OF THE POLAR SEA. 167 



fathers belonged, and unacquainted with the 

 laws of the civilized world, should be ready 

 to engage in any measure whatever that 

 they are prompted to believe will forward 

 the interests of the cause they espouse. 

 Nor that the girls, taught a certain degree 

 of refinement by the acquisition of an Eu- 

 ropean language, should be inflamed by the 

 unrestrained discourse of their Indian rela- 

 tions, and very early give up all pretensions 

 to chastity. It is, however, but justice to 

 remark, that there is a very decided differ- 

 ence in the conduct of the children of the 

 Orkney men employed by the Hudson's 

 Bay Company, and those of the Canadian 

 voyagers. Some trouble is occasionally 

 bestowed in teaching the former, and it is 

 not thrown away ; but all the good that can 

 be said of the latter is, that they are not 

 quite so licentious as their fathers are. 



Many of the half-breeds, both male and 

 female, are brought up amongst, and inter- 

 marry with the Indians ; and there are few 

 tents wherein the paler children of such 

 marriages are not to be seen. It has been 



