THE INDIANS 191 
time to hunt, and unencumbered by children or old persons. 
On the Long Portage of the Bersimis, Low’s exploring party 
spent a full week. It appears on his map as the “ten- 
mile portage,” and passes over a mountain more than one 
thousand feet high. 
In the earlier days of the fur trade, these movements were 
by no means general with the people, partly because the 
comparatively few articles then required in trade were 
easily transported, and the trading was done at some dis- 
tance inland. In the nearer regions, formerly the best 
hunting districts, fur is now scarce and large game almost 
wholly wanting. Previous to white occupation of the 
shores, it is probable that long journeys were not often 
undertaken for any purpose, while those performed were 
favoured by a game supply which was usually ample. 
The seasonal migrations of the recent period bear very 
heavily upon the young and feeble, and must seriously 
affect the current mortality figures. 
The periods of actual straits and starvation usually 
occur late in the winter, when reserve supplies are ex- 
hausted. It would be hard now to name a district of the 
peninsula where subsistence upon the country the year 
through is reasonably dependable. 
The prime disaster to the game resources was not due to 
improved firearms or such access of direct destruction as 
swept away the buffalo and other western game, but was 
incidental to a succession of tremendously destructive 
forest fires. From the Gulf to the barrens, three-fourths 
of the country has been laid waste within the white period, 
the thin mat of organic soil being burned wholly away over 
large areas, leaving only rock and sterile subsoil. The great 
