ON TSe ethnological SURVEY OF CANADA. 559 



that it has not been found necessary to trace any boundaries between the 

 various farms. 



The above three areas were allotted to the Hurons about the end of 

 the seventeenth century, or the beginning of the eighteenth, by the Jesuits, 

 under whose charge they were placed. The deed confirming the grant 

 was not passed till 1742 (for the last) and 1794 (for the two others). It 

 is all that is left to the Hurons of the seigniory of Sillery.^ 



4. The Rocmont Reserve is wholly a mountainous forest tract set apart 

 by the Canadian Government in recent times for the support of the 

 Hurons of Lorette, but neither occupied nor worked by them. However, 

 they derive some revenue from it, the cut of pine and spruce over its 

 area being leased out every year to lumbermen, and the proceeds usually 

 paid to the ' band ' in the form of allowances. 



It is a remarkable fact that all this property is still held in common. 

 With the Hurons of Lorette private ownership of land does not exist. 

 Neither have they any desire, as far as I could ascertain, to individually 

 own land. To my knowledge only one Huron to-day holds privately 

 some land — not in the reserve, but adjoining it. In the past, as well, 

 such cases of private ownership have been exceedingly rare. 



On the other hand, at Lorette almost eveiy family owns the house in 

 which it lives, at any rate so long as it continues to occupy it. Mov- 

 ables, wearing apparel, &c., are, of course, also recognised private property, 

 as are wages and earnings from various sources. 



This system of property of the Hurons of Lorette does not differ 

 materially from that of their forefathers. The ancient Hurons, as we 

 have seen, did not put much labour on the soil, and correspondingly their 

 hold on the soil was of a weak and limited sort. From Champlain and 

 Brebeuf we learn that they had no permanent tenure of land, as evidenced 

 by their change of abode at frequent intervals. At the same time, with 

 them all movables — as, for instance, the produce of the chase, the 

 earnings from trade — were subject to family or individual appropriation. 

 Inequalities of wealth from this source were quite apparent in the Huron 

 villages of old. Even monopolies were recognised by the ancient Hurons, 

 inasmuch as individuals who had opened a trade or discovered a market 

 were granted for themselves and their kindred the exclusive right of 

 carrying on that trade or supplying that market, or were permitted to 

 levy tribute on those desirous of taking advantage of the new opening. 

 A difference, however, from the conditions of things in existence to-day 

 at Lorette was the prevalence of theft in the Huron villages of old and 

 its lax repression.^ 



After their removal to the vicinity of Quebec, the Hurons, as we have 

 seen, did not take more energetically to the cultivation of the soil ; on the 

 contrary, under the new conditions they gave up little by little the practice 

 of agriculture. Similarly they did not develop any greater aptness to hold 

 land either privately or collectively. 



In 1651, the King of France bestowed on the Christian Indians settled 

 in the vicinity of Quebec (of whom the Hurons were the nucleus) a grant 

 of land covering three miles in width on the river St, Lawrence by twelve 

 miles in depth, the seigniory of Sillery. Of course, the Hurons were 



' The originals of the deeds are in the archives of the Department of Indian 

 Affairs, Ottawa. I have to thank Mr. Samuel Stewart and Mr. D. C. Scott for their 

 kindness in facilitating my inquiry. 

 J Jesuit Relations (Thwaites), x. pp. 223, 225. 



