186 



RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



TRADE AND OCCUPATIONS. 



Upon making inquiry of Mr. Smith, under whose 

 superintendence the census was taken, why no enumera- 

 tion of trades and occupations was introduced into the 

 census roll, I was informed that no kind of industry or 

 a distinct trade or occupation existed in the settlements. 

 Almost every man was his own wheelwright, carpenter, 

 or mason ; carpenters, blacksmiths, masons, &c, could 

 be found, but they were also engaged in other occupa- 

 tions, either as small farmers or hunters. Mr. Smith did 

 not think that one man could be found in Assinniboia who 

 pursued any particular trade, or hmited his industry to 

 one special branch. The present condition of the settle- 

 ments would not, it was thought, afford a living to any 

 distinct class of artificers. A horse-shoe imported from 

 England could be purchased as cheap as the unmanufac- 

 tured iron required to make one ; every article, no matter 

 of what description, was imported in its manufactured con- 

 dition. Even the ponderous and unwieldy grindstone 

 was conveyed across the portages, from Hudson's Bay, 

 although material well adapted for grindstones existed on 

 the shores of Lake Winnipeg, not one hundred miles from 

 Eed Eiver. Grindstones had, I was informed upon au- 

 thority I could not doubt, been made from the rock in 

 question, and brought to the settlement, but they could 

 not compete commercially with those imported by the 

 Hudson's Bay Company, which, for a time, were 

 sold little above cost, even after their long and expen- 

 sive journey. 



In 1858 I had occasion to send to a blacksmith near 

 Fort Garry for some hasps which I wished to have made, 

 to replace those which had been broken from the pro- 

 vision boxes in crossing the portages on the Winnipeg. 



