was spent between alternations of gluttonous gorgings of food, when it was abundant, and protracted sufferings by various stages and the full reality of starvation. The natives held firmly to a belief that the more game they slaughtered the more rapidly would the animals multiply; so in a rich hunt they would leave the plains strewn with carcasses far exceeding their needs or means of transportation, thus providing a harvest for packs of wolves, which were always well repaid as gleaners. True, the wandering habits of the natives did not favor household economies, and the utmost of their providence was shown either in packing surplus. provisions upon stagings, or depositing them in caches under rocks and logs; in either case exercising all their wits to circumvent the arts of wolves, or that most cunning of prowlers, the wolverine, or glutton. The stoicism of the Indian was exhibited in his uncomplaining endurance of hunger in the frequent failure not only of what we call food, but in the lack of those pitiful substitutes for it, the boiling of his own robes or moccasins, or the sered and glutinous moss stripped from the rocks. The narrations of the servants of the Bay Company report many instances of the last dread emergencies in which, by the casting of the lot or a desperate and treacherous stratagem, one or more survivors, the husband or the father, relieved his own pangs by cannibalism. In the vocabulary of the natives there was a word— a dreaded one for such as rightfully bore it — designating one who had eaten of human flesh. There were cases in which white men at lonely posts, or in the desolation of winter travel on plain or in for-` est, came to the direst extremities. The food of which mariners grow most weary on long voyages was often most grateful to men in the wilderness. Happy were they who could add a relish to their dry repasts of game or fish from the stores of the pork-barrels in the warehouses of the Bay.

The rations of food dealt out to the voyageurs and to those at the posts varied according to the nature of the supplies. On the shores of the Bay a wild goose was a day's ration, so were ten pounds of buffalo meat; at Athabasca, eight pounds of moose meat; on English River, three large white-fish; higher to the north, reindeer; west of the Rocky Mountains, eight rabbits or a salmon. One of the most niggard regions for food was on the route between Lake Superior and Winnipeg. There fish were scarce, and though rabbits were sometimes innumerable, they were most innutritive. The most faithful companions of these wilderness travellers, their own horses and dogs, were necessarily put to the uses of the kettle when there was no alternative resource. No article figures on the invoices of the Hudson's Bay vessels in greater proportionate quantities to other stores than Schouschong tea. The Indians became passionately fond of this gentle stimulant, and shared with the whites the freest use of the beverage so long as any of it was left in the outfit. After passing a threatened peril, or accomplishing some extreme effort of daring or endurance, a full solace was always found in starting a blaze, putting on the kettle, and drinking the effusion almost at the boiling point. The extended hand of

some red stroller, met on the way, would accompany the begging words, "The," "Suga." The company imported vast quantities of tobacco in plug and twists. It was available alike for barter and for presents. The natives used some indigenous herbs, roots, and barks to supplement a limited portion of tobacco, or as an unwelcome substitute for it. There were large reaches of travel over the plains, and woodless regions which yielded no fuel. Generally its place could be supplied by "buffalo chips," which were abundantly scattered, and which gave forth, in burning, a not unpleas

ant aroma.

In many pages of many volumes, written by servants of the company, we have full details of the experience of the "winterers" in solitary posts. To one who had had no training by degrees of adventure or responsibilities that dismal isolation must have had some appalling features, with scarce any relieving or compensating resources. Yet we find that all the exactions of the situation were met patiently and faithfully by vigorous young men; that habit made them at first so tolerable, and then even so attractive, that, as men grew old in the service, they found their solace in such seclusion, with the occasional interruptions which came upon it in the course of a year. Once, at least, in each year a mail was sent by the company to all its posts. In a through line of far travel, canoe men or dog teams would be the carriers, and on side branches a voyageur or a native runner would be the welcome messenger. The company's office in London was the receiving depot of all letters, papers, or parcels passing between its servants and their friends at home. Much systematic method was used in this service. The clerks and apprentices took care to be well supplied at their posts with materials for correspondence. Some of them, blessed with several correspondents, from each of whom they expected annual letters, naively tell us that, having no news and very little of incident, though with abundance of sentiment for filling a letter, their habit was to take pains in writing a very good one, and then to make as many copies of it as were needful. The few books which could be carried to the outposts were interchanged. A file of the "London Times," a year old when it fell into the possession of a lucky exile, would serve day by day, in course, for a whole year's perusal.

In the chief or central posts of the company, where much routine work was to be done in accounts, or in the unpacking, repacking, and distribution of goods, there were men enough for companionship. Here a so-called "Bachelor's Hall" was turned to good service for preparing and partaking food, and for after-festivities and jollities where such were possible; and they rarely failed. The fiddle and the jews-harp, the dance, with various games, the welcoming of a wayfarer with news from the outside world, or a change in the corps of the clerks, as announced by the mandatory advices of the council, came in to break a dull monotony. When the cold was so intense that a nose would freeze if an eye on either side of it looked outof-doors, and when the inner walls of the "Hall" were glazed by the con

gelations from steam and breath, an iron stove, heated red by logs of fourfeet wood, made a cheering centre, enhanced by the sound of forest trees exploding like artillery from the nip of winter. When the weather permitted, a party would go forth of the palisading to bore holes through lake or river ice, five or six feet in thickness, in order to make a grateful alteration from the frozen fish stored in their pantries, by spearing or hooking some of their living brethren. The opening spring brought with it fine sport among varieties of wild fowl. The swamps and thickets sent forth in clouds a venomous breed of mosquitoes, which inflicted fierce tortures upon humanity, and not infrequently stung to death the largest animals, wild and domestic.

The busy and the gala times would come together at the larger gathering and distributing posts, on the arrival or departure of brigades of voyageurs, or of bands of the natives, with the spoils of the hunt or chase. These exciting scenes occurred at least twice in each year. The summer was the season for hunting the buffalo on the plains by large companies of natives and half-breeds; the winter saw the trappers for precious furs scattered in solitary lodges at wide distances in the forest and by the beaver marshes. Some two or three forerunners, just while they were waited for, would present themselves with heraldic formalities at the post, announcing the coming of a well-laden party, and discharging some diplomatic duties by obtaining information as to the prospects of a good trade.

In nearly every volume written by resident servants of the company, the free use of ardent spirits, with scenes of wild riot, debauchery, and even bloodshed, make often a hideous episode in the description of what took place on these occasions. Here, then, may be a fitting place for trying to define, if possible, the policy and responsibility of the Bay Company as to the introduction and distribution of intoxicating liquors in their territories. Of course, the opponents and rivals of the company brought against them the most unsparing charges and invectives for their culpability and inhumanity in this matter. And whenever the affairs of the company were brought under official investigation the inquisition was very sharp and searching, if possible to reveal the real facts in the case. But any one who patiently and candidly follows out those inquisitions, with the testimony disclosed, will at least be puzzled in attempting to draw a clear conclusion about it. At times the witnesses on the side of the company, when challenged, appeared to admit that though the company, at an early period of its operations and in ignorance, had imported and distributed large quantities of spirits, yet that at the time of the present questioning they had imposed rigid restrictions upon the export, and stated the small number of puncheons or gallons which had gone in the last vessels. Again it was pleaded that spirits were never used by them in barter for the Indians' furs, but were bestowed after the way of presents. And once more, the excuse was offered that the company, after having once prohibited and prevented the distribution of spirits, had been compelled to allow them again, at least

with some parties of natives, because their rivals, French and Americans, used them unstintedly to advance their trade. But, on the whole, the facts and the testimony bear hard against the company, even from those best informed in its affairs. A poor kind of spirit was manufactured in England for the company. Before it reached the natives it was diluted from a single part in ten up to even seven parts of water, for use among different tribes according to ascertained facts as to the relative susceptibility of their brains. The Indians were quick to learn about this reduction of the stimulating quality, and the term " fire-water" indicated their test by flame.

The heralds who announced the proximity of the fur-laden natives were dismissed with a present and the much-coveted dram. And then would soon appear on the scene a motley rush and grouping of wild crowds of Indians, all panting to meet the full reality of the fruition of the prospects which had cheered them through long months of solitary tramping. When the natives moved in companies for a visit to a post with their furs, they had to bring with them their food and all their household goods, their lodge-poles and coverings, their pans and kettles, and their whole families. The proud buck would carry no other burden than his gun. If they had dogs, these were put to the utmost service for drawing the laden sledge, if there was snow, or by an ingenious arrangement of two long poles fastened to their collars, and trailing behind them, with a pack attached. Failing help from brutes, the squaws bore all the impedimenta, and in the same pouch on their backs the pappoose would share his nestling-place with the puppy-dog, too young to travel on his legs. The picturesque or hideous. spectacle whichever epithet may meet our imagination of it — presented itself in all the bedizenment of Indian finery, with boisterous shouts, greetings, and yells. The visitors were required to keep at a respectful distance from the precincts of the post, so a considerable time was busily spent in settling an encampment after their own taste and fashion, while, during the interval, the employees of the post were carefully attending to their own securities and arrangements for meeting all the excitements and turbulences of the occasion, and for carrying out the well-prepared methods of profitable barter or traffic. Many all too faithful narrators have described to us in vivid pictures the scenes of the wild orgies and drinking bout which preceded the serious business negotiations. As much spirituous liquor as would on the one hand be thought not excessive, and on the other not meanly stinted, was sent out to the encampment. The squaws, well knowing what would follow, gathered up from the braves all their weapons and hid them away. Then for two or three days were enacted scenes of turbulence, of maudlin folly, and of demoniac passion and bestiality, which need no detail of description beyond the word pandemonium. When exhaustion and sleep had brought back shame and the reassertion of such manhood as these humbled victims of the white man's greed might retain, the actual business began. The natives were admitted singly within the guarded precincts of the trading-room. No specie or paper currency was used. The convenient

medium of exchange was found in bundles of little sticks, held by the clerk. A beaver represented the unit of value, and the tariff of other skins rose or fell by a fixed estimate. The native would open his pack, and, after the careful examination of its contents by the clerks, he would receive an answering number of these sticks. When all the natives had singly passed through this process, another apartment was in the same manner made accessible to them, one by one. Here were displayed goods and wares in abundance,— supplies of all the articles attractive to native men and women, for uses of necessity or fancy. These, too, had their fixed prices by the tariff. The purchaser, dazed by the display, was allowed full time to make his selection, and, as his choice fell, the clerk took from him the answering value represented by the sticks which he had received. for his peltries. A system of credit by advances to the natives was found by the officers of the company to work well in practice. By this system large numbers of the natives were kept in its debt, and the general testimony is that the creditors were faithful. On the general principle that a purchaser may fairly be left to accept the estimated worth of anything by its value to himself, under his own circumstances, there might be two sides to the question whether the white men cheated the natives. Axes, knives, hatchets, kettles, blankets, cloths, guns, and ammunition were articles of high use and value to an Indian, and after his intercourse with the Europeans they became necessities to him. Trinkets and gewgaws and fancycolored stuffs also had to the squaws a worth compensatory to them for the drudgery of their hard life. Unfortunately, the wandering and reckless habits of these natives, who became all the more poor as their dependence upon the whites increased, made even articles of the highest value to be soon worthless in their possession, and they had no resources for their repair or preservation. Something will need to be said by and by of the profits drawn by the whites from this traffic, and we may see reason to approve the judgment that the advantage was, on the side of conscience, with the natives.

The trade being closed, the encampment was broken, and the party, laden with its return goods, took its way into the wilds. Then the clerks at the posts had their own well-defined task before them, to sort out the peltries which had been gathered in, and arrange them in packages for transfer by the ocean to the London warehouse. This was a process which required trained skill. Some of the very choicest skins needed to be treated with great care, as a trifling blemish would much reduce their value. The natives themselves, or rather the squaws, when they had the time to give to it, had a curious facility beyond even that of the whites in all the processes of scraping the flesh from the skin, softening, drying, and tanning it. These precious bales, for their ocean passage, needed to be guarded from heats and damps, and from gathering foul odors. But the requisite art seems to have been perfected.

Such, as selected and condensed from many thousands of pages, writ