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The Yellow Knives (Couteau Jaunes), who are not
distinguishable by any striking feature, unless it be differences in
clothing, depending upon the materials supplied by the locaUties in
which they live.
2nd. The Castors include :—the Castors, properly so called,
living on the banks of Peace River and the splendid lands washed
by that river; the "Mauvais mondes" (Bad people,) who are
neighbors of the others, and live on the eastern branch of Mountain
River ; lastly the Sarcis, of whom we have already spoken, as
having separated from the Montagnais and joined the family of
Blackfeet. The Castors' language differs from the Chipewyans'
proper, but is related^to it, and the similarity of idiom permits the
classification of the two tribes under one head.
The Castors keep themselves apart from their brothers, whose
good nature is not quite equalled by theirs. More levity, gene-
rosity, improvidence, and an unbridled passion for gambling, also
mark a difference of character.
3rd. The Slaves, who derive their name from the profound con-
tempt in which they were held by the others, at the time their
enemies—when in war they fled before their adversaries.
The tribes which compose this nation, are the Slaves, the Hare-
skins, the Dog-rib (les Plats côtés de chiens), the Tekenés,
the Nahanés, and other small tribes composed of only one or two
famihes. Differences in the languages of these tribes, as well a»
certain similarities, appear to refer these to the heads under which
I have classified them.
It is difficult to realize the extreme poverty in which these latter
Indians live. Their climate is one of the most severe. In some
places, they are so far to the north that the sun does not shew above
the horizon for whole weeks, and they are there exposed with-
out any loges or tents, having merely huts made of branches.
When hares or rabbits fail them, their want is frightful. It wa»
during one of these trials that they were seen to give themselves
up to all the horrors of the most revolting cannibalism. On this occa-
sion twenty-four Hare-Skin Indians were eaten by their brothers at the
gate of one of the Honorable Hudson Bay Company's posts. Justice
and truth require it to be said that, almost invariably, distressed
Indians obtain relief at the trading posts : when practicable, relief
is even sent to those known to be in extremity.    The occasion we