1886.] 415 [Gatschet. 



preliensive sketch of all the explorations is contained in Lloyd's articles. 

 Newfoundland has a population of about 120,000, which is exclusively- 

 settled upon the sea shore. The Hudson's Bay Company uses all ils influ- 

 ence to prevent the settling of the fertile lands in the interior of the vast 

 island, for this would reduce the abundance of game and fur animals in 

 those parts, which are the stock in trade of that monopoly. The same 

 exclusive policy* is pursued by lhat Company in the wide territories west 

 and northwest of Lake Superior, and with such success, that the Riel 

 rebellion, or so-called "half-breed war" of 1885 was the immediate out- 

 come of it. The existence of agricultural settlements in the interior of 

 Newfoundland would greatly facilitate and promote all researches concern- 

 ing the relics of the mysterious aborigines who are now occupying our 

 attention. 



For several reasons it is surmised that Mr. W. E. Cormack took from 

 Shanandithit a much more extensive list of vocables than the one I have 

 obtained through Mr. Howley, which contains only the Beothuk numer- 

 als, month-names and terms corresponding to English words with initial 

 A and B. Researches made in England and on Newfoundland failed to 

 reveal any trace of an ampler collection. From Rennie, a half brother of 

 Cormack still living at St. John's, Mr. Howley gathered the following 

 information : Cormack was educated in Edinburgh under the auspices of 

 the late Prof. Jamieson, resided in .Newfoundland till 1829, afterwards 

 carried on a mercantile business in Victoria, Vancouver's Island as the 

 partner of Mr. Nuttall, and died there single, about 1875 or 1877. Mrs. 

 Scott, his sister, died in England in 1884 at a very advanced age. The 

 late Judge Des Barres of St. John's was vice-president of the Boeothik In- 

 stitute previously referred to, and in Cormack's time took great interest in 

 all his efforts to acquire information on the Red Indians. That Cormack 

 sent his vocabulary, relics and some drawings to a Dr. Yates in England, 

 is stated by himself in his "Notes;" nothing else i3 known concerning his 

 papers and effects. 



The original of Mary March's vocabulary, taken down by Rev. Leigh, 

 printed with many copyist's errors and since recopied by Mr. Howley, is 

 now in possession of Rev. William Pilot. The final k in the printed copies 

 is a t in most of the verbs in the manuscript. 



Concerning Ihe localities on Newfoundland which were the principal 

 haunts of the Micmac Indians, Ph. Tocque, Newfoundland (pg. 506), has 

 the following : The Micmacs have wigwams similar to those of the Red 

 Indians. Several families were in Clode Sound, at the head of Bona- 

 vista Bay (48° 30', eastern coast); the last family there was lost in 1841. 

 North of that, others were at Notre Dame Bay ; 60 persons belonging to 

 the Micmacs resided at Bay Despair and in the various parts of Fortune 



*The mercantile principles followed by the Hudson's Bay Company have re- 

 mained the same throughout its historic existence and maybe studied from 

 the pages of Arthur Dobbs' "Account of the countries adjoiuing to Hudson's 

 Bay," London, 1744. 



