(Earlp Hilt 



Y father was a fur trader. When sixteen 

 years old he entered the service of the 

 Northwest Company. In 1821, when the union 

 of the Northwest Company and the Hudson 

 Bay Company took place, my father, like 

 many others, entered the service of the H. B. 

 Company, remaining with it for forty years. 

 During that period he had charge of numerous 

 posts, from the St. Maurice region to Ungava, 

 since it was a sort of rule or custom with the 

 Company to move its agents from post to post 

 every four or five years. It thus happened that 

 I was born at one of the small Hudson Bay 

 posts, at Jeremie Islands, long since abandoned. 

 Northwest Biver, Hamilton Inlet, was one of 

 the posts where we made the longest stay, having 

 lived there for seven years. I was the oldest of 

 a family of twelve children, eight boys and four 

 girls. My good mother used to tell me, when I 

 was a child, that they had found me on the beach 

 alongside of a salmon. (The stork had no 

 chance so far north) . There was something pro- 

 phetic in her words, because I have been closely 

 associated with salmon all my life. The pre- 

 sent season (1909) will complete my forty-ninth 

 year as private guardian of the Godbout, one of 



