APPENDIX. 331 



risk for which a further proportional deduction in the value of 

 barter must be made. 



That the Indians must suffer starvation by being deprived of the 

 " native liberty " to ruin our salmon fisheries, is a very flimsy apo- 

 logy on the part of those who still desire to perpetuate so flagrant an 

 abuse. With the exception of some families of Naskapis who 

 have imprudently left their upland hunting grounds, and wan- 

 dered towards the rocky coast, where sickness debilitates and 

 cuts off whole encampments, the Lower St. Lawrence Indians do 

 not endure similar privations to the tribes in Western Canada. 

 This comparative immunity is certainly due in a great measure 

 to the paternal solicitude exercised by the exemplary missionaries 

 of the Eoman Catholic Church. Almost total abstinence from 

 " fire-water," is not the least of a beneficent improvement resulting 

 from their self-denying missions. Were there not another salmon 

 to be caught between Quebec and Labrador, the extinction could 

 not occasion to Indians one tithe of the misery depicted by persons 

 whose interest or prejudice it is to excite a sympathetic feeling 

 favourable to the continuance of facilities for spearing. These 

 are no mere vague assertions 'tis a deduction from practical ob- 

 servations and inquiry. The Indians themselves know this ; and 

 it makes them all the more reckless and disregardful of the future 

 in their ravages. Trout are plentiful all along the coast, and the 

 inner lakes swarm with them. Every bay and bank teams with 

 cod-fish. The rod and line and bait will catch both in hundreds. 

 Hooks and lines are as cheap as spearing implements. Seals 

 are plenty everywhere. The product of one seal will buy the 

 fishing gear of a family for one entire year. But it is argued, they 

 need pork and flour, tea and sugar, guns and ammunition, which 

 can be bought with salmon carcases. Yes, and all of these 

 articles can be better had in exchange for trout, cod, seals, oil, 

 akins, and furs. Birch canoes, baskets, and other manufactures 

 find rapid sale. Canoes bring from eight to twenty-four dollars 



