NOVA SCOTIA,
MICMACS OF ANTIGONISH AND GUYSBOROUGH COUNTIES,
HEATHERTON, l5th August, 1896.

The Honourable
The Superintendent General of Indian Affairs,
Ottawa.

SIR, - I have the honour to lay before you my annual report and tabular statement for the year ended 30th June, 1896.

Names of Reserves. - There are three reserves in this agency, viz., Pomquette Forks, Summerside and Afton.

POMQUETTE FORKS.

This reserve is situated at head of the Pomquette Harbour, and has an area of about one hundred and ten acres. About thirty acres of this is good intervale land, which yields a considerable quantity of hay. In fact, all of the reserve is very fertile. There is no wood of any kind upon it, the Indians depending for their fuel upon the wood of a piece of land rented by the Government from a neighbouring farmer.

SUMMERSIDE.

This is a lot of one hundred acres of fairly good land, situated on the eastern side of Pomquette Harbour, on which the Indians of the agency have their church. It contains but one permanent family. Only a small portion is cultivated, the remainder being partly woodland, but chiefly a waste of alders, shrubs, & c.

AFTON RESERVE.

This reserve is composed of two lots of the combined area of three hundred and forty-four acres, of which nearly fifty are under cultivation. There is a considerable extent of wood and arable land.

Vital Statistics. - The population consists of one hundred and fifty-eight permanent residents. During the past year there were six births and seven deaths. The decrease in population is accounted for by emigration. A number of young women have married into other bands. The nomadic instinct is still strong in the Indian, and it is next to impossible to follow him in his various wanderings. Hence it is exceedingly difficult to compute the population with any exactness. The cause of emigration lies in the greater facilities for money-making offered by the lumbering and mining districts, whither they generally resort.

Health and Sanitary Condition. - There have been no contagious diseases for the past year, with the exception of a slight wave of scarlet fever. Nearly all the deaths have been caused by the usual disease, consumption. The majority of the Indians are more or less subject to pulmonary affections, which are doubtless generated by their well known habits, their manifold wanderings with their consequent discomforts.

Occupation. - The Indians live chiefly by farming, coopering, basket-making, hunting, fishing, & c. Their progress in agriculture is very slow. One farmer, Jas. Prosper, of Summerside, makes a more than ordinarily comfortable living by farming, having a nice lot under cultivation, and realizing a considerable amount upon the products of his dairy. Coopering and basket-making, on account of decreased demand, low prices and scarcity of material, have been on the wane for some years. Fishing, for the last few