ates only saved themselves by getting into a
boat that happened fortunately to be at hand. The McKenzie opens about
the end of May, and is ice-bound in November.

The tribes who inhabit the banks of the McKenzie, and the interior
parts of the district, are members of the powerful and numerous
Chippewayan family, and are known by the names of Slaves, Dogribs,
Rabbitskins, and Gens des Montagnes. The Loucheux, or Squint-Eyes,
frequent the post on Peel's River, and speak a different language;
their hunting-grounds are within the Russian boundary, and are
supposed to be rich in fur-bearing animals. The Loucheux have no
affinity with the Chippewayan tribes, nor with their neighbours, the
Esquimaux, with whom, however, they maintain constant intercourse,
though not always of the most friendly kind, violent quarrels
frequently occurring between them. The various dialects spoken by
the other tribes are intelligible to all; in manners, customs, and
personal appearance, there is also the closest similarity.

In one point, however, these tribes differ, not only from the parent
tribe, but from all the other tribes of America;--they treat their
women with the utmost kindness, the men performing all the drudgery
that usually falls to the women. Here the men are the hewers of
wood and drawers of water; they even clear away the snow for the
encampment; and, in short, perform every laborious service. This is
indeed passing strange;--the Chippewayans, and all other Indians,
treat their women with harshness and cruelty; while the women on the
banks of the McKenzie--Scottice--"wear the breeks!" The Rabbitskins
and Slaves are in truth a mild, harmless, and even a timid race; could
it be this softness of disposition that induced the weaker sex first
to dispute, and finally to assume the supremacy?--or what cause can be
assigned for a trait so peculiar in this remotely situated portion of
the Indian race?

These tribes clothe themselves with the skins of rabbits, and feed on
their flesh; when the rabbits fail, they are reduced to the greatest
distress both for food and raiment. I saw a child that remained naked
for several days after its birth, its parents having devoured every
inch of their miserable dress that could be spared from their bodies:
it was at last swaddled in crow's skins!

These two tribes generally live near the banks of the great rivers,
and seem disposed to pass their pilgrimage on earth with as little
toil, and as litt