170 THE LABEADOR PENINSULA. chap. xxxi. 



ing-grounds lie in fertile valleys or uplands, and who 

 have always shown a disposition to cultivate the soil. 



The physical features of a country have a very marked 

 influence upon Indian character. This is strikingly 

 shown in the north and south shores of Lake Huron ; 

 on the south shore there are tolerably good Indian 

 farmers ; on the north shore, the Sandy Hill Indians are 

 altogether indisposed to leave the wilds of the Laurentian 

 forests. 



The Sandy Hill Indians, 145 in number, are heathens, 

 and hve alternately on the borders of Lake Huron, about 

 fifty miles north-west of Penetanguishane, and in the 

 interior north of that place. They cultivate very small 

 patches of maize and potatoes, not as a dependence for 

 food during the winter, but rather as a bonne honche in 

 the autumn. 



When they go to the interior in the autumn to hunt 

 beaver and other animals for their skins, they generally 

 carry a supply of dried fish in case of a failure in their 

 trapping. 



Wlien they return to the lake in the winter, they 

 resort to the precarious mode of procuring food by 

 cutting holes in the ice, and watching for and spearing 

 such fish as may be attracted by a decoy or are casually 

 passing by. In this way they in some days kill as many 

 as a hundred, but at other times they lie on the ice for many 

 days together and perhaps do not see one, depending 

 in the meantime on hare and partridge snares for sub- 

 sistence. 



No sooner do the Montagnais hear the clang of the wild 

 goose in the early spring tlian the old yearrdng comes back 



