THE MONTAGNAIS INDIANS 
in August is partly in order to ascend the rivers 
before they are frozen, and partly to be in time 
for the annual migration of the caribou, but 
it is only in the north that this migration takes 
place on a large scale, and here the Nascaupees 
spear the animals in great numbers in the lakes 
and rivers. Rabbits, ptarmigan, spruce par- 
tridges, trout, ducks and geese help out the 
larders, but the Montagnais are becoming more 
and more dependent on the flour and other 
provisions that they obtain in barter for their 
furs at the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Posts. 
Hind, quoting a former officer of the Hudson’s 
Bay Company, says of the Montagnais: “‘ Their 
country then abounded with the deer [caribou]. 
Porcupine were so numerous, that they used to 
find and kill (when travelling) a daily suffi- 
ciency for their food without searching for 
them. Beaver were also plenty, and the white 
partridge [ptarmigan] seldom failed to visit 
our shores yearly, about the commencement of 
December, even from the heights of Hudson’s 
Straits. While at present the deer are ex- 
tremely scarce, porcupine almost wholly extinct, 
beaver very rarely to be got, and the white 
partridge is seen only every third and fourth 
167 
