l899-'00 TRANSACTIONS 75 



to clubs. Gros-IyOiiis stated clearly that in his opinion there, are 

 only two decent kind of people : first, the Indians, like himself 

 of course, then the "gentlemen," who occasionally help the 

 Indian on. As for the "habitants," they are a stupid lot, who 

 work hard and ignore the pleasures of life. 



The Huron villagers do not seek an}^ appreciable part of 

 their income from agriculture, nor even from those more simple 

 opportunities offered by country life. Only three or four 

 families keep cows (one each), and a few hens. The others 

 purchase from French farmers the verj^ milk and eggs they con- 

 sume. Onl}^ one keeps horses. 



However, being informed that on a reserve 1600 arpents in 

 extent, two miles distant from the village, a few Hurons were 

 settled on farms, I started out, one morning, on ni}- bicycle, rode 

 through the village of St. Ambroise (adjoining Indian L,orette), 

 down to the lower plain, along a range of good French Canadian 

 homesteads, and soon coming once more upon a stretch of sandy 

 uplands, was apprised that I had reached the Indian reserve. 



The six or seven _Huron families settled here (though the^^ 

 may occasionally turn out a few pair of snowshoes) do not resort 

 to industry in at all the same measure as do the lyorette villagers. 

 The}' are supposed to depend principally on farming, but can 

 hardly be considered farmers. Much the greater part of the 

 Reserve is still bush. Each farm comprises only a few arpents 

 (at most ten or twelve) of cleared land, on which, at the time of 

 my visit, the only growth to be observed, apart from a small 

 garden and potato patch, was a miserable fiield of very thin hay, 

 overrun by oxeye daisy. In rare instances, a crop of a few 

 bushels of oats might be added. When farm animals were kept 

 at all, the stock consisted of one cow (exceptionally two), one 

 horse (if any), one or two porkers and a few hens. Attracted 

 to one of these homesteads by the rather better appearance 

 of the house and barn, compared with the hovels on most of the 

 other clearings, I was disappointed to find that the husbandry 

 there carried on was of the same undeveloped, primitive type. I 

 did not see any stock, but was met by the fierce barking of three 

 or four dogs coming out in succession from under the door steps. 

 "The}' are very good hunting dogs," the people told me by way 

 of apology. 



