ON THE Ethnological survey of Canada. 557 



ffontj until in 1697 they found themselves evicted from tlie fertile belt, 

 relegated to the sandy terrace close on the mountain tract. Under such 

 conditions they could not be expected to make any great advance in 

 agriculture.^ 



While both the social and the physical environment about Quebec 

 tended to check the agricultural progress of the Hurons, these same con- 

 ditions at first favoured their propensity for the chase and for warlike 

 occupations. At their doors that great Laurentian mountain tract 

 extended, abounding in fish, game, fur-bearing animals ; and for all these 

 natural productions Quebec offered a near-by and ready market. Besides, 

 their close association with the white settlers enabled them to obtain 

 assistance and employment in various forms. As long as the French 

 regime lasted, and for half a century more under the British rule, the 

 Hurons appear to have supported themselves chiefly through the sales of 

 furs and allowances for military service. References to them in the 

 documents of that period (the writings of the missionaries excepted) are 

 mostly all in connection with the fur trade or with war parties.^ In 

 1730, a church was built for their use, and their contributions were paid 

 in furs, apparently their most valuable and abundant commodity.^ A 

 conspicuous feature of Lorette to the present day is a large, low, massive 

 stone structure, which is said to have been originally a post of one of the 

 fur-trading companies, and which subsequently became the property 

 of a noted Huron chief, Picard, himself a trader in furs. 



During the whole of the eighteenth century the traditional industries 

 of the Hurons do not appear to have been developed beyond the measure 

 of the family needs. It is not until the early part of the nineteenth 

 century that we notice a change in this respect. The facts adduced 

 before a committee of the legislative assembly of Lower Canada in 1819 

 and 1824 show that for some years previous the Hurons of Lorette had 

 been sustaining themselves to some extent through the manufacture and 

 sale of moccasins, snowshoes, toboggans, fur articles of dress, and various 

 fancy wares.'' This new feature had been brought about as a result of 

 the constant decline of their agriculture, and more especially, at a 

 subsequent date, by the decline of the chase itself, as also by the 

 reduction of the war allowances. It should be noted, moreover, that as 

 the Hurons, under the influence of environment, were slowly improving 

 their mode of living, larger and more regular returns than those ensured 

 by hunting were necessary to keep them in comfort. By manufacturing 

 they enhanced the value of the furs, and thus made up in part for their 

 greater scarcity and for the deficiency in the returns from other sources. 

 For many years these industries were carried on by the Huron families 

 in a very small way, at first exclusively by the women, and then by both 

 men and women, but on a small scale. Both hunting and plot farming 

 were prosecuted in conjunction, but the latter especially remained at a 

 very low stage, or even decreased, v/hile the manufacturing industries all 

 the time wez'e growing.-^ 



' Titres Seigneuriaux, Quebec, vol. i. p. 428 ; Charlevoix, Journal, p. S3 ; Peter 

 Kalm, SocieU Historique de Montreal, 1880, p. 124. 



^ Documents de la Nuuvdle-France, vol. iii. pp. 23, 58, 87, 108, vol. iv. p. 112. 



' Franquet, Journal de Voyage (MSS. Parliament Library, Ottawa), p. 141. 



■* Journals of the Assembly of Lower Canada ; Bouchette, Topographical 

 Dictionary, verbo ' Indians.' 



' Journals, Assembly, Lower Canada, 1835: Asscmbh', United Canada, 1844-5, 

 1847, 1856. 



