it is done with short clubs, sharp at
one end. They also amuse themselves with dancing, which is always
performed in the night. Besides these diversions they have another
simple indoor game, which is that of taking a bit of wood, a button,
or any other small thing, and after shifting it from hand to hand
several times, asking their antagonist, “Which hand is it in?” When
playing at this game, which only admits of two persons, each of
them have ten, fifteen, or twenty small chips of wood like matches,
and when one of the players guesses right he takes one of his
antagonist’s sticks and lays it to his own, and he that first gets
all the sticks from the other in that manner is said to win the game,
which is generally for a single load of powder and shot, an arrow, or
some other thing of inconsiderable value.

IX.

HUMBOLDT’S TRAVELS.

[Sidenote: 1881.]

One of the boys said that Hearne’s Travels seemed to bring them quite within our own time. The stately great quarto is dedicated to the Hudson’s Bay Company, and in his holidays last summer Bedford had seen packages addressed to their agents, lying at the station at Montreal.

Tom Rising said that in the preface to Hearne’s Travels there was a reference to a lively quarrel between him and Mr. Dalrymple.

Col. Ingham said that Mr. Dalrymple was one of the map-makers who stayed at home, and had to plot or put down the observations of the men who travelled. Hearne’s latitudes and longitudes did not prove to be quite exact. But, as to the main point, that there was a Northern Ocean somewhere near the parallel of 70°, he settled that matter.

“But now,” said he, “you begin to come to the time when geography itself becomes a science. You had better look into some of the magnificent Humboldt books. You all know his name, and what he did is what you would all like to do. Here he was, a young German gentleman, with plenty of money and a taste for natural history. His family was important enough for him to secure good recommendations among diplomatists and such people. He had the favor of governments, and he had money enough to go where he pleased.

“At that time, almost the first time, the Spanish government relaxed a little the secrecy in which it had tried to keep all the world ignorant of all its immense possessions. They gave Humboldt in 1799 full power to go where he chose in their provinces in America and the East Indies. Humboldt went, and spent nearly five years in America.

“He was in Washington in 1804, and saw President Jefferson, who was himself a bit of a naturalist.”

The boys and girls got down different volumes of Humboldt’s Travels. Some of them are very elegant, and there is one atlas of prints of curious things he saw in Mexico and South America, in which, to their joy, they found the origins of many pictures still extant in the school geographies.

Laura was looking at his Life. “Why, Uncle Fritz, they were educated by our dear old Campe.”

“Who is our dear old Campe?” said Emma. “I never heard of him.”

“Campe is--oh, yes, you have, only you forget--he is the man who made the little Robinson Crusoe.”

“Oh, he is the stone-axe man?” asked Tom Rising.

Yes, he is the stone-axe man. What the children meant was this,--that he wrote a Robinson Crusoe which some of them had read, in which Robinson Crusoe had a stone axe. In the original Robinson Crusoe, by the Englishman, Defoe, Robinson was supplied with the necessaries of life from the wreck of the ship, just as “Crusoe in New York” was supplied from the old junk-shop which had that name. But the French philosopher, Rousseau, said that for a book of education it should show how a man would fare who had actually nothing but his hands.

So this German minister Campe, who had been a chaplain in the army, and had become a teacher of youth, in the hope of thus ameliorating the condition of mankind, wrote his famous Robinson the Younger. I believe he does let Robinson have a jackknife when he is thrown upon the beach, though that violates the principle. When it becomes necessary for Robinson to cut down trees he walks along on the beach, and there he finds a stone sharp on one edge and in the shape of an axe-head. What is more, by great good luck the water has worn through a hole in the stone just where the handle of the axe should be fitted. So Robinson put a handle into the stone and went on his way conquering and to conquer.

This absurdity of the accidental axe-head so impressed the children that they always called the book the stone-axe Robinson. Still it was a book they liked to take down from the Colonel’s shelves, and it would be a good book now to put in public libraries. The catalogue title of it in English is “The New Robinson Crusoe.” In Germany it is better known, probably, than the original. In the early editions it takes the form of a conversation between a father and his children.

Tom Rising said, “That virtuous boy, who asks the priggish questions, must have been Alexander von Humboldt’s brother.”

“And the stupid boy,” said Bob, “who hardly knows the difference between a needle and a fish-hook, he is Alexander von Humboldt himself. Stupid boys, if they are only stupid enough to be neglected by the schoolmasters, always turn out remarkable men.”

The children laughed at Bob’s frank confession of his theory of life, but Col. Ingham, who feared that the talk was becoming heretical, bade Fanchon read some of Humboldt’s own accounts of his notion in travelling.

HUMBOLDT’S JOURNEY TO THE EQUINOCTIAL REGIONS.

[Sidenote: 1799.]

From my earliest youth I felt an ardent desire to travel into distant
regions seldom visited by Europeans. This desire is characteristic of
a period of our existence when life appears an unlimited horizon, and
when we find an irresistible attraction in the impetuous agitations
of the mind and the image of positive danger. Though educated in a
country which has no direct communication with either the East or
the West Indies; living amidst mountains remote from coasts, and
celebrated for their numerous mines, I felt an increasing passion
for the sea and distant expeditions. Objects with which we are
acquainted only by the animated narrations of travellers have a
peculiar charm; imagination wanders with delight over that which is
vague and undefined, and the pleasures we are deprived of seem to
possess a fascinating power, compared with which all we daily feel in
the narrow circle of sedentary life appears insipid. The taste for
herborization, the study of geology, rapid excursions to Holland,
England, and France, with the celebrated Mr. George Forster, who had
the happiness to accompany Captain Cook in his second voyage round
the globe, contributed to give a determined direction to the plan
of travels which I had formed at eighteen years of age. No longer
deluded by the agitations of a wandering life, I was anxious to
contemplate Nature in all her variety of wild and stupendous scenery;
and the hope of collecting some facts useful to the advancement of
science incessantly impelled my wishes towards the luxuriant regions
of the torrid zone. As personal circumstances then prevented me from
executing the projects by which I was so powerfully influenced, I had
leisure to prepare myself during six years for the observations I
proposed to make on the New Continent, as well as to visit different
parts of Europe, and to explore the lofty chain of the Alps, the
structure of which I might afterwards compare with that of the Andes
of Quito and of Peru....