Mr. Stuart Informed Us That The Residents At Fort Chipewyan, From The
Recent Sickness Of Their Indian Hunters, Had Been
Reduced to subsist
entirely on the produce of their fishing-nets, which did not yield more
than a bare sufficiency
For their support; and he kindly proposed to us
to remain with him until the spring but, as we were most desirous to gain
all the information we could as early as possible and Mr. Stuart assured
us that the addition of three persons would not be materially felt in
their large family at Chipewyan, we determined on proceeding thither and
fixed on the 22nd for our departure.
Pierre au Calumet receives its name from the place where the stone is
procured, of which many of the pipes used by the Canadians and Indians
are made. It is a clayey limestone, impregnated with various shells. The
house, which is built on the summit of a steep bank rising almost
perpendicular to the height of one hundred and eighty feet, commands an
extensive prospect along this fine river and over the plains which
stretch out several miles at the back of it, bounded by hills of
considerable height and apparently better furnished with wood than the
neighbourhood of the fort where the trees grow very scantily. There had
been an establishment belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company on the
opposite bank of the river but it was abandoned in December last, the
residents not being able to procure provision from their hunters having
been disabled by the epidemic sickness which has carried off one-third of
the Indians in these parts.
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