AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 93 



They are not large men, but are tough, sinewy, and 

 muscular. An average Siwash will pick up a barrel 

 of flour or pork, a case of dry goods, or other heavy 

 freight weighing three hundred pounds or more, roll 

 it onto his back, and walk up a gang-plank or a steep 

 river-bank as easily as a white man would with a 

 barrel of crackers. 



No work is too dirty or too hard for them. They 

 are obedient to orders and submissive to discipline, 

 but their weak point, like that of all Indians, is their 

 inordinate love of whisky. Quite frequently, after 

 working a few weeks or months, they quit and go 

 on a drunken debauch that ends only when their 

 money is gone. Their dress is much the same, in 

 general, as that of the whites in this region, with the 

 exception that the Indians wear moccasins when 

 hunting. This footgear is little in favor here with 

 white hunters, owing to there being so much rain- 

 fall, and so much wading to do. Rubber boots are 

 indispensable for hunting in most seasons, and a rub- 

 ber coat should also be included in every hunter' s 

 outfit. I found the Hannaford ventilated rubber 

 boot the most comfortable and perfect footgear I 

 have ever worn. You can scarcely walk a mile in 

 any direction in this country at any time of year, 

 on mountains or lowlands, without encountering 

 water. Moccasins soon become soaked, and are then 

 the most uncomfortable things imaginable. I asked 

 one of my guides why he did not wear rubber boots 

 instead of moccasins, and he replied: 



"O, I dunno. De moxicans cheaper, mebbe. I 

 mek him myself. Can't mek de boots." 



This is about the only use the Indians make of 



