What could be
supplied, however, is a waggon-road from Wahpoo?›kow to Athabasca
Landing, instead of the present dog-trail, which passes many deep
ravines, and makes a long detour by Sandy Lake. Such a road should
pass by the east end of the first Wahpoo?›kow Lake, thence to Rock
Island Lake, and on by Calling Lake to the Landing, a distance of
about one hundred miles. Such a road, whilst saving 125 miles of
travel by the present route, would cut down the cost of transport
by fully one-half.
Wahpoo?›kow had its superstitions and some doubtful customs. For
instance, an Indian called Nepapinase--"A Wandering Bolt of
Night-Lightning"--lost his son when Mr. Ross was there taking
adhesion to the Treaty, and spread the report that he had brought
"bad medicine." Polygamy was practised, and even polyandry was
said to exist; but we had no time to verify this gossip, and no
right to interfere if we had.
On the 6th, a lovely fall morning, we bade good-bye to Wahpoo?›kow,
its primitive people, and its simple but ample pleasures. Autumn
was upon us. Foliage, excepting in the deep woods, was changing
fast, the hues largely copper and russet; hard body-tints, yet
beautiful. There were no maples here, as in the East, to add a
glorious crimson to the scene; this was given by shrubs, not by
trees. The tints were certainly, in the larger growths, less
delicate here than there; the poplar's chrome was darker, the
willow's mottled chrome more sere.
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