LONG LAKE INDIANS. 257 



post in an unbroken charge of over twenty 

 years'. He was a man of system and everything 

 went by rote. There were certain fixed dates 

 for out-fitting the hunters; certain dates for 

 those short of ammunition to come and get it in 

 the winter; and, best of all, certain dates for 

 them to arrive in the spring and close their 

 hunts. This assured us of getting only prime, 

 seasoned skins, and such skins it was a pleasure 

 to handle, since the paper upon which this is 

 printed is not whiter than every skin that passed 

 thru my hands in those two years. 



I am writing of the da} r s before the Canadian 

 Pacific Railway passed thru that country when 

 there were no whiskey peddlers going about de- 

 moralizing the Indians. There being no oppo- 

 sition we regulated the catch of furs. When 

 we found, by general report of the hunters, that 

 a certain kind of fur was becoming scarce, we 

 lowered the price for that particular animal's 

 pelt so low as to not make it worth their while 

 to trap it. For instance, while I was there, the 

 beaver was having our protection, and, as a con- 

 sequence, in three years every little pond or 

 creek became stocked with beaver. The Indian 

 hunter did not suffer, because we paid the most 

 liberal prices for the skins that were most plen- 

 tiful. This policy, however, could only be car- 



17 



