Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/105

 previous to the commencement of their actual duties. This is particularly remarkable among the French Canadians, who can scarcely be induced to undertake any work or service without first receiving part payment in advance. Their improvidence approaches to that of the Indian, and produces similar effects.

It is not perhaps generally known that, in some parts of the Indian territory, the hunting-grounds descend by inheritance among the natives, and that this right of property is rigidly enforced. Where no such salutary law prevails, their main source of wealth, the beaver, would soon be exhausted by the eager search of the hunters, were it not for the judicious regulations of the Company, whose officers have, for many years past, exhorted the natives to spare the young of that valuable animal. In this praiseworthy design they have met with increasing success, according as the eyes of the Indians have been opened to their own true interests. But the attempt will be understood to be one of extreme difficulty, in consequence of that passion for depriving the animal creation of life, so deeply implanted in the breast of the North American Indian, that it costs him a pang to pass bird, beast, or fish without an effort to destroy it, whether he stands in need of it or