30 
squashes, and sunflowers, introduced their cultivation into south- 
eastern Ontario and the St. Lawrence valley, whence they spread into 
New Brunswick. But the Indian methods of cultivation w-ere exceed- 
ingly primitive. Their stone axes barely bit into hard maple or birch 
trees that w'ere not first charred by fire, so that they depended mainly 
on burning for the clearing of their land. Long digging-sticks or hoes 
fitted with blades of shell supplied the ]flace of ploughs; the ri])ened 
ears of corn were gathered by hand and transported in baskets by 
the women to the husking shed. No tribe understood the rotation 
of crops or indeed possessed the means to rotate them, and but few 
made any attempt to fertilize the soil, ('onseciuently when their plots 
became exhausted wdthin ten or tw^elve years, the community moved 
away to new but unbroken ground.^ Under such conditions the 
Indians could supifly their daily needs only by combining agriculture 
with fishing, hunting, and the gathering of wild fruits, seasonal occu- 
pations that necessitated frequent migrations and temporary disband- 
ments of the communities. So even the Irocjuoian tribes were unable 
to establish really permanent villages and towns where easier living 
conditions and greater leisure might foster inventions and the growth 
of knowledge. Outside the lowlands of eastern Canada there w'as no 
agriculture, and the exigencies of a life dependent on fish and game 
kept the tribes in constant motion. It is true that semi-permanent 
villages existed on the Pacific coast, where the aborigines subsisted 
mainly on the marine fauna, shellfish, salmon, and sea-mammals; 
but even there migrations to new fishing grounds were not infrequent, 
and there were also seasonal movements to gather berries, or to hunt 
bears, goats, and other game. 
The French-Canadian settler enjoyed another great advantage 
in the knowledge and possession of metals, especially of iron and 
steel. Unaided, he could build in seven days a log cabiu far superior 
to any bark lodge of the eastern Indians, a cabin as enduring and 
comfortable as the plank houses on which a flozen or twenty Pacific 
coast nativ^es, the most skilful carpenters in North America, laboured 
industriously for months with their crude stone tools.- Plis steel ax 
1 The exhaustion of 11>e fuel supply around a villat;e, nut! Ilse laUour of carrying firewood from a 
distance without wheeled vehicles or transport animals, were also common ciiuses for the abandonment 
of otherwise favoundile sites. See ji. 84 f. 
2 " The felling of trees, a.s practised by them, is a .slow aiul mo.st tedious process, three of them 
being generally from two to three days in cutting down a large one.” “ Tlie Adventures and Suffer- 
ings of John R. Jevvitt”; Edinburgh, 1824. p. 94. Cf. Henry anrl Thompson: “New Light on llie 
Early History of the Greater Northwest”; erlited by Elliott Cones, vol, ii, p. 724 (New York, 1897). 
The Iroquoians often spent three or four years ileforesting new land for cornfields before they moved 
their villages (I.afitiiu: Moeiirs des Sauvages Aineri(|uains, \'ol. II, p. 109 (Pari.s, 1724)). 
