THE HALF-BEEED SCKIP COMMISSION 73 



the war of 1812. She was quite lively yet, so far as her wits 

 went, and seemed likely to go on living.* 



There were many good points in the disposition of the 

 " Lakers " generally, both young and old. Their kindness 

 and courtesy to strangers and to each other was marked, and 

 profanity was unknown. Indeed, if one heard bad language 

 at all it was from the lips of some Yankee or Canadian 

 teamster, airing his superior knowledge of the world amongst 

 the natives. 



The place, in fact, surprised one — no end of buggies, buck- 

 boards and saddles, and brightly dressed women, after a not 

 altogether antique fashion; the men, too, orderly, civil, and 

 obliging. Infants were generally tucked into the comfort- 

 able moss-bag, but boys three or four years old were seen 

 tugging at their mothers' breasts, and all fat and generally 

 good-looking. The whole community seemed well fed, and 

 were certainly well clad — some girls extravagantly so, the 

 love of finery being the ruling trait here as elsewhere. 

 One lost, indeed, all sense of remoteness, there was such a 

 well-to-do, familiar air about the scene, and such a bustle of 

 clean-looking people. How all this could be supported by 

 fur it was difficult to see, but it must have been so, for there 

 was, as yet, little or no farming amongst the old " Lakers." 

 It was, of course, a great fur country, and though the fur- 

 bearing animals were sensibly diminishing, yet the prices 

 of peltries had risen by competition, whilst supplies had been 

 correspondingly cheapened. It was a good marten country, 

 and, as this fur was the fad of fashion, and brought an 

 extravagant price, the -animal, like the beaver, was threat- 

 ened with extinction, the more so as the rabbits were then in 

 their period of scarcity. 



There were other aspects of Lake life which there is 

 neither space nor inclination to describe. If some features 



*Thls very old woman died, I believe, at Lesser Slave Lake only- 

 last spring (1908). If the date of her birth was correct, and we had 

 good reason to believe it, she must have been far over 100 years old 

 •when she died. 



