78 TRANSACTIONS iSgg-'oo 



long distances, they were obliged to change their location as soon 

 as the fertility of the soil and the supply of firewood within a 

 limited radius, were exhausted. 



In the old Huron country the change of abode, according to 

 Champlain, took place every ten, twent)' or thirty years. The 

 same practice was followed by the Huron refugees in the vicinitj- 

 of Quebec. But here, while the Indians were alwa3^s free to de- 

 sert their village site and seek a new one farther in the interior, 

 they were no longer at liberty to retrace their steps. The crowd- 

 ing in of the Habitants around them prevented their moving in 

 any but one direction. From Sillery, the Island of Orleans and 

 Beauport they receded to Ste. Foye ( 1667 ), from Ste. Foye to a 

 spot known at present as Ancienne lyorette (1674), and finallj' 

 from Ancienne lyorette to Jeune lyorette (1697), where they 

 are to-day. Thus were they evicted from the fertile belt of rich 

 lowlands to the sandy terrace bordering the mountain tract. The 

 new conditions were not favorable from the outset to the develop- 

 ment in these primitive men of a stronger disposition for agricul- 

 ture. 



As a second result of the neighbourhood and competition of 

 the white settlers about Quebec, the chase also was hampered and 

 curtailed, wild animals receding and becoming scarcer all the 

 time as the settlements extended further back. This second re- 

 sult, howev^er, was effected at a much later date than the first, 

 and not so thoroughly. Not before the close of the eighteenth 

 centur}^ or the opening of the nineteenth, do the Hurons of 

 lyOrette show signs of discomfort on account of scarcity of game. 



Coincidently, a third result was brought about : the de- 

 velopment of the traditional home industries of the Hurons, con- 

 sequent on the decrease of both agriculture and the chase. To 

 make up for the deficiency in the returns from their farm plots and 

 hunting expeditions, they now took to turning out for the 

 trade the various wares which heretofore the}^ had manufactured 

 solely for their family needs. The greater value thereby given 

 to the skins, made up in part for their greater scarcit5^ 



The changes in the labour system of the Hurons of lyorette, 

 thus induced by the neighbourhood and competition of the French 

 settlers, have, of recent years, been greatl}' intensified by a very 

 powerful factor : the evolution of commerce and industry. 



