action. Indians hunting there were surprised by a great shower of
ashes all over the country, thick enough to track moose by, whilst
others in canoes were bewildered in dense clouds of smoke. Dr. Wade,
a traveller who had just come in from Loon River, said he had
discovered three orifices, or "wells," as he called them, out of
which he thought the ashes might have been ejected. As there were
no forest fires to account for the phenomena, they were rather
puzzling.

We had begun taking depositions almost as soon as we arrived, and
had a very busy time, working late and early in order to get away
by the first of August. There were some interesting people here,
"Old Lizotte" and his wife in particular. He was another of the
"Ancient Mariners" who had left Lachine fifty-five years before
with Governor Simpson--a man still of unshaken nerve and muscles
as hard as iron. One by one these old voyageurs are passing away,
and with them and their immediate successors the tradition
perishes.

There was another character on the Vermilion stage, namely, old
King Beaulieu. His father was a half-breed who had been brought
up amongst the Dog Ribs and Copper Indians, and some eighty years
back had served as an interpreter at Fort Chipewyan. It was he
who at Fort Wedderburne sketched for Franklin with charcoal on
the floor the route to the Coppermine River, the sketch being
completed to and along the coast by Black Meat, an old Chipewyan
Indian. King Beaulieu himself was Warburton Pike's right-hand man
in his trip to the Barren Lands. He had his own story, of course,
about the sportsman, which we utterly discredited. He had joined
the Indian Treaty here, but repented, almost flinging his payment
in our face, and demanding scrip instead. One of his sons asked
me if the law against killing buffalo had not come to an end. I
said, "No! the law is stricter than ever--very dangerous now to kill
buffalo." Asking him what he thought the band numbered, he said,
"About six hundred," and added, "What are we poor half-breeds to
do if we cannot shoot them?" Pointing out the abundance of moose
in the country, and that if they shot the buffalo they would soon
be exterminated, he still grumbled, and repeated, "What are we
poor half-breeds to do?" I have no doubt whatever that they do
shoot them, since the band is reported to have diminished to about
250 head. Immediate steps should certainly be taken to punish and
prevent poaching, or this band, the