J. H. Lefroy on the Indian Population of British America. 201 
We may now proceed to reckon up the result, not forgetting 
that the region under discussion is equal in extent to one-twen- 
tieth part of the habitable surface of the globe, and has been 
generally looked upon as the asylum and stronghold of the race 
of North American Indians. Excluding the Esquimaux, whose 
numbers, notwithstanding the great extent of sea-line they 0oc- 
eupy, cannot be large—probably not more that two or three thou- 
sand—we have the following enumeration : 
Chipewyan tribes, namely, Chipewyans proper, Dog-ribs, 
Hare or Slave Indians, Yellow Knives, Beaver In- 
dians, Da-ha-dinuies, and Carriers,  - . - 7,575 
Northern Indians of the Kutchin stock, - - - 6,028 
Ethiny-u-wuk Indians of the Plains, - - - - 23,400 
ipeways and Crees, exclusive of the above, - - 8,675 
Indians of the Seaboard and Islands of the Pacific - 63,840 
Indians of New Caledonia—interior, * ever iss 000 
Indians of Canada, - - - - - . - 13,000 
Grand Total, - - - - - - 124,518 
Or to drop the appearance of precision conveyed by the broken 
numbers, 125,000, being barely double the number at which De 
la Hontan estimated the Six Nations of the Iroquois alone, in 1690. 
I am conscious that this number, for the gross population of 
so large a portion of the whole Continent, may appear almost in- 
credibly small. In going over carefully and reconsidering the de- 
tails, I do not believe them to be, upon the whole, under estimated. 
No important region of the British territory appears to be omitted. 
It is presented, therefore, as an approximation, which may at 
least serve to direct further attention to the subject. It is, of 
course, to be taken as representing only a portion of the race. I 
ave no means of estimating the native population of Russian 
America, and we have not considered the native population of 
the United States, Texas, Mexico, and Oregon. ‘The first 0 
these was estimated in 1835 at 330,000, which, however, I take 
to be too high. Mr. Cuthbertson, a naturalist, travelling for the 
Smithsonian Institution at Washington, gives the following for 
the probable number of Indians on the Upper Missouri and its trib- 
utaries, in 1850. (Fifth Annual Report of Board of Regents, 1851.) 
Sioux, a oe - 30,000 
Cheyene, - - - - - : 3,000 
Ariccaree, - - - . - 15,000 
Mandan, <>. se: = es) ee 150 
Gros Ventres, - - - - - 700 
Assiniboine, - - . - - 4,800 
fOW,.- co 
Blackfoot, Me er - 
ol, =. <  e 54,550 
Szconp Serres, Vol. XVI, No. 47.—Sept., 1853. 26 
