NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 233 



crooked knife. With these two implements an 

 Indian will make anything. I have often watched 

 with admiration a man fell a maple-tree, and in an 

 hour or two turn out a smooth, delicately poised, 

 accurately shaped axe-haft or paddle, with the help 

 of no other tools than his axe and his crooked 

 knife, an instrument which he generally makes for 

 himself out of a file, and which resembles in shape 

 the drawing knife of a shoeing smith. There is one 

 peculiarity about the red man worth mentioning, 

 namely, that in using a knife he invariably cuts 

 towards his body, while a white man always cuts 

 away from his. The Indians of all the coast pro- 

 vinces are skilful workmen with the crooked knife, 

 and earn a good deal of money by making butter 

 firkins, tubs, mast-hoops, and various articles of a 

 similar nature. 



By sunset we had finished our spear, and had 

 collected a good supply of birch bark ; and as soon 

 as it was dark a couple of us launched a canoe, and 

 after lighting a bunch of birch bark stuck in a cleft 

 stick in the bow of the boat to act as a torch, 

 started on our poaching expedition. We all of us 

 had a turn at spearing, and most comical attempts 

 we made. An empty canoe is possessed by a most 

 malignant spirit of perversity : it floats light as a 



