16 CANADIAN WILDS. 



so many or parts of Made Beaver and the furs 

 likewise valued at the same currency. 



Like most uneducated men who have to re- 

 member dates, people and places, these Free 

 Traders had wonderful memories. One who 

 had been away on his venture for eight or ten 

 months could on opening his packs, tho there 

 might be two or three hundred skins in his col- 

 lection, if so requested, tell from what particu- 

 lar Indian he received any skin picked out at 

 haphazard. 



Observation and remembrance entered into 

 every phase of their lives as it does into that of 

 the pure Indian. Their very lives at times de- 

 pended on their faculties and one might say all 

 their bumps were bumps of locality and these 

 highly developed all the way back from child- 

 hood. 



Of their nationality they were mostly French 

 Canadians or French half breeds, and as a rule 

 went on their trading expeditions accompanied 

 by their Indian wives and children. Time was 

 of no object and as they traveled they trapped 

 and hunted as they went. Their very living 

 and subsistence depended on their guns and 

 nets. Loaded as they were with goods to trade 

 and their necessary belongings they could not 

 take imported provisions. After their hard- 

 ships of several months, after the breaking up 



