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MacDonell, John. Description of Lake Athabasca and the Chipweans, ca. 1805 and Journal of a Voyage from Lachine to Fort River Qu'Appelle, 1793. An electronic transcription. MFTP #0005 The great extent of his instinctive faculties which he displays in all his works, with the wonderful sagacity he possesses by deducing, as if from a chain of events, the ways and means, wherein he may obviate the many contingences that might occur peculiar to his situation. Unlike the rest of the Brute Creation, he has various artificial resources where he can betake himself in times of danger. In summer and winter his house equally serves him, both as an abode to screen him from the extremes of the Seasons; and from its strength which cannot be broken through but with the greatest difficulty, from the rapacious inhabitants of the woods. The industry and perseverance he manifests in cutting down large Trees with his teeth is extraordinary: with their Trunks he forms his house, & dams; while the branches serve him as food. With these he will swim across small rivers, and lakes, dragging them with his teeth and forefeet – in like manner he conveys stones, lumps of earth, clay, grass &c. [T]he great loads he brings is surprising, considering his weight and size; as the [38] L E G E N D : |
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