12 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



Government. If they had good success in the winter 

 months, the price of the skins, received in kind from the 

 Hudson Bay Company, enabled them to live in tolerable 

 comfort throughout the year. But they often suffered 

 cruel privations, especially the squaws and the children ; 

 for game is not always equally abundant, and the price 

 paid for pelts by the Company was very small. So that it 

 was only the successful hunter who could do tolerably 

 well. But I shall have to return to this subject. 



I first became acquainted with my party through an 

 employee of the Hudson Company, and, in the early part 

 of the summer, performed a journey from Moose Factory 

 with them. There was nothing remarkable in that 

 journey ; but it enabled me to become acquainted with 

 the method of travelling in these regions, and to learn to 

 paddle a canoe, shoot a rapid, and make a portage. As 

 the journey was a hurried one, there was no time for 

 either sport or exploration, and we were back at Wolf 

 Pond before the summer was half over. 



My friends had permanent huts here, like other 

 Indians in the neighbourhood, built of small logs and 

 boughs placed in a sloping position against a rough 

 framework, made air-tight with mud, moss, &c., forced 

 into the chinks. Such huts are snug and warm in 

 winter; but these were very low pitched, and I built 

 myself one, with their assistance, of a more pretentious 

 elevation, and divided into two compartments. The 

 Indians' huts had no chimneys, but the smoke was left 

 to find its way out through a hole in the roof. In fine 

 weather the fire was made outside, near the door. I, 

 with considerable trouble, built a fireplace and chimney 

 of short logs, which added greatly to the comfort of my 

 home; and in this chimney, in the following spring, a 

 pair of martins built their nest and successfully reared 

 their young. Strange that these birds should select 

 such a situation for their nest ! For thousands of gene- 

 rations they must have been in the habit of selecting a 



