NARRATIVJ 



< UAPTEK K. 



/ Mp pew us .—Dutu respecting tk 



state of the fur trade. — Their turbulent churach r. — keeaetinmtum 



.'- // • by Puganoc. — Causes of the i wugretion of the Northua 



Indians. — The unsatisfactory rharart.r of their tratlitions. — Their 

 g tg\ . — Brief synopsis of its grammatical structure. 



Lbscb Lake has been one of the principal posts of trade in 

 the northwest since the region was first laid open to the enter 

 prise of the fur trade, and it has probably yielded more wealth 

 in furs and skins, than one of the richest mines of silver would 

 have produced. European goods were extremely high at the 

 d referred to, at the same time, that i abundanti 



and the ability of the Indians to pay, consequently, ample. The 

 standard <>f value and computation in thi^ trade, is anabiminik- 



: prime I ailed /Was by the French. A plus, tradi- 



tion states, was given for as much vermilion as would cover the 

 point of a case knife, and the same price was paid respectively 

 lor four ( ;' powder, or four charges of Bhot, <>r fiftei D 



balls, or two branches of wampum. It is related that an out- 

 lit <>f biz hales of goods, worth, say $2000, brought from Atha- 



. ninety-six packs of beaver, each of which would v 

 ninety pound--, at a time when prime heaver was worth four 

 dollar md. A fine gum\ worth t( n guineas, was sold to 



a chief at one of the northera.p me hundred and twenty 



pounds of bew r hundred and eighty dollars. The. 



post of the Pic, alone, i- said to have yielded one hundred packs 



aver, dm iu£ Prom the MSS. <»t M. Pel 



.>, referred to in a previous part <»t our nar- 

 rative, the rates at which 1 I i\ duced to the phi-, at thll 



I 8 



