One of the many islands of the Peace River, heavily wooded with spruce which the Dominion 

 Government does not allow cut. The river was liquid mud carrying driftwood and logs 



Edmonton and from there by York boats 

 and carts to the Peace. 



Regardless of the route and means of 

 transportation, the trading customs re- 

 mained unchanged. Each fall the trad- 

 ing post supplied the Indians with 

 powder, shot and balls, traps, tea and 

 tobacco. These were usually given on 

 credit, or as they still say in the North, 

 "in debt." When winter set in, the 



Hudson's Bay steamer making a landing at Fort St. John. 

 It carries settlers' freight as well as provisions for the various 

 posts and brings back furs 

 254 



Indians went out to their trapping 

 grounds. The man of the family es- 

 tablished a line of traps and snares 

 fifteen or twenty miles long and went 

 back and forth over this line throughout 

 the winter. When he found a beaver 

 house he chiseled through it, having first 

 made an enclosure so the beaver could 

 not escape. The skins obtained in this 

 way were brought to the trading post in 

 the spring. On arrival, the 

 Indian received a present of 

 tea and tobacco and in later 

 years, flour. When he be- 

 gan trading, his "debt" was 

 P-s first covered, then he bought 



provisions, calicoes, blan- 

 ■> kets, and whatever his heart 



desired. All trading was 

 done on a basis of "made 

 beaver," a mere term used 

 in trade and indicating at 

 the present time on the 

 Peace River an arbitrary 

 value of thirty-three and a 

 third cents. During the 

 summer it was easy to live 

 on the rabbits caught in 

 snares by the women. One 



