Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/190

170 de Bois” in the service of the various fur-trading companies, some more substantial fabrics for apparel and travel than those of the natives were necessarily introduced. These combined materials and processes brought from Europe with those which were indigenous, just as knives and firearms and metal vessels, shared with aboriginal implements an equal place. Warm under-apparel and capotes for covering head and ears, though not in favor with the natives, were essential to the whites, till, as was generally soon realized, the roughest of them became Indians. The form and style of the moccason were retained, while it was made so large as to admit of being drawn over several pairs of stockings, — needful in the extreme severities of the weather and in deep snows. Strings of dogs, harnessed singly or by couples, attached to slight-built sledges and carioles, transported loads of goods into the country and took out of it returns of peltry. These dog-trains required skilled drivers, as they were generally fretful and rebellious under such forced service. A passenger rolled in furs might ride with the load, but the driver must go behind or by the side of the train on foot, and often an assistant was required to precede it to trample down the snow. Never were emphatic words — a jargon of French, which language contributed the oaths and imprecations — more constantly in use than by the drivers of these dog-trains.

The snow-shoe, as the winter supplement to or accompaniment of the moccason, enabled the Indian to go upon the war-path or to chase down the beleaguered game when the earth was covered with its fleecy mantle piled in mountain drifts. This simple device exercised the wilderness skill of its inventor and tested practically his apt intelligence to apply materials, proportions, and disposals of parts and measurements, in ways which science cannot mend. It resembled in shape a miniature skiff, two feet or more in length and more than a foot in breadth, pointed