THE INDIANS 187 



meet as may happen during the hunting season, and ex- 

 change their unwritten news; slight, indeed, is the occur- 

 rence, from side to side of the country, which escapes those 

 lodge-fire gatherings. Families hidden here and there 

 in remote valleys may wait for their news, perforce, until 

 late in the spring, when at various rendezvous they group 

 together for the down-river voyages ; or even until the sum- 

 mer meeting on the reserve, where all subjects have their 

 final review ; but on the far lake levels of the high interior, 

 the hunting-place of the strong and skilful, their network 

 of communication is seldom long broken. There, about 

 the central area, gather the rivers which flow to the four 

 coasts, and there the people converge. In the words of 

 John Bastian of Pointe Bleue, "At Kaniapishkau you 

 meet Indians from all shores." 



Almost all the Montagnais families leave their hunting- 

 grounds when the fur becomes poor technically, "com- 

 mon " in the spring. About the last of the fur-hunting 

 comes with the bear-hunt, late in May, when the snow has 

 settled down and the bears begin to move about after their 

 winter's sleep. By the last of June the people are gathered 

 upon the reserves along the Gulf and on the Saguenay. 

 Sometimes a family remains inland two years for some rea- 

 son, most often because of a light catch of fur. In such an 

 event some neighbour usually takes down what skins there 

 may be, and brings up purchases accordingly in the fall. 

 There is not much trouble about subsistence in the summer 

 for those who stay in. Fish, taken almost wholly by net 

 and spear, are nearly unfailing, and there are some ducks, 

 geese, and small animals, besides eggs and berries ; enough 

 all told to get along on, although the large game fail. 



