THE INDIANS 209 



in a broken country. The prevailing pattern of the Sague- 

 nay district is from twenty to twenty-four inches wide, 

 with an ordinary tail four or five inches long. The rest of 

 the peninsula generally is committed to a rather wider 

 shoe, with a mere loop for a tail. The frame is in two pieces, 

 spliced at the sides. A fine pair in possession of the writer 

 are twenty-six inches wide and twenty-five and three- 

 fourths inches long over all. Although the various patterns 

 of round shoe look awkward or impossible at first sight, they 

 are extremely well regarded by all who have used them. 

 For firm snow or in a level country, a narrower shoe is ob- 

 viously more suitable. For spring snow-shoeing almost any 

 sort of a makeshift is sufficient ; still the round shape prevails, 

 the shoe being smaller than for winter, and roughly made. 



For snow-shoe moccasins, caribou hide is largely used in 

 Labrador, in default of moose. Instead of stockings are 

 worn duffel slippers, "nips," which fit one inside another, 

 and are very serviceable. The Indian hunters wear foot 

 wraps piuashigan which need no repairs, are easily 

 dried, and do not wear thin at heel and toe, like nips. Al- 

 most any material serves for these, blanketing, duffel, 

 rabbit skins, or even old towels. 



In general, the Montagnais are rather badly clothed in 

 trading-store furnishings. The Nascaupees are still con- 

 siderably in skins, some, in fact, with no cloth garments 

 at all. The men wear a breech cloth of skin, a sort of thin 

 undershirt of unborn caribou with the slight fleece turned in, 

 leggins of Hudson's Bay Company's "strauds," mocca- 

 sins, and a skin or cloth frock over. Commonly, when 

 inland, no sort of hat is worn. The hair of the men is cut 

 off square above the shoulders. 



