THE MONTAGNAIS INDIANS 



in August is partly in order to ascend the rivers 

 before they are frozen, and partly to be in time 

 for the annual migration of the caribou, but 

 it is only in the north that this migration takes 

 place on a large scale, and here the Nascaupees 

 spear the animals in great numbers in the lakes 

 and rivers. Rabbits, ptarmigan, spruce par- 

 tridges, trout, ducks and geese help out the 

 larders, but the Montagnais are becoming more 

 and more dependent on the flour and other 

 provisions that they obtain in barter for their 

 furs at the Hudson's Bay Company's Posts. 



Hind, quoting a former officer of the Hudson's 

 Bay Company, says of the Montagnais : " Their 

 country then abounded with the deer [caribou]. 

 Porcupine were so numerous, that they used to 

 find and kill (when travelling) a daily suffi- 

 ciency for their food without searching for 

 them. Beaver were also plenty, and the white 

 partridge [ptarmigan] seldom failed to visit 

 our shores yearly, about the commencement of 

 December, even from the heights of Hudson's 

 Straits. While at present the deer are ex- 

 tremely scarce, porcupine almost wholly extinct, 

 beaver very rarely to be got, and the white 

 partridge is seen only every third and fourth 

 167 



