CHAP. v. DIMINUTION OF DEEK. 85 



' Many as the trees you see on every hill ; but the 

 country was not much burnt. Indians were careful of 

 fire, and they made much winter meat. White men came 

 and the Indians killed deer for their skins, to get guns 

 and other things. When the deer were gone, my people 

 went away too ; they could not live many together. 

 Some went to the coast, some to the north-west, many 

 died one by one. Only my tribe left now on Ash- 

 wanipi. Give me the bark, and let me draw the map.' 



The destruction of the reindeer after the introduction 

 of fire-arms, was no doubt one of the chief causes of the 

 decline of the Montagnais and Nasquapee Indians. Even 

 in Upper Canada, during the early period of its settlement, 

 we have records of the ravages committed by w r olves 

 among the deer of the country, during winters of extreme 

 severity, having caused a famine. It is a fact which may 

 now be received with astonishment, that, in the memory 

 of many still living in Upper Canada, wolves created a 

 famine in a part of the country which is now one of the 

 oldest settled and most beautiful tracts. So marvellous 

 are the changes which civilisation induces, and so pre- 

 carious is the existence of improvident man in the woods. 



' I am myself * one of the eldest born of this country, 

 after its settlement by the loyalists, and well remember 

 the time when, as Bishop Berkeley observes, " a man 

 might be the owner of ten thousand acres of land in 

 America, and want sufficient means to buy himself a 

 breakfast ! ' : One half of the land on the Bay of Quinte 

 the Garden of Canada - - could, within my remern- 



* Mr. Buttan, President of the Provincial Agricultural Association, 1849, 



