is printed in
large characters, in the Micmac language, a total prohibition against
spitting in church.

The cemetery immediately adjoins the church, and there they bury their
dead as members of a single family.

They have had a small school open since the 17th January last. It is a
wooden room, about 12 feet by 15 feet, by no means new, with a small
stove and two little windows.

The teacher is a woman of partly Micmac origin. She receives some very
small allowance from the parish priest, and a few of the children, she
says, pay some small fees. There are 34 children on the roll, and the
winter attendance was from 25 to 30. They are divided into three
classes, the highest of which could read slowly, in English, words of
three or four letters. About half of them could write a little, a few
of them surprisingly well on such brief tuition. The teacher says they
are very amenable to discipline. Seldom has a school been started
under greater difficulties than this Micmac institution. I was able
sincerely to congratulate the teacher on what she has been able to
accomplish under such unfavourable circumstances. It is manifest that
the children are bright and clever, and that they would become useful
and intelligent citizens if they had ordinary educational advantages.
In this probably lies the best hope of a future prospect for this
community. The settlement is visited now once a month by the parish
priest; and in his absence, one of themselves, Stephen Jeddore, reads
the service on Sunday. Last year they were visited by the Right
Reverend Bishop McNeil.

6. They appear to be a comparatively healthy people. So far as known,
no one is at present affected by tuberculosis in any form. I saw one
woman of ninety years of age, Sarah Aseleka, perhaps the only Micmac
of pure blood in the settlement. She was born at Bay St. George, and
came to Bay d'Espoir some three score of years ago when the Micmacs
first settled in this bay. The next oldest person is John Bernard, who
is about eighty. Few of them were even fairly well clothed; the
majority were in rags. A few wore home-made deer-skin boots, but most
of them had purchased ready-made boots or shoes. They make deer-skin
boots by scraping caribou skin, and tanning it in a decoction of
spruce bark. Such boots are, they state, worn through in a few days.
The women can spin wool, and knit stockings. Their food consists
chiefly of flour, a few potatoes, some cabbage, and perhaps abou