Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/252

222 will persevere in their resolution to send no more of this caste to Mackenzie River.

It has, I understand, been sagely proposed by certain theorists to ameliorate the condition of the northern tribes by transforming a race of hunters into a pastoral people, through the domestication of reindeer. But the character of the aborigines would alone present an insuperable obstacle to the experiment. They entertain a rooted superstition that the taming any of the wild reindeer of their country would banish the whole race for ever from their lands. It was for this reason that, in 1817, Mr. Dease could not succeed in obtaining a couple of fawns from the Copper Indians at Great Slave Lake; nor were our applications at Fort Confidence more effectual. I was not sorry for it, as the poor animals could not long have been preserved from the fangs of the dogs — those indispensable assistants to white or red men. Even were this prejudice overcome, the Indians would immediately and naturally inquiry," Why should we be bound like slaves to follow the motions of a band of tame animals, when our woods and barren