The Indians of the North. 377 



months they generally lounge around the Hudson's Bay posts, or 

 in their own miserable villages, idle, hungry, lazy and very dirty. 

 They live, for the most part, in wigwams poorly covered with birch 

 bark ; but now and then settlements are met with where they have 

 been enterprising enough to put up comfortable log-huts. In the 

 summer season they live by fishing and shooting wild fowl; but 

 often they have no powder, and are obliged to live exclusively on fish. 



All the Crees are excessively fond of tea, and as they seldom 

 have the. means to buy regular tea at the post, they procure the 

 leaves of an indigenous plant called " Labrador tea." The sturgeon 

 and whitefish form the staple of their food. The latter are caught 

 in the fall of the year. The inside is taken out, and they are strung 

 on long poles and dried in the sun. The squaws extract the isin- 

 glass from the sturgeon, and dry it over willow twigs. Their fishing 

 nets are made by the girls, with little wooden shuttles. With their 

 nimble fingers they make the shuttle fly to and fro very quickly. 

 They do their work neatly, rapidly, and with a high degree of 

 perfection. 



Until within a few years the plains Indians lived in tents cov- 

 ered with the skins of the buffalo ; but since the disappearance of 

 those animals, they have been obliged to resort to the cotton cover- 

 ing instead. 



Curious records are left by Hudson's Bay officials concerning 

 the character of the Indians that live and trade at the posts. These 

 are kept to guide future officials who may be strangers to them. 

 Each Indian is numbered, and, as I have had an opportunity of 

 looking at these records, I will give the reader a sample : — 



