Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/238

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
208
TRANSACTIONS AT

vations tolerably wooded; and every three or four miles occurs a small lake, contained in the hollows between the hills. In these low sheltered spots, where we generally made our encampments, the largest trees grow, and I noticed two or three that attained a diameter of eighteen inches, which is large timber for such a barren, rocky country. The whole region is apparently of primitive formation; the few rocks, left exposed by the snow, consisting of red and grey granite. In this direction I travelled to within view of M'Tavish Bay with the party of an Indian named Edahadelly, who, to decoy the deer, carried a pair of antlers before him, with which, and a bundle of willow twigs, he used to imitate the motions of the living animal; his own dress, made of its hairy hide, completing the deception.

But to return to the aifairs of the establishment. The houses were constructed on a very small scale, to suit our means and the severity of the climate. They consisted of a log building, forty feet long, and sixteen broad, containing a chamber at either end for Mr. Dease and myself, separated by a hall, sixteen feet square, which answered the threefold purpose of our eating-room, kitchen, and an apartment of all work for the Indians. There was, indeed,