224 NEWFOUNDLAND 



a shot and dropped the bear dead. After some weeks in 

 camp Reuben walked out to the coast and had completely 

 recovered in three months. 



The Micmacs live to a good old age, for old John Bernard, 

 " doyen " of the community, is eighty-seven, and can see and 

 walk almost as well as a man of thirty. Noel Matthews, whom 

 I saw in Bay Despair, is another fine specimen. He accom- 

 panied Mr. Howley in several of his arduous journeys. He 

 is seventy years of age, and is still the most skilled man in 

 a canoe in the island. He goes "furring" and packing just 

 as he has always done. Until recently another remarkable 

 old man was Louis John, aged eighty-one, but he went in 

 as usual in 1906, and dropped dead one day as he was lifting 

 his load. 



The curse of the Indian is cheap rum, and nearly all the 

 young men drink hard when they get the opportunity. It is 

 no uncommon thing for a trapper to make from 300 to 500 

 dollars in the course of a season's work, and to waste it all 

 during a few days' debauch. This is all the more deplorable 

 because very often white fur-traders encourage the Indians 

 to drink as soon as they have concluded a deal, and cheat the 

 unfortunate men if they once fall into their clutches. Many 

 of the Indians, too, wander away with two or three bottles 

 of rum in their pockets, and after being dead drunk lie out 

 for days in the rain and snow, when severe chills are 

 contracted, which are generally followed by consumption. 

 Numbers die of phthisis and measles, and the mortality is 

 high. It should be made a penal offence to sell rum to 

 Indians. Yet the Indian, even when a habitual drinker, has 

 marvellous self-control. The late chief, Joe Bernard, drank 

 heavily until he was made chief, and then gave it up. The pre- 

 sent chief, Reuben Lewis, was also of a Bacchanalian tendency, 



