the notion that his services are indispensable, than from that moment he slackens his exertions. Every prudent manager of a post endeavours to procure more provisions than the actual wants of his charge. He is thus enabled, when scarcity or ill-success overtakes his Indians, to afford them a timely, and always a gratuitous relief. I do not speak here of the comparatively mild climate of the Saskatchewan, where the mounted plain hordes often glut the establishments with the spoils of myriads of buffialoes, and threaten their existence by their dangerous visits. Nor are these remarks applicable to the still more southerly districts bordering on Canada, where the natives, as well as the people in the Company's service, are in a great measure fed upon imported provisions, purchased by the Company from the Americans. The principle universally acted on throughout the vast and now admirably governed fur-countries is, that the true interests of the native Indian, and of the white man who resides in voluntary exile on his lands, are indissolubly united.
All attempts to raise farm produce among the rocks at Fort Chipewyan have proved abortive, even potatoes being brought down from Peace River; but there are never-failing fisheries in Athabasca Lake. The few horses and oxen
