far as
John's Pond. Europeans are encroaching on their trapping lands, but do
not go far inland. This pushes the Micmacs further inland to get away
from the Europeans. They claim no fishing rights at sea, and say
frankly they are only trappers and guides.

They go inland in September, when their first care is to shoot a deer
and smoke the flesh as food. They return home from the 20th to the
25th November to prepare their traps for fox, lynx, otter, and bear.
In December they shoot, as winter food for the family, does and young
stags, but not old stags. They say the arctic hare is now very rare on
their trapping lands; and snipe, geese, and ducks are far fewer than
they were a few years ago. They appear to be very careful not to waste
venison, never killing any deer they do not actually require and use
as food.

9. It is not possible to regard the present condition and the
prospects of this settlement of Micmacs as being bright. Game, their
principal food, is manifestly becoming more difficult to procure;
their trapping lands are being encroached upon by Europeans; they are
not seamen; they are not fishermen; and they do not understand
agriculture. In the middle of their Reservation a saw-mill has been in
operation some years, apparently on the allotment of Bernard John, but
without his sanction or permission, and, it seems, in spite of the
protests of the community. None of the Micmacs work at this mill.
Formerly they cut logs for it, but the trees that grew near the water
have, they say, all been used up and there are none left within their
reach that they could bring to the water. The saw-mill is thus an
eyesore to them, as it is on what they regard as their land, and in
defiance of them.

Although they have not complied with the conditions set forth on the
form of licence, which would have entitled them to a grant in fee, yet
their occupation has extended over so many years that there is no
probability whatever that the Government of Newfoundland would
withhold from them grants, as a matter of grace, if they only applied
for them and could show how they could use the land. It would not be
difficult to find a location for the community that would be more
suitable for them so far as cultivation is concerned, and be equally
good for hunting and trapping. With some aid, such as supplies of
seed potatoes and a few animals, they could no doubt derive much
greater resources than at present from agriculture, especially i