NATIVE SOCIALISM. 75 



fisheries, however, as well as the Indian ones, de- 

 clined as the winter wore on, and in February 

 scarcely sufficed to furnish a meal daily to the 

 fishermen themselves. 



The snow having by the middle of October 

 smoothed the inequalities of the surface, and 

 covered the stones and stumps, Mr. Bell sent 

 out parties to bring in the venison that had 

 been stored up for us; but instead thereof we 

 received a very beggarly account of empty caches. 

 The wolverenes had destroyed some; our Indian 

 friends at the fishery had eaten up a greater 

 quantity, having, unknown to us, made several ex- 

 cursions for the purpose ; and we did not take into 

 the storehouse a tithe of what had been repor.ted 

 to us. The hunters by whom the caches had been 

 made came in for fresh supplies of ammunition, and, 

 on being remonstrated with, merely said, what 

 could they do if hungry Indians came their way ? 

 they must eat. This socialist practice presses 

 heavily on the industrious hunter, and encourages 

 the lazy individuals in their idleness ; but its con- 

 tinuance in force after so long an intercourse with 

 white men is a proof of a fund of good-nature at 

 the bottom of the national character. It is of itself 

 sufficient evidence against the imputation that the 

 Chepewyan tribes habitually desert the old and in- 

 firm. We saw on several occasions children at- 

 tending their sick or aged parents with tenderness 



