The Home of the Wolverene and Beaver. 3; 



to four thousand livres per annum, with clothing 

 and provisions. The guides, who are a very useful 

 set of men, acted also in the additional capacity of 

 interpreters, and had a stated quantity of goods, 

 considered as sufficient for their wants, their wages 

 being from one to three thousand livres. The canoe 

 men are of two descriptions, foremen and steers- 

 men, and middlemen. The two first are allowed 

 annually one thousand two hundred, and the latter 

 four hundred livres each. The first class had what 

 is called an equipment, consisting of two blankets, 

 two shirts, two pair of trousers, two handkerchiefs, 

 fourteen pounds of carrot tobacco, and some trifling 

 articles. The latter had ten pounds of tobacco and 

 all the other articles : those are called North-men 

 or Winterers ; and to the last class of people were 

 attached upwards of seven hundred Indian women 

 and children, victualled at the expense of the Com- 

 pany." 



As soon as the rivers and lakes were free from 

 ice, which was usually by the beginning of May, 

 the Company's wharf at JMontreal presented a busy 

 scene. Numbers of birch bark canoes lay ready 

 to receive their freight, consisting of sixty-five 

 packages (ninety pounds each), an abundant supply 

 of provisions for the eight or ten men constituting 

 the crew of each vessel, and material to repair her 



