eldom rigidly
adhered to, prove a fertile subject for disputes, and the differences
have been more than once decided by force of arms. To carry on the
contest, the two Companies are obliged to employ a great many servants,
whom they maintain often with much difficulty, and always at a
considerable expense[8].

[8] As the contending parties have united, the evils mentioned in this
and the two preceding pages, are now, in all probability, at an
end.

There are thirty men belonging to the Hudson's Bay Fort at Cumberland,
and nearly as many women and children.

The inhabitants of the North West Company's House are still more
numerous. These large families are fed during the greatest part of the
year on fish, which are principally procured at Beaver Lake, about fifty
miles distant. The fishery commencing with the first frosts in autumn,
continues abundant, till January, and the produce is dragged over the
snow on sledges, each drawn by three dogs, and carrying about two
hundred and fifty pounds. The journey to and from the lake occupies five
days, and every sledge requires a driver. About three thousand fish,
averaging three pounds a piece, were caught by the Hudson's Bay
fishermen last season; in addition to which a few sturgeon were
occasionally caught in Pine Island Lake; and towards the spring a
considerable quantity of moose meat was procured from the Basquiau Hill,
sixty or seventy miles distant. The rest of our winter's provision
consisted of geese, salted in the autumn, and of dried meats and
pemmican, obtained from the provision posts on the plains of the
Saskatchawan. A good many potatoes are also raised at this post, and a
small supply of tea and sugar is brought from the depot at York Factory.
The provisions obtained from these various sources were amply sufficient
in the winter of 1819-20; but through improvidence this post has in
former seasons been reduced to great straits.

Many of the labourers, and a great majority of the agents and clerks
employed by the two Companies, have Indian or half-breed wives, and the
mixed offspring thus produced has become extremely numerous.

These metifs, or as the Canadians term them, _bois brules_, are upon the
whole a good looking people, and where the experiment has been made,
have shewn much aptness in learning, and willingness to be taught; they
have, however, been sadly neglected. The example of their fathers has
released them from the restraint impos