The Brookhaven leader., 1885-10-08
IN A sU5-ARcTIc LAND.
The 81. Lawrence Gulf Country - indians
and Mu quitoes-Old qaaws
L. d r..


and Mu quitoes-Old qaaws-
etter Il Br ,oklyn Fsgie.l
Cn the morning of the Fourth of July
We reached Seven Islands bay, forlorn
village, and Hudson Bay company sta
ton, where we were visited by Mr..
" lison the agent, an able an intelligent
man, who resides here with his wife.
they eing the only educated persons in
the place. A few steps away from his
residence connected with his house by a
plank walk, is the old hudson Bay trad
ing house, where the In ians have
brought their furs and received co nmod
tiles in exchange for them for almost a
century. 1t is in shape and dimensions
not unlike New ngland barn,
square, unadorned, with peaked
shingled root and doors and window
castings painted a dull, weather beaten
red-a type of structure which l have
noted as characteristic of the Hudson
Bay company, from Labrador to the
Saskatchewan.
Mr.. Wilson showed US this ancient
magazine and told us of the ways of the
company with the Indians. In the
lower story are ammunition, twine for
ItbS, ClOtl, tObdCNO, LhCuiSihCSS liOuia
lard, pork, sugar molasSes and the like,
and on the loor above, under the slop-
ing roof, blankets, guns, handkerchiefs,
ornaments and odds and ends dJar to
the aboriginal heart, together with the
furs brought in from the winter for
ages. otter, bear, martin, silver gray
and yellow 70; :, lynx, wolverine, beaver
are beautifully prepared. the fur turned
insde-the outside of the skins smooth
and fine as parchment.
During the summer months the In
dians, or many OF them, remain near
the station, where they obtain needed
supplies from the company, which are
balanced against their winter catch of
furs. When the fall comes they load
their canoes with supplies and material
for their winter campaign and depart
up the river into the interior, where
they build sheltered camps before the
snow sets in, from which the men visit
their wide circle of traps periodically
through the winter, travelling on snow
shoes, sometimes as much as thirty or
forty miles day They are a hardy
and enduring race, though in looking
about their wigwams, and contem-
plating them through clouds of IiieS
and mosquitoes, ! could not help re-
garding them as a very inferior ahorig,
NAL type, in no way eIual i'll physical
proportions or in dignity of carriage to
the I hippewaS of the axe superior re
gion, or the Sioux and other tribes of
the plains.
They are docile, however, and teach
able, much under the influence of the
priests, who come hither periodically
and administer to them the rites of the
church, for which they evince pro
found and sincere reverence. This
moral in ,uence has wrought on their
conduct; they won steal any more, az
a rule, and don t lie as much as they
did; when they leave their temporary
camps in the forest they carefully eX
tinguish the embers of their camp fires
so that the forest shall not he burned
up. lormerly they did not care rap,
so long as they personally were moi
singed by the con iagration. which theil
own carclessness had kindled. only 9
few years since eighty miles of forest
along the shore was consumed in one OF
these accidental fires, which no one can
entirely prevent.
i
qualities of worth resided in him could
not see in the visible Indian presented
to me by the wigwams of seven island
bay anything which gave promising
tokens thereof. He seemed to wear
rather hang-dog, dirty look, had a
sickly earth-volored complexion, and
was somewhat sham bling and slouching
in his attitude and movements. ct
Mr.. Wilson said some of these men were
intrepid and successful hunters, full OF
pluck, tenacity and endurance. The
men were generally idle, smoking their
pipes, while all the women, except those
who had nursing papooses, were at some
sort of work.
Little fires rolling out a thick smoke
burned at the entrance of these wig
vans, sometimes inside to keep the
mosquitoes away, though that ACHE g.
ment seems hopeless, so beleaguering
and myriad were they, almost clouding
the heavens and filling the air with a
pervasiye hum, which knew stretched
across the forests to the limits of sum
mer and the edge of the polar frost-an
insect zone more terrible to penetrate
than the wastes of Cobb, or the sand
!
took the captain and three volunteer
aids to keep them away from our artist
while he was making sketch of wig
wan, and even with that defense he
was nearly consumed. Yet the Indians
didn t seem TO mind it.
could not see that the cluster of
bright eyed boys which gathered around
US and looked at US curiously, yet tim
idly, noticed them in the least, nor those
two hideous old uaws, with faces like
wrinkled leather, who sat beside mas
cent canoe sewing its bark sides to-
gsthsr with threads of deer sinew
though indeed the latter was little
wonder, as their skins seemed imperNi-
Gus TO the bite of any insect which has
hitherto straddled into the knowledge
of mankind. They stitched away with
dim eyes, while the sun went down and
shot its last beam across their witch
like faces, in no way mindful of US or
our curious contemplation of them.
Weird women. With countenances as
sharp and unearthly as those that
fronted Macbeth upon the heath.
can see them, yet spectrally transfg-
ured in that purple ood of sunset, its
luster but lifting them into higher
line of ugliness and making them look