188 



RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



articles of pottery, in the form of broken fragments, are 

 sometimes found in making excavations on the banks of 

 the river. Speaking in general terms, it may be said that 

 trades and occupations, as representing special branches of 

 industry, do not exist in Assinniboia. 



Under the head of merchant-shops, we find no less 

 than fifty-six enumerated in the last census, a heading 

 which, it will be observed, is not represented in the census 

 of 1849. In fact, the class of merchants, including petty 

 traders, has almost sprung into existence during the last 

 ten years. They obtain their goods from St. Paul on the 

 Mississippi, and purchase them in exchange for gold or 

 peltries. This trade with the United States is fast grow- 

 ing into importance, and from the immense extent of 

 frontier, it is not easily checked by fiscal regulations ; its 

 continuance must effect to a most serious extent the 

 position of the Hudson's Bay Company in the valley of 

 Lake Winnipeg. 



Some of the merchants at Eed Eiver import largely 

 from England by the Company's vessels, and almost any 

 article of common necessity or ornament can be pro- 

 cured at the stores ; which, by the way, are of the rudest 

 description, without the least effort being made by their 

 owners to display the wares, but rather showing an en- 

 deavour to conceal from outward view whatever goods 

 they may contain. 



Besides being merchant or trader, in the ordinary ac- 

 ceptation of the term, some of the inhabitants are freigh- 

 ters, conveying goods between Hudson's Bay and the 

 valley of Lake Winnipeg. They employ Indians and half- 

 breeds to row their boats of 3 to 5 tons burden, and haul 

 them and their freights over the portages. Fifty-five of 

 these boats are enumerated in the census as belonging to 

 Eed Eiver, but whether the Hudson's Bay Company's fleet 



