392 ANCIENT ABORIGINAL TRADE IN NORTH AMERICA. 



connection with the object treated iutliis article. "The manufacture 

 of implements," he says, " is practised by all 5 some, however, produc- 

 ing neater articles, are more employed in this way. The manufacture 

 of wbaling implements, particularly the staff of the harpoon and the 

 harpoou-head, is confined to individuals who dispose of them to the 

 others. This is also the case with rope-making ; although all under- 

 stand the process, some are peculiarly expert, and generally do the most 

 of the vrork. Canoe-making is another branch that is confined to cer- 

 tain persons who have more skill than others in forming the model and 

 in finishing the work. Although they do not seem to have regular 

 trades in these manufactures, yet the most expert principally confine 

 themselves to certain branches. Some are quite skilful in working iron 

 and copper, others in carving or in painting, while others again are 

 more expert in catching fish or killing whales."* 



It is true, the conditions of existence of a northern tribe bordering on 

 the Pacific coast cannot serve as a standard for the populations for- 

 merly inhabiting the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio, or the Atlantic 

 sea-board ; yet, that the latter were led by similar motives, in regard to 

 the division of labor, seems to be confirmed by the observations and 

 extracts given in this sketch. 



CONCLUSION. 



In the preceding series of articles 1 have almost exclusively referred 

 to mamifactures, and among these, of course, only to such as could, 

 from their nature, resist the destroying influence of time. Yet, it cnn- 

 not be doubted that articles consisting of less durable materials, for 

 instance, dressed skins, basket-work, mats, wooden ware, &c., formed 

 objects of trafiic. The most extensive exchange, perhaps, was carried 

 on in provisions that could be preserved, such as dried or huccaned 

 meat, maize, maple sugar, and other animal or vegetable substances. 

 Those who were abundantly provided with oue or the other article of 

 food bartered it to their less favored neighbors, who, in return, paid 

 them in Superfluous products or in manufactures of their own. Con- 

 cerning the ways of communication, the North American continent 

 afforded, by its many navigable waters, rivers as well as lakes, perhai)s 

 greater facilities for a primitive commerce than any other part of the 

 earth, and the canoe was the means of conveyance for carrying on this 

 commerce. 



The learned Jesuit, Lafitau, has given some account of Indian trade 

 as it was in the beginning of the eighteenth century, at which period 

 he lived, as a missionary, in North America. "The savage nations," 

 he says, "always trade among each other. Their commerce is, like that 

 of the ancients, a simple exchange of wares against wares. They all 

 have something particular which the others have not, and the trafiic 



*Swan, The Indians of Cape Flattery, at the Entrance to the Strait of Fuca, Wash- 

 ington Territory, Washington, 1870, x>. 48. 



