A good hunter however is highly esteemed among them.

The facility of procuring goods since the commercial opposition commenced has given great encouragement to their native indolence of disposition, as is manifested by the difference in the amount of their collections of furs and provision between the late and former years.

From six to eight hundred packs of furs used formerly to be sent from this department, now the return seldom exceeds half that amount.

The decrease in the provision has been already mentioned.
The Northern Indians suppose that they originally sprang from a dog; and about five years ago a superstitious fanatic so strongly impressed upon their minds the impropriety of employing these animals, to which they were related, for purposes of labour that they universally resolved against using them any more and, strange as it may seem, destroyed them.
They now have to drag everything themselves on sledges.

This laborious task falls most heavily on the women; nothing can more shock the feelings of a person accustomed to civilised life than to witness the state of their degradation.