NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 207 



and knew the interior of the island better than any 

 man living. He was a good hunter, trapper, and 

 guide, but he was — well, he is dead, and I will put it 

 mildly — he had the bump of acquisitiveness highly 

 developed. They had, I should imagine, a very 

 pleasant life, these Indians ; and if one can judge by 

 the independence of the men, and the nature and 

 quality of the clothing worn by the girls, they must 

 have been very well off in this world's goods. They 

 had comfortable little cabins, in which they spent 

 the winter in comparative idleness, earning little 

 or nothing. The single exception to this rule was 

 in the case of one of old Abraham Joe's sons, who 

 carried the mail during the winter and spring 

 months between St. John's and the copper-mines 

 at the entrance of the Bay. He was well paid, and 

 deservedly so, for his was an arduous task. Travel- 

 ling on snow-shoes backwards and forwards over a 

 distance of some hundreds of long, weary, desolate, 

 monotonous miles, over bare wind-swept barrens, 

 through dense pine forests and thick alder swamps, 

 without a mark to guide or a hut to shelter the 

 traveller ; tramping on alone with no companion 

 to cheer one on the lonely way, without the chance 

 even of seeing a human being from one end of the 

 journey to the other ; struggling along from dawn 



