22 Field and Forest Rambles. 



other data to establish the existence of the human inhabitants 

 of the region previous to the arrival of the first European 

 travellers. But small as these memorials happen to be, they 

 furnish much valuable information to the archaeologist. Thus, 

 without a literature of any sort, not even the faintest attempt 

 at a trace or scribble of what could be styled writing is notice- 

 able on any of the relics, and what is equally unsatisfactory 

 are the narratives or so-called traditions we hear from the lips 

 of the more intelligent natives. In fact, to listen to their talk is 

 to give ear to what sailors call "long yarns" savouring strongly 

 of the imagination of the narrator. Many of the old terms 

 are obsolete, and replaced by French or English words, so that 

 their language, as now spoken, is corrupt to a degree ; indeed, 

 to attempt to recover any portion of their unrecorded history 

 from these miserable remnants appears to me a profitless 

 undertaking. They nevertheless maintain a good deal of their 

 ancient manners and mode of living. The majority are 

 employed in hunting, fishing, building canoes, making baskets, 

 mocassins, and fancy bead-work on leather or birch bark. A 

 few have taken to the agricultural pursuits and manual labour 

 of the white man, but it is apparent that nothing comes so 

 natural to them, or is so congenial to their tastes, as the pursuit 

 of wild animals, and consequently the hunting portion of the 

 community are in request, being much employed in directing 

 expeditions after moose, caribou trapping, etc., more especially 

 among the military officers, whom the poor creatures will miss 

 now that the British force has been withdrawn ; indeed, 

 they may well believe their best friends have nigh departed, 

 and mourn the loss over the wigwam fire, in camp and forest, 

 of the gentlemen who invariably paid them handsomely, and 

 treated them with the utmost kindness in spite of many acts 

 of ingratitude and their dogged indifference, which after all 

 may, as just observed, be inherent. 



No doubt one of the greatest barriers to the social improve- 

 ment of the Indian is the total absence of education, in par- 



