554 EEPORT — 1900. 



About twenty -five canoes are made and sold every year. Fine birch 

 bark suitable for canoe-making is not very easily found within reasonable 

 distance, and most of the canoes turned out at Lorette are made of 

 canvas purchased from Quebec dealers. 



Some years ago lacrosses were manufactured in certain quantities ; 

 but very few are made now. Toboggan-making is also an industry of 

 the past here. Competition has killed it, toboggans manufactured at 

 Montreal and elsewhere being considered of better quality. 



Basket-making and Fancy Wares. — With ash wood and sweet hay the 

 Huron women manufacture baskets of ornamental designs and various 

 small wares : fans, boxes, i-eticules, toys, itc. The men occasionally lend 

 a hand in preparing strips of ash and discs of various woods, but the 

 women and girls practically have the industry to themselves. Contrary 

 to the preceding, this industry is not a traditional one of Lorette : it was 

 introduced here from the Abenakis Reservation of St. Francis (on the 

 south shore of the St. Lawrence) some fifteen years ago. It has hot 

 developed to the same extent as hide-dressing and moccasin-making, and 

 is still essentially a home industry. Several families have large displays 

 of these Indian wares in their houses. Part of the output is disposed of, 

 as in the case of moccasins and snowshoes, to dealers in large cities ; the 

 bulk is sold by the Hurons themselves to visitors in their village, or taken 

 by them to summer resorts and centres of population, and there retailed. 



Of late a severe blow was dealt to this businesss through the with- 

 drawal by the United States Government of the privilege exempting Indians 

 from paying duty on their wares when entering that country. 



Guiding. — Several of the Lorette Hurons hire out periodically to 

 parties of sport seekers on hunting or fishing excursions into the interior. 

 This is a favourite occupation of many of the men. While thus engaged 

 they earn one dollar and twenty-five cents per day, besides tlieir living 

 expenses. 



Hunting and Fishing. — Like the preceding a favourite occupation of 

 the Hurons, though (except for a very few) it is not any longer an 

 important means of livelihood. In 1898, the revenue derived from 

 hunting by the Lorette community was estimated at 800 dollars, and that 

 from fishing at 100 dollars.^ 



Beaver, otter, marten, mink, and caribou are still found in faii'ly large 

 numbers over the vast unsettled tract which extends towards the north. 

 The upper courses of the rivers St. Charles, Jacques-Cartier, Ste. Anne, 

 &c., which lead into that wilderness, are much interrupted by rapids, and 

 canoes cannot be much used as means of conveyance. The hunters 

 proceed on foot, sometimes right across the streams. Otter and beaver 

 are the most valuable of the fur-bearing animals. The furs are generally 

 sold undressed to large dealers in Quebec. Caribou are found in 

 abundance, and they provide good meat, but their skin is of little value. 

 The skin of the moose is worth three or four times as much ; but moose 

 is scarce now in this part of the countiy. To find it hunters have to 

 cross the St. Lawrence and reach the plateaus of Northern New Brunswick 

 and of Maine. They do so by railway. 



The Hurons of Lorette bitterly complain of interference with their 

 hunting privileges on the part of the whites through governmental 

 regulations, leases to clubs, and the creating of a national park north of 



' Indian Affairs, 1898, p. 468. 



