the time. And, unless the snow is deep, they scarcely get rewarded for
their pains, since they cannot capture any thing except by a very great
effort, which is the reason for their enduring and suffering much. When
they do not hunt, they live on a shell-fish, called the cockle. They clothe
themselves in winter with good furs of beaver and elk. The women make all
the garments, but not so exactly but that you can see the flesh under the
arm-pits, because they have not ingenuity enough to fit them better. When
they go a hunting, they use a kind of show-shoe twice as large as those
hereabouts, which they attach to the soles of their feet, and walk thus
over the show without sinking in, the women and children as well as the
men. They search for the track of animals, which, having found, they
follow until they get sight of the creature, when they shoot at it with
their bows, or kill it by means of daggers attached to the end of a short
pike, which is very easily done, as the animals cannot walk on the snow
without sinking in. Then the women and children come up, erect a hut, and
they give themselves to feasting. Afterwards, they return in search of
other animals, and thus they pass the winter. In the month of March
following, some savages came and gave us a portion of their game in
exchange for bread and other things which we gave them. This is the mode of
life in winter of these people, which seems to me a very miserable one.

We looked for our vessels at the end of April; but, as this passed without
their arriving, all began to have an ill-boding, fearing that some accident
had befallen them. For this reason, on the 15th of May, Sieur de Monts
decided to have a barque of fifteen tons and another of seven fitted up, so
that we might go at the end of the month of June to Gaspe in quest of
vessels in which to return to France, in case our own should not meanwhile
arrive. But God helped us better than we hoped; for, on the 15th of June
ensuing, while on guard about 11 o'clock at night, Pont Grave, captain of
one of the vessels of Sieur de Monts, arriving in a shallop, informed us