184 TRADE WITH THE INDIANS. 



time with the value of fortv beaver skins, he 

 became perfectly satisfied, and was so left. 



Assisted by the Indians, and having picked 

 up La Prise with my canoe, &c, at Hoar- 

 frost River, Mr. M c Leod had arrived on the 

 22d of August ; and, with only four men, had 

 contrived to erect the log framework already 

 mentioned. The work had been seriously inter- 

 rupted by the sand-flies ; nor could the men 

 stand to it at all without the protection of clouds 

 of smoke, from small fires of green wood which 

 were kept burning around them. 



The hopes of a new establishment on the 

 borders of a lake rest chiefly on the produce of 

 a fishery ; and the daily supply of white fish, as 

 well as trout, yielded by the nets, seemed to 

 verify the accounts we had received, and held 

 out an encouraging prospect for the future. 

 Some meat, also, had been seasonably brought 

 in by the Indians, in paying for which, Mr. 

 M c Leod, foreseeing a great expenditure of am- 

 munition, had, with a proper regard to economy, 

 reduced the usual trading prices. The innovation 

 was by no means popular, but, as there were 

 upwards of one hundred and fifty miles between 

 us and the next house, it was their interest to 

 acquiesce ; for, the market being near their hunt- 

 ing grounds, if they got smaller profits, they had 

 quicker returns. 



