OF THE FUR TRADE, &c. XXVIi

feventy-one interpreters and clerks, one thoufand one hundred. and
twenty canoe men, and thirty-five guides. Of thefe, five clerks, eighteen
guides, and three hundred and fifty canoe men, were employed for the
fummer feafon in going from Montreal to the Grande Portage, in
canoes, part of whom proceeded from thence to Rainy Lake, as will be
hereafter explained, and are called Pork-eaters, or Goers and Comers.
Thefe were hired in Canada or Montreal, and were abfent from the 1ft of
May till the latter end of September. For this trip the guides had
from eight hundred to a thoufand livres, and a fuitable equipment;
the foreman and fteerfman from four to fix hundred livres; the middle-
men from two hundred and fifty to three hundred and fifty livres, with
an equipment of one blanket, one {hirt, and one pair of trowfers; and
were maintained during that period at the expence of their employers.
Independent of their wages, they were allowed to traffic, and many of
them earned to the amount of their wages. About one third of thefe went
to winter, and had more than double the above wages and equipment.
All the others were hired by the year, and fome times for three years; and
of the clerks many were apprentices, who were generally engaged for five
or feven years, for which they had only one hundred pounds, provifion
and clothing. Such of them who could not be provided for as partners,
at the expiration of this time, were allowed from one hundred pounds to
three hundred pounds per annum, with all neceffaries, till provifion was
made for them. Thofe who aéted in the two-fold capacity of clerk and
interpreter, or were fo denominated, had no other expectation than the
payment of wages to the amount of from one thoufand to four thoufand
livres per annum, with clothing and provifions. The guides, who are a
very ufeful fet of men, ated alfo in the additional capacity of interpreters,

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