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inents. In the north, where rain fell comparatively seldom and the 
winters were longer and more severe, the natives retained the fur on 
their caribou hides, but wore their oldest garments during the summer 
months, or, if Eskimo, substituted clothing of seal or polar-bear fur, 
which sustains no harm from moisture. No less than seven prime 
caribou hides were necessary to clothe a single Eskimo, three moose 
skins to clothe the more scantily-clad Indian of eastern Canada; so 
that although the natives hunted these animals for their meat as well 
as for their fur, failure to kill a sufficient number at the proper seasons 
often forced them to supplement the supply of furs from other 
sources. Buffalo, musk-ox, bear, and elk hides were so stiff and heavy 
that they were generally avoided for clothing and adopted only for 
blankets and bedding;^ but the beaver, marmot, s(|uirrel, and rabbit 
(or hare) all provided serviceable furs that were widely used through- 
out the country. Some British Columbia tribes made robes of fisher 
and marten fur, but restricted them to persons of rank, since the 
animals were neither very plentiful nor easily trapped. Garments 
of fox, wolf, or wolverine skin were rare, but several tribes in the 
north of Canada used those furs for trimming. 
Despite all the discoveries of modern science, skin still provides 
the best protection against the zero and sub-zero temperatures of a 
(Canadian winter. It has serious disadvantages, however, during the 
summer months. As that keen explorer, David Thompson, remarked, 
'' Leather does very well in dry weather, but in wet weather, or heavy 
rains it is very uncomfortable, and as is frequently the case on a 
march, cannot be dried for a few days; it thus injures the constitution 
and brings on premature decay. Of this the natives appear sensible, 
for all those that have it in their power, buy woollen clothing.”^ In 
the sentences preceding this passage he says, speaking of the Piegan 
Indians, “The grown-up population of these people appears to be 
about three men to every five women, and yet the births appear in 
favour of the boys. The few that are killed in battle will not account 
for this, and the deficiency may be reckoned to the want of woollen 
or cotton clothing.” We may perhaps hesitate to accept Thomiison’s 
explanation of the disproportion between the sexes in this particular 
tribe, but we can hardly doubt that unsuitable clothing during a 
1 The thickness of buffalo, Ijear, and moose hides led to their use in 'ivarfaie as coats of mail. 
-Thompson: Op. cit., p. 352 f. 
