CHAPTER IL

RIVER AND LESSER SLAVE

LAKE.

LESSER SLAVE

Tr is ummecessary to inform the average reader that the
ar Slave River connects the Lesser Slave Lake with the
nasea; any atlas will satisfy him upon that point. But
reculiar colouring he will not find there, and it is this
shich gives the river its most distinctive character. Once
seen, itis easy to aceaunt for the hue of the Athabasea below
the Lesser Slave River; for the water of the latter, though of
a pale yellow colour in a glass, is of a rich bornt umber in
he stream, and when blown woon by the wind turns its spark-
ling facets to the sun like the smile upon the cheek of a
brunette. Its upward course is like a continuous letter S
with occasional S's side by side, so that a point can be crossed
en foot in a few minutes which would cost much time to go
. lis proper name, foo, is not to be found im the
tlases, either English or French. There it is called the Lesser
Slave River, but in the classic Cree its name is Tyaghehi
E Sepe, or the River of the Blackfeet, literally the
* River of the Strange People. * The lake itself bears the
same name, and even now is never called Slave Lake by the
Indians in their own tongue. This fact, to my mind, casts
additional light npon an obseure prehistoric question, namely,
gration of the great Algic, or Algonquin, race. Its
early home was, perhaps, in the far south, or south-west,
| whenee it migrated around the Gulf of Florida, and eastward
omg the Atlantic coast, spreading up its bays and inlets, and
along its great tributary rivers, finally penetrating by the
Uppe ser Ottawa to James's, and ultimately to the shores of
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