Chapter 8

Fort Chipewyan To Fort McMurray

Fort Chipewyan and Athabasca Lake--Colin Fraser's trading-post--The Barren Ground reindeer--Feathered land game--The Indians of Fond du Lac--Mineral resources--First companies formed to prospect the Great Slave Lake minerals--The Helpman party--The Yukon Valley Prospecting and Mining Company--Assays of copper ore--A great mineral country--A railway required from Chesterfield Inlet to develop it--Moss of the Banner Lands--Lake Athabasca the rallying place of the Déné race--Meaning of Indian generic names--"Mackenzie's country"--Its first traders--The North-West Company--The original Indians--The mastodon believed by the natives to exist--Return of Klondikers from Mackenzie River--Their bad conduct--By steamer _Grahame_ to Fort McMurray--Killing a moose--Fort McMurray.