THE MICMACS. 251 



quadruped, kept running from one hole to another, 

 howling piteously. So Nic. changed him into a loon, 

 and he flew to the south. Nic. himself disappeared, and 

 was never seen again, but the loon returns every spring 

 to the Bay of Chaleur, and swimming round and round 

 the shores, never ceases to cry for his lost masters." 



The Canadian Government, as a rule, treat the Indian 

 tribes within the Dominion liberally and well, but I think 

 they have been rather hard upon the poor Micmacs of the 

 Kestigouche. They have not prevented greedy settlers 

 from robbing them of their land, and latterly they have 

 prohibited them from spearing salmon. For hundreds, or 

 perhaps thousands, of years, these Indians have lived upon 

 the salmon in summer, and if it was thought advisable in 

 the interests of the fisheries to prohibit spearing alto- 

 gether, the Government should have given them some 

 equivalent. What they did give them was one net which 

 brings in about a dollar per annum to each family. When 

 the spearing was put an end to, the Indians were told 

 that large numbers of anglers would visit the Bay of 

 Chaleur, and employ them at high wages, besides giving 

 them the salmon they caught. This would be the case 

 if the rivers were open, but under the present system of 

 leasing them, not one Indian in a hundred is employed, 

 and I am told that some lessees endeavour to recoup 

 themselves for the rent by salting and carrying off" the 

 salmon. The laws are enforced against the Indian, but 

 not against the white man ; the former requires a torch 

 which makes him conspicuous, the latter uses his net 

 quietly but effectually in the dark. 



The people one meets in Eestigouche add to the enjoy- 



