THE MONTAGNAIS INDIANS 
Hanging in the vestibule of the little office 
of the Post were several pairs of snow-shoes, 
discarded for a brief season between snows. 
The Labrador snow-shoe‘or racquette is almost 
everywhere tailless or nearly so; in fact their 
outline is almost circular or only slightly ovoid, 
but they make up in breadth what they lack in 
length. Some of them, however, have short 
rounded tails and are appropriately called 
“ beaver-tails.’’ The absence of tails makes 
progress through scrubby woods and brush 
easier than where the ordinary elongated shoes 
are used, and the Labrador racquettes are par- 
ticularly adapted to the quick turns needed by 
those who hunt and tend traps. On that 
account they are very useful when one is follow- 
ing and studying birds, for with these shoes 
one can easily turn completely around in a 
small space, while with the long ones a con- 
siderable amount of backing and filling is 
necessary, as well as careful attention to the 
tails of the shoes, during which process the birds 
may be lost to sight. I have found them very 
satisfactory. 
One of the buildings of the Hudson’s Bay 
Company here at Mingan was built about 60 
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