MICMAC INDIANS. 153 



results ; evidently there were, but they were dis- 

 appointing in their meagreness and not propor- 

 tioned to the effort made to produce them. 

 Through the long and difficult labors of Dr. 

 Rand, the student of human history has a dic- 

 tionary of their language, and a collection of 

 their folk-lore tales, and many items of interest 

 besides. 



It is a prevailing notion that this tribe is dis- 

 appearing, but the census shows a steady in- 

 crease, thus : 1851, there were 1.056 ; 1861, 

 1,407; 1871,1,666; 1881,2,125; 1892,2,157. 



It has been a very difficult task for the In- 

 dians to comply with the new conditions that 

 the white man enforced upon them. From time 

 reaching back thousands of years they had been 

 hunters and fishers. Even as they walk on the 

 streets and roads there is a soft yield ing-at-the- 

 knee stealthiness of step that tells the story of 

 their past life in the forest. To work the soil for 

 a living is utterly foreign to their nature. In 

 fact, to settle down in a place and remain there 

 is contrary to their natural instincts as much as it 

 would be to a wild goose. They can no longer 

 live by hunting, and even white men, as a rule, 

 in Nova Scotia find that farming needs a good 

 deal of piecing out to yield a living. The In- 

 dians have given up their bark wigwams, their 



