FISHING, AND OTHER OCCUPATIONS 23 



of bird and mammal. I often tried to induce one of the 

 Indians to accompany me, but seldom with success. 

 " What good ? No shoot now. No fox. No deer. No 

 shoot till snow come." And so they lay about, smoking 

 and lounging their days away. The women were more 

 active. Sometimes a squaw would go with me; and 

 often Emma, the half-breed's daughter. For so surely 

 as I asked an Indian to go with me he would send his 

 squaw to act as my porter, that being the chief use of a 

 woman in their idea ; and the poor drudge would insist 

 on easing me of every weighty article. No doubt I had 

 won their hearts by rendering them any little help in 

 times of difficulty that I could; and the gratitude of 

 these poor people is never failing. 



My success as a wandering naturalist was not great ; 

 and the little information which I gleaned will be more 

 profitably recorded later on. I only say now, that I was 

 surprised to find such a paucity of animal life here at 

 this time of year; but no doubt the game had been 

 much disturbed : for the number of Indians in the 

 neighbourhood was great, many families collecting to 

 pass the summer together, and their wigwams and 

 hamlets being scattered over a wide stretch of country. 

 They do not hunt much in summer, though any animal 

 fit for food which comes in their way is taken or shot, 

 but devote their attention more to fishing. The eggs of 

 ducks and geese formed a minor article of consumption 

 among them : for many of these birds bred extensively 

 in the swamps of the district, parties of the squaws 

 going as far off as twenty miles to gather them ; 

 while later in the year they sometimes returned with 

 as many wild raspberries and blackberries as they could 

 carry. 



The Indians are very wasteful in their habits, per- 

 mitting much of the fish and fruit to rot, though they 

 have a method of preserving the former by drying it in 

 the wind. This dried fish becomes as hard as wood, and 



