were hideous gluttons, gorging themselves when occasion
offered with the rapacity of vultures. Gambling and theft
flourished among them. Except, indeed, for the tradition
of courage in fight and of endurance under pain we can
find scarcely anything in them to admire.

North and west from the Algonquins and Huron-Iroquois
were the family of tribes belonging to the Athapascan
stock. The general names of Chipewyan and Tinne are also
applied to the same great branch of the Indian race. In
a variety of groups and tribes, the Athapascans spread
out from the Arctic to Mexico. Their name has since become
connected with the geography of Canada alone, but in
reality a number of the tribes of the plains, like the
well-known Apaches, as well as the Hupas of California
and the Navahos, belong to the Athapascans. In Canada,
the Athapascans roamed over the country that lay between
Hudson Bay and the Rocky Mountains. They were found in
the basin of the Mackenzie river towards the Arctic sea,
and along the valley of the Fraser to the valley of the
Chilcotin. Their language was broken into a great number
of dialects which differed so widely that only the kindred
groups could understand one another's speech. But the
same general resemblance ran through the various branches
of the Athapascans. They were a tall, strong race, great
in endurance, during their prime, though they had little
of the peculiar stamina that makes for long life and
vigorous old age. Their descendants of to-day still show
the same facial characteristics--the low forehead with
prominent ridge bones, and the eyes set somewhat obliquely