Returning home with two fresh grouse, this Hudson's Bay Company clerk is probably using his leisure time to supplement his mess mates' regular winter food ration of dried goods which became quite monotonous. He is carrying a muzzle oading musket and his style of dress is one common throughout the nineteenth century, consisting of a blanket loth coat, mitts, a cloth cap and leather leggings tied at the knee for additional warmth. He also is wearing leather moccasins and snowshoes in the Cree style, long, tapering and sharply turned up at the toe. This photograph from the 1880s is rare because it shows everyday activities which were not often recorded. Other leisure activities which a clerk might enjoy were reading the few books kept at most posts or writing in his own journal or account. R.M. Ballantyne is perhaps the best known of a number of fur trade employees who published personal accounts or fiction related to the trade. Games such as dominoes, checkers, chess and cards were also popular to pass the long hours of winter inactivity when the routine of the post was restricted. Musical instruments such as violins, bagpipes, mouth organs and small harps were also popular and provided a welcome diversion. Certain eccentric behaviour might also appear, as in the case of a Chief Factor in Labrador who received a year's supply of the London Times with each annual supply ship. This permitted him to have the correct daily newspaper each morning but the news was exactly one year old!
Courtesy: National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada
