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Updated: June 22, 2025
They pointed out another lake to the southward of the river, about three days' journey distant from it, on which the chief proposed the next winter's establishment should be formed, as the rein-deer would pass there in the autumn and spring. Its waters contained fish, and there was a sufficiency of wood for building as well as for the winter's consumption.
He informed us, that the rein-deer were the original cattle of the country; and the primitive usages adopted with regard to these animals by the old inhabitants of Norway were still persisted in by their descendants.
In less than a week, the whole was landed, and after consulting with the brethren at Okkak, the resident missionaries proceeded with their labour: notwithstanding several interruptions, first by the loss of their assistants for a time, who went to the rein-deer hunt, and afterwards by a violent storm, which carried away the scaffolding, and part of their materials, they got so far finished, that on the 18th of September, one room was habitable, and they could quit the small and uncomfortable hut, in which they had hitherto lived.
The few fur-bearing animals their barren country affords are so highly prized, that the least exertion enables them to procure their very limited wants; and the skin of the rein-deer affords them the most comfortable clothing they could possess.
And on the contrary, where closely related species are found on both parts of the globe, they belong only to genera of which single species live or have lived in the far North; as, for instance, the rein-deer, still common to the Old and the New World in this very North which once formed a bridge between the two halves of the earth.
They told us of sledges and rein-deer to carry us over the snow in the winter-time; and, indeed, they have such things, as it would be incredible to relate the particulars of, by which means the Russians travel more in the winter than they can in summer; because in these sledges they are able to run night and day: the snow being frozen, is one universal covering to nature, by which the hills, the vales, the rivers, the lakes, are all smooth, and hard as a stone; and they run upon the surface, without any regard to what is underneath.
The defile he followed led him to the banks of a very large river, on which he embarked with his party of hardy pioneers; and following its course for several days through a charming country, rich in game of every description elk, rein-deer, and beaver, he eventually fell in with Indians, who received them kindly, although they had never seen Europeans before.
I could gather no information respecting their religious opinions, except that they have a tradition of the deluge. The Chipewyans are considered to be less expert hunters than the Crees, which probably arises from their residing much on the barren lands, where the rein-deer are so numerous that little skill is requisite. A good hunter, however, is highly esteemed among them.
There are two varieties of the rein-deer, the migratory, and the stationary or wood-deer: the latter is a much larger animal, but not abundant; the former are extremely numerous, migrating in herds at particular seasons, and observing certain laws on their march, from which they seldom deviate.
In the year 1780, William Turner made two visits of twenty miles each into the interior of the country from Nain in their company when they went to hunt the rein-deer, along with a number of the Esquimaux; the first in February, and then from the 8th of August to the 25th of September. They travelled over wild mountains between lakes and pools.
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