SOURCE OP ST. Peter's river, 233 



It was usual with them, formerly, to avoid killing the deer 

 during the rutting season ; the does, that were with young, 

 were in like manner always spared, except in cases of ur- 

 gency ; and the young fawns were not wantonly destroyed ; 

 but at present the Indian seems to consider himself as a 

 stranger in the land which his fathers held as their own ; 

 he sees his property daily exposed to the encroachments 

 of white men, and therefore hunts down indiscrimi- 

 nately every animal that he meets with, being doubtful 

 whether he will be permitted to reap the ensuing year the 

 fruits of his foresight during the present and fearing lest he 

 may not be suffered to hunt, undisturbed, upon his proper- 

 ty, for another season. To this cause, and to the increase in 

 their numbers produced by a long continued peace, we 

 must attribute the scarcity of game at present observed ; 

 their population must however soon cease to increase if they 

 do not betake themselves to agricultural pursuits, as the ra- 

 pid diminution in the quantity of game will eventually 

 deprive them of the means of subsistence. We are not to 

 wonder that an Indian population, apparently so small as 

 that which we know to exist here, should be comparatively 

 large for the country to which it is restricted in its hunts, if 

 we bear in mind the observations of Little Turtle on the 

 subject, " You whites contrive to collect upon a small space 

 a sure and plentiful supply of food. A white man gathers 

 from a field, a few times bigger than this room, bread 

 enough for a whole year. If he adds to this a small field 

 of grass, he maintains beasts, which give him all the meat 

 and clothes he wants, and all the rest of his time he may 

 do what he pleases ; while we must have a great deal of 

 ground to live upon. A deer will serve us but a couple of 

 days, and a single deer must have a great deal of ground to 

 put him in good condition. If we kill two or three him- 

 VoL. I. 30 



