AND THEIR AGRICULTURE. 211 



oxen and a driver. The sheep are similar to those of the lower 

 province, many of them being black-coloured, with a little 

 white on the face and neck. The oxen are of different 

 colours, somewhat larger than those of Lower Canada, and 

 many of them are without horns. The horses are small, and 

 perhaps not equal to those of Montreal. 



In several instances I examined a machine with which the 

 French inhabitants were thrashing out grain. This was a 

 beam twelve or fifteen feet in length, with projecting spars 

 like the spokes of a wheel, resting on the ground at one end, 

 and rising with an elevation to suit the draught of a horse 

 at the other. The lower end of the beam was without spars, 

 which increased in length according to the elevation. As the 

 horse moves in a circle, the beam revolves, which brings 

 the spars successively in contact with the grain spread on the 

 floor, and by which means it was beat out from the straw. 



This mode of separating grain from straw is evidently the 

 first step from treading it out by animals, and is, perhaps, as 

 old as the flail. An economizer of labour would have strewed 

 the gangway of the horse with grain, so that it might have 

 assisted in the operation, by treading with its feet. I have 

 not been able to learn if this plan is known in France, or any 

 other part of the world. It has not been adopted by the 

 Americans or British Canadians, although it must be an as 

 sistance to, if not calculated to supersede, the treading of ani 

 mals. 



The Huron tribe of Indians, residing near Amherstburgh, 

 are few in number, extending only to ten or twelve families, 

 and from their long intercourse with Europeans, most of the 

 present generation seem to have a mixture of white blood in 

 them. They have long been Christians in connexion with 

 the Catholic church, and have adopted most of the habits of 

 civilized life. They have orchards, numerous herds of cattle, 

 horses and pigs ; the cattle being the best I saw in the western 

 part of Canada, and which I attribute to the superiority of 

 the pasturage. On the 24th October, I observed a Huron 

 Indian harrowing sown wheat with a triangular harrow on as 

 well formed ridges as any I saw in Canada. 



The Huron Indians were understood to have sold part of 



