JAMES BAY TO RIVER ABBITIBBE 161 



with these demands, his Diaster strikes the attitude of 

 a saint, and says, " Justice shall be done you. You have 

 a right to please yourself. But we cannot permit you to 

 keep us out of your extensive hunting grounds. We 

 will give you a ten thousandth part of your own pro- 

 perty as a reserve. Go there and live, and keep there, or 

 look out for squalls. We will give you a little meal, a 

 couple of pounds of powder and shot, and a butcher's 

 knife per annum. We will look after your morals, and 

 teach your kids how many million miles away the sun 

 is ; but we won't have you interfere in our politics, or 

 show your ugly carcasses in our beautiful refined streets." 



If I am thought to exaggerate, I shall flatly deny that 

 I am doing anything of the sort. At the time of which I 

 have been writing, there were a few Indians making a 

 precarious living, or loafing, about the townships : now, 

 I believe, that a Red Man in a Canadian town is as great 

 a rarity as one in an English street. They have put 

 him out of the way on his " reservation." 



I shall trouble the reader with no further remark on 

 a subject that I could wTite a volume on : I will simply 

 conclude by saying that I would fight to the last gasp 

 before I would tolerate such treatment. Of course the 

 political economist will be down my throat. " Are we 

 then to leave a large portion of the earth's surface a 

 howling wilderness for the pleasure of a few Indians and 

 hunters ? " Certainly, is my reply. You have no right 

 to clear forests by the ten thousand square mile at a 

 stretch, in order to make millionaires. Millionaires can 

 be spared better than bears and deer ; but I am no 

 extremist. Leave us a percentage of the forests and 

 prairies ; but no " parks," no keepers, no hotels, and, 

 above all, no legal ancients with their wise saws and 

 preposterous rules. Deal as harshly with the waster 

 and exterminator as you like ; but no interference with 

 the true sportsman. 



