ON THE ETHNOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 553 



Moccasin-'making. — The output at Lorette in 1898 was about 1-10,000 

 pairs.i The first operation is the cutting of the hide. It is done, in work- 

 shops connected with the dressing-grounds, by the boss himself or by 

 specially skilled workmen under his supervision. These workmen are 

 paid by the day or piece. The work is performed by means of a sharp 

 knife and various wooden forms. It requires some skill to make the most 

 of a hide, to cut out of each skin the greatest possible number of bottoms, 

 tops, and uppers with the smallest possible proportion of useless cuttings. 

 This is the main operation in the hide-dressing and moccasin-making 

 business, that which is left to the boss, or head of the industry, whenever 

 he takes a hand in the work. The three processes which follow, viz. (1) 

 embroidering of the top piece, (2) turning up of the bottom piece and 

 sewing-on of the top, and (3) sewing-on of the upper piece, are not accom- 

 plished by men at the workshop, but in the village homes by women 

 making a speciality of one of the above operations. They are paid by the 

 piece. 



Moose-hair, dyed in bright colours, serves for embroidering the top 

 piece. Twenty-five to thirty cents per dozen pairs are the wages paid 

 for that work, and a woman, besides attending to her daily house-work, 

 may find time to embroider from one to two dozen pairs a day. The 

 second and third processes above mentioned are each paid for at about 

 the same rate as the first, and an equal amount of work may be accom- 

 plished by hand at each one of them by one person in a day. By means 

 of a sewing-machine three dozen pairs of moccasins may be sewed in a 

 day's work. To increase their earnings in that way, some of the Lorette 

 women have provided themselves with sewing-machines. When shoe- 

 maker's thread is used instead of the ordinary, the wages paid run as high 

 as one dollar a dozen pairs. The moccasins are then returned to the 

 central workshop, where, by means of three simple apparatus, holes are 

 punched through the uppers, eyelets fastened on to one side, and hooks to 

 the other. Laces are made of strips from the edgings of the hide. 

 Finally the moccasins are packed and shipped to distant points. They 

 are sold wholesale to large dealers in towns and cities throughout Canada 

 and the United States ; in late years large quantities have been for- 

 warded to the Klondike. 



Snoioshoe-viaking. — Seven thousand pairs of snowshoes were turned out 

 at Lorette in 1898 ; but the demand was larger than usual that year 

 consequent on the opening up of the Klondike. That same year as many 

 as 20,000 hides were dressed in the locality and 12,000 dozen pairs of 

 moccasins manufactured. The following year there was a marked falling 

 off in the demand, especially of snowshoes, the Lorette snowshoe not 

 having been found of as suitable a shape as other makes for use in the 

 Klondike. Cow-skin is largely used for the netting of the snowshoe, and 

 ash wood for the frame. 



It should be noted that in the various industries carried on at Lorette 

 there are not only Hurons engaged, but a number, quite as large, of 

 French Canadians residing at St. Ambroise, across the river. This is 

 particularly the case with the moccasin-making industry, in which many 

 French Canadian women take a hand. Snowshoe-making is an exception 

 to the rule ; it is still a distinctive Huron industry, only two French 

 Canadians being trained in the art. 



o 



' See Domvniqn Governvient Blue-looli^ Indian Affairs, 1898, Bagtien's Keport, 

 p, 45, 



