lowed by a supper consisting of the best fare we could command. By this time we had, through our indefatigable exertions, accumulated two or three weeks' provisions in advance, and no scarcity was experienced during the remainder of the season. The daily ration served out to each man was increased from eight to ten, and to some individuals twelve pounds of venison; or, when they could be got, four or five white-fish weighing from fifteen to twenty pounds. This quantity of solid food, immoderate as it may appear, does not exceed the average standard of the country;[1] and ought certainly to appease even the inordinate appetite of a French Canadian.[2] The Company's servants are not less well clothed and paid than they are fed; they are treated by
- ↑ Mr. Dease assured me that under an ancient manager of Athabasca, who passed for a severe economist, and whose assistant he was at the time, the men succeeded in obtaining the exorbitant daily allowance of fourteen pounds, or one stone, of moose or buffalo meat!
- ↑ Yet was there one of them who complained he had not enough, and did not scruple to help himself to an additional supply whenever the opportunity offered : it would have taken twenty pounds of animal food daily to satisfy him. This man, Framond, being in other respects a very indifferent servant, was discharged the following year; and his place supplied from Mackenzie River by a young Maskegon, or Swampy Cree Indian, in the service, educated at Red River, and named James Hope, who was engaged by us at the same annual wages as our other middlemen, viz. £40 sterling.
