and the
lake.

It was blowing hard, but we decided to cross to the fort, where
a light had been run up for our guidance, and which, by vigorous
rowing, we reached by midnight. Here Mr. Laird was waiting to
receive us, the other Commissioners having departed for Fort
McMurray and Wahpooskow.

Next morning we saw the lake to better advantage. It is called by
the Chipewyans Kaytaylaytooway, namely, "The Lake of the Marsh,"
corresponding to the Athapuskow of the Crees, corrupted into the
Rabasca of the French voyageurs, and meaning "The Lake of the Reeds."
At one time, it may be mentioned, it was also known as "The Lake
of the Hills," and its great tributary, the Athabasca, was the Elk
River; but these names have not survived.

Chapter VIII

Fort Chipewyan To Fort McMurray.

Chipewyan, it may be remarked, is not a Dene word. It is the name
which was given by the Crees to that branch of the race when they
first came in contact with them, owing to their wearing a peculiar
coat, or tunic, which was pointed both before and behind; now
disused by them, but still worn by the Esquimaux, and, until
recent years, by the Yukon Indians. Though somewhat similar
in sound, it has no connection, it is asserted, with the word
Chippeway, or Ojibway. For all that, the words are perhaps
closely akin. The writer for the accurate use in this narrative
of words in the Cree tongue is under obligation to experts.
When preparing his notes to his drama of "Tecumseh" he was
indebted to his friend, Mr. Thomas McKay, of Prince Albert,
Sask., a master of the Cree language, for the exact origin
and derivation of the words Chippeway and Ojibway. Both are
corruptions of O-cheepo-way, _cheepo_ meaning "tapering," and
_way_ "sound," or "voice." The name was begot of the Ojibway's
peculiar manner of lowering the voice at the end of a sentence.
As "_wyan_" means a skin, it is not improbable that the word
Chipewyan means tapering or "pointed" skin, referring, of course,
to the peculiar garb of the Athapuskow Indians when the Crees
first met with them.

The sites of old posts are to be found all over this region; but
Chipewyan in the beginning of the last century was the great supply
and trading-post of the North-West Company. From Sir John Franklin's
Journal (1820) it would appear that the Hudson's Bay Company had
begun, and, for some reason not given, had ceased trading on Lake
Athabasca, as he says "Fort Wedderburne was a small post built
o