Sunday, January 17, 2010

Alexander Caulfield Anderson's Dictionary of the Fur Trade

I have had to uncover the meaning of many different words in Anderson's writing, and have as a result put together a sort of dictionary.
American elk -- (HBC) Moose
Appichimons -- square pieces of robes used under saddles while travelling, or under beds in camp.
Artemsia -- sage.
Atnah -- (Native) Stranger, a Tacully word for Stranger tribes
Babiche -- strips of leather used for tying or for snowshoes, etc.
Babine -- (Fr.) Large lip of a beast
Batture -- sand or gravel flat in a river bed, which is dry or submerged according to the season.
Bourdignons -- (Fr.) rugged projections in the ice on a lake or frozen river.
Campement du Chevreuil -- (Fr.) brigade trail camp at top of Cascade Range.
Cavereau -- (Fr.) ice house for storing food.
Chaudiere -- (Fr.) kettle -- ie. Kettle Falls.
Chaussure -- (Fr.) a shoe? or a sock.
Chevreuil -- (Fr.) deer.
Une couleuvre -- (Fr.) rattlesnake
Cypress -- Yellow cedar.
Dalles -- (Fr.) a rapid or rush of water through a gorge or canyon.
en cache -- (Fr.) in cache. The usual fur trade cache was a platform between tree trunks high enough off the ground that large animals couldn't reach the goods.
Escargo -- (Fr.) young sturgeon, a foot or two in length.
Fountain -- (Fr.) or fountaine, meaning spring or source of stream.
Hoo-tsee-kaya -- Native name for the Caribou region of the Carrier Natives.
Hot-se -- (Native) Carrier name for Caribou.
Kase -- (Native) the Fraser Lake natives' name for Chinook salmon
Les Eboulis -- (Fr.) Landslide.
Liard -- cottonwood tree
Lillooet Fork -- Harrison River where it flowed into the Fraser River.
Little Fork -- Nicola River where it flowed into the Thompson River.
Mare -- (Fr.) open space in an ice covered lake or river.
Mount Hooker Pass -- now known as Athabasca Pass.
Musquash -- Muskrat.
Necessarium -- (L.) outhouse -- I don't know how commonly this was used in the fur trade, but Anderson used the word.
Peet -- (Native) salmon trout at Fraser's Lake
Poire -- (Fr.) Service-berry
Poisson a la Brassee -- Eulachon, a small herring-like fish
Prele -- (Fr.) the plant called horsetail.
Red Pine -- Ponderosa.
Reindeer -- caribou.
Riviere de Font -- Bridge River.
Sa-quai -- Fort Alexandria natives' name for Chinook salmon.
Salmon River -- Translation of the Native name for the Similkameen river.
Shai-pai -- (Native) trout at Fraser's Lake
Siffleur -- (Fr.) Rocky Mountain Marmot
Suck-kai -- Fort Alexandria Natives' name for Sockeye salmon
Ta-cout-che-Tesse -- the Native name for Fraser River as understood by Sir Alexander Mackenzie.
Ta-cully -- The Carriers of New Caledonia
Ta-lo -- Fraser Lake Natives' name for Sockeye salmon
Thlik-um-chee-na -- Native name for the forks of Nicola River and the Thompson.
Tsz-chin -- Fort Alexandria Natives name for Tiger Lily
Thle-et-leh -- Native name for river junction where Fort George sat.
Verveau -- (Fr.) fish weir
Wapiti -- Large red deer of the coast, Elk.
This is just a beginning -- I will continue with this listing of names that Anderson knew and used.

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