NOTES ON NEWFOUNDLAND. 876 



migration paths to deviate from tlie parallel ; and at 'the 

 necks of land that separate large lakes, at the extremity 

 of lakes, and at the straits and i-unning waters which 

 unite lakes, the deer unavoidably concentrate in travel- 

 ling. At those passes the Indians encamp in parties, 

 and stay for considerable interval of time, because they 

 can there procure the deer with comparatively little 

 trouble." 



The Indians here alluded to, whom Mr. Cormack 

 believed to be still inhabiting the shores of the large 

 lakes to the northward of his course through the island, 

 and the remains of whose fences or j)ounds for snaring 

 deer may be seen at the present day by the banks of the 

 Exploits river, were the Red Indians, or Bceothics — a 

 tribe long since extinct. The last of her race, a Ked 

 Indian woman, named Shanaandithith, called Mary 

 March by her captors, who brought her in to St. John's, 

 died there of consumption in 1829. As far as was 

 known of them, this tribe lived entirely in the wilder 

 portions of the interior, probably from distrust of the 

 whites, who had ruthlessly attacked and slain them 

 whenever met with, as also on account of the harassing 

 invasions of the Micmacs, who frequently crossed from 

 Acadia in fleets of canoes for that purpose. Smallpox 

 has been assigned as the cause of their extinction, and it 

 has been likewise supposed that the remnant of the tribe 

 migrated into the interior of Labrador, where strange 

 Indians are reported to have been seen from time to time, 

 not agreeing in type with any of the known resident 

 tribes. 



The Bceothics have been described as a fine athletic 

 race, and, until the latter obtained possession of firearms, 



T 2 



