ON THE GANDER RIVER. 193 



not start until eleven o'clock. Just as we untied from the 

 wharf, Reuben Lewis, the chief of the Micmac Indians, 

 appeared and asked us to take him with us as far as the lake 

 head. This we were delighted to do, and on the way had 

 some very interesting talk with him. He was accompanied 

 by his nephew, a lad of ten or twelve, and had come down to 

 Glenwood to sell deer-meat, leaving his sister, Soulis Ann, 

 in a teepee at the upper end of the lake. 



This Reuben Lewis has been for some years the chief of 

 the Newfoundland Micmacs, a branch of the Nova Scotian 

 tribe. He is an intelligent man, but insignificant-looking 

 in person, and has at one time been severely mauled by a 

 bear. His people have parcelled out the Newfoundland 

 interior into hunting-grounds for themselves. Thus, Joe 

 Jeddore hunts Middle Ridge ; Stephen Bernard the Mount 

 Sylvester district ; Reuben Lewis, Kagudek ; and so on. 

 During the spring and summer they are to be found more 

 or less regularly in the Conn River Settlement on the south 

 coast. In August they travel up into the burnt timber, 

 and throughout the winter each man patrols his trapping- 

 ground. They number in all some one hundred and fifty 

 souls. The duties of Reuben Lewis appear, for the most 

 part, to be those of an arbitrator, and should any dispute 

 arise he gives judgment upon it, and that judgment is 

 accepted and takes full effect. 



The Indians do not greatly incommode the hunter who 

 wants to shoot good heads, as up to very recent years they 

 have not been in the habit of shooting for any object but 

 that of procuring meat. But the good prices that are now 

 offered for trophies will, I fear, spell the death warrant of 

 many a fine stag. It must be remembered that the Indian, 

 unlike the sportsman with a licence limit of three heads, 

 does not consider himself bound by the game laws of the 

 country, but shoots as many as he likes. The unfortunate 

 result of this in the long run need not be pointed out. 



7 



