[Since these notes were made, Thomas
Anderson has "crossed the long portage."]
The following are among the interesting animal notes:
Cougar. Ogushen, the Indian trapper at Lac des Quinze, found tracks
of a large cat at that place in the fall of 1879 (?). He saw them
all winter on South Bay of that Lake. One day he came on the place
where it had killed a Caribou. When he came back about March he saw
it. It came toward him. It was evidently a cat longer than a Lynx
and it had a very long tail, which swayed from side to side as
it walked. He shot it dead, but feared to go near it believing it
to be a Wendigo. It had a very bad smell. Anderson took it to be
a Puma. It was unknown to the Indian. Ogushen was a first-class
hunter and Anderson firmly believes he was telling the truth. Lac
des Quinze is 15 miles north of Lake Temiscamingue.
Seals. In old days, he says, small seals were found in Lake Ashkeek.
This is 50 miles north-east from Temiscamingue. It empties into
Kippewa River, which empties into Temiscamingue. He never saw one,
but the Indians of the vicinity told of it as a thing which commonly
happened 50 or 60 years ago. Ashkeek is Ojibwa for seal. It is
supposed that they wintered in the open water about the Rapids.
White Foxes, he says, were often taken at Cree Lake. Indeed one or
two were captured each year. Cree Lake is 190 miles south-east of
Fort Chipewyan. They are also taken at Fort Chipewyan from time to
time. One was taken at Fondulac, east end of Lake Athabaska, and
was traded at Smith Landing in 1906. They are found regularly at
Fondulac, the east end of Great Slave Lake, each year.
In the winter of 1885-6 he was to be in charge of Nipigon House,
but got orders beforehand to visit the posts on Albany River. He
set out from Fort William on Lake Superior on his 1,200-mile trip
through the snow with an Indian whose name was Joe Eskimo, from
Manitoulin Island, 400 miles away. At Nipigon House he got another
guide, but this one was in bad shape, spitting blood. After three
days' travel the guide said: "I will go to the end if it kills me,
because I have promised, unless I can get you a better guide. At
Wayabimika (Lake Savanne) is an old man named Omeegi; he knows the
road better than I do." When they got there, Omeegi, although very
old and half-blind, was willing to go on condition that they should
not walk too fast. Then they started for Osnaburgh House on Lake
St. Joseph, 150 miles away. The old man led off well, evidently knew
the way, but sometimes would stop, cover his eyes with his hands,
look at the ground and then at the sky, and turn on a sharp angle.
He proved a fine guide and brought the expedition there in good
time.
Next winter at Wayabimika (where Charley de la Ronde [Count de la
Ronde.] was in charge, but was leaving on a trip of 10 days) Omeegi
came in and asked for a present - "a new shirt and a pair of pants."
This is the usual outfit for a corpse. He explained that he was to
die before Charley came back; that he would die "when the sun rose
at that island" (a week ahead). He got the clothes, though every
one laughed at him. A week later he put on the new garments and
said: "To-day I die when the sun is over that island!" He went
out, looking at the sun from time to time, placidly smoking. When
the sun got to the right place he came in, lay down by the fire,
and in a few minutes was dead.
We buried him in the ground, to his brother's great indignation
when he heard of it. He said: "You white men live on things that
come out of the ground, and are buried in the ground, and properly,
but we Indians live on things that run above ground, and want to
take our last sleep in the trees."
Another case of Indian clairvoyance ran thus: About 1879, when
Anderson was at Abitibi, the winter packet used to leave Montreal,
January 2, each year, and arrive at Abitibi January 19. This year
it did not come. The men were much bothered as all plans were upset.
After waiting about two weeks, some of the Indians and half-breeds
advised Anderson to consult the conjuring woman, Mash-kou-tay
Ish-quay (Prairie woman) a Flathead from Stuart Lake, B. C. He
went and paid her some tobacco. She drummed and conjured all night.
She came in the morning and told him: "The packet is at the foot
of a rapid now, where there is open water; the snow is deep and
the travelling heavy, but it will be here to-morrow when the sun
is at that point."
Sure enough, it all fell out as she had told. This woman married
a Hudson's Bay man named MacDonald, and he brought her to Lachine,
where she bore him 3 sons; then he died of small-pox, and Sir
George Simpson gave orders that she should be sent up to Abitibi
and there pensioned for as long as she lived. She was about 75 at
the time of the incident. She many times gave evidence of clairvoyant
power.
