vered with bark and then with earth. The rest we carried
up the river upon our next winter's hunting."

The Indians were a very improvident race, and in this respect the
Maliseets were little better than the Micmacs, of whom Pierre Biard
writes: "They care little about the future and are not urged on to
work except by present necessity. As long as they have anything they
are always celebrating feasts and having songs dances and speeches. If
there is a crowd of them you certainly need not expect anything else.
Nevertheless if they are by themselves and where they may safely
listen to their wives, for women are everywhere the best managers,
they will sometimes make storehouses for the winter where they will
keep smoked meat, roots, shelled acorns, peas, beans, etc."

Although the Indians living on the St. John paid some attention to the
cultivation of the soil there can be no doubt that hunting and fishing
were always their chief means of support. In Champlain's day the
implements of the chase were very primitive. Yet they were able to
hunt the largest game by taking advantage of the deep snow and making
use of their snow-shoes. Champlain says. "They search for the track of
animals, which, having found, they follow until they get sight of the
creature, when they shoot at it with their bows or kill it by means of
daggers attached to the end of a short pike. Then the women and
children come up, erect a hut and they give themselves to feasting.
Afterwards they proceed in search of other animals and thus they pass
the winter. This is the mode of life of these people, which seems to
me a very miserable one."

There can be little doubt that wild game was vastly more abundant in
this country, when it was discovered by Europeans, than it is today.
In the days of La Tour and Charnisay as many as three thousand moose
skins were collected on the St. John in a single year, and smaller
game was even more abundant. Wild fowl ranged the coasts and marshes
and frequented the rivers in incredible numbers. Biard says that at
certain seasons they were so abundant on the islands that by the
skilful use of a club right and left they could bring down birds as
big as a duck with every blow. Denys speaks of immense flocks of wild
pidgeons. But the Indian's food supply was not limited to these; the
rivers abounded with salmon and other fish, turtles were common along
the banks of the river, and their eggs, which they lay in the sand,
were este