36 TJie Home of the Wolverene and Beaver. 



latter end of September. For this trip the guides 

 had from eight hundred to a thousand livres,* and a 

 suitable equipment ; the foreman and steersman 

 from four to six hundred livres ; the middlemen 

 from two hundred and fifty to three hundred and 

 fifty livres, with an equipment of one blanket, one 

 shirt, and one pair of trousers ; and were maintained 

 during that period at the expense of their employers. 

 Independent of their wages, they were allowed to 

 traffic, and many of them earned to the amount of 

 their wages. About one-third of these went to 

 winter, and had more than double the above wages 

 and equipment. All the others were hired by the 

 year, and sometimes for three years ; and of the 

 clerks many were apprentices, who were generally 

 engaged for five or seven years, for which they had 

 only one hundred pounds, provision, and clothing. 

 Such of them as could not be provided for as 

 partners at the expiration of this time were allowed 

 from one hundred pounds to three hundred pounds 

 per annum, with all necessaries, till provision was 

 made for them. Those who acted in the twofold 

 capacity of clerk and interpreter, or were so deno- 

 minated, had no other expectation than the pay- 

 ment of wages to the amount of from one thousand 



* Thirty -two to forty pounds sterling. The value of one hundred 

 livres is four pounds. 



