404 VILLAGE OF INDIAN FARMERS. 



number cultivate their small farms, and raise potatoes, 

 oats, beans, and Indian corn, sufficient for their own 

 consumption. 



I went into the houses of some of these Indian 

 farmers; and though thej had still the habits and 

 peculiarities of their race, I found them industriously 

 engaged with their potatoes and Indian corn. The 

 largest cleared farm held by one individual was 30 

 acres ; another had 25 cleared ; a third 20 ; many 15, 

 10, and so on, down to 2 or 3 acres. One of the chiefs 

 I visited had 20 sheep, and others had smaller numbers. 

 The greatest difficulty of the cure lay in his inability to 

 prevent the people of Campbelton, on the opposite side 

 of the river, from selling jire-icater to his thoughtless 

 flock. 



In winter they work in the woods, cutting firewood 

 or lumbering, as many of the young men are excellent 

 axemen, and are in request as woodcutters. The older 

 men hunt martens, and sometimes make considerable 

 sums of money in this employment. Many prefer 

 wintering in the woods with their families to living in 

 their houses. At home, indeed, we have no idea of the 

 superior warmth and comfort found amid the shelter 

 of the woods during the w^inters of these northern 

 countries. 



Maple-trees abound on the hardwood land of this 

 region, so that in spring all go to the sugar-making. 

 Some families make from six hundred to a thousand lb., 

 which they sell at 5d. to 6d. per lb. They require all 

 this money to buy necessaries, as they do not as yet 

 raise food enough for their own consumption ; and in 

 spring, flour sells at Campbelton and Dalhousie as high 

 as eight or nine dollars a barrel. 



There were four ploughs in the settlement, all of 

 good construction. On one of them I saw irons with 

 the name of " Wilkie, Uddingstone, near Glasgow," 



