tence almost
entirely on the fish which this lake affords; they are usually caught in
sufficient abundance throughout the winter though at the distance of
eighteen miles from the houses; on the thawing of the ice the fish remove
into some smaller lakes and the rivers to the south shore. Though they
are nearer to the forts than in winter it frequently happens that high
winds prevent the canoes from transporting them thither and the residents
are kept in consequence without a supply of food for two or three days
together. The fish caught in the net are the attihhawmegh, trout, carp,
methye, and pike.*

(*Footnote. See above.)

The traders also get supplied by the hunters with buffalo and moose-deer
meat (which animals are found at some distance from the forts) but the
greater part of it is either in a dried state or pounded ready for making
pemmican and is required for the men whom they keep travelling during the
winter to collect the furs from the Indians, and for the crews of the
canoes on their outward passage to the depots in spring. There was a
great want of provision this season, and both the Companies had much
difficulty to provide a bare sufficiency for their different brigades of
canoes. Mr. Smith assured me that after the canoes had been despatched he
had only five hundred pounds of meat remaining for the use of the men who
might travel from the post during the summer and that, five years
preceding, there had been thirty thousand pounds in store under similar
circumstances. He ascribed this amazing difference more to the indolent
habits which the Indians had acquired since the commercial struggle
commenced than to their recent sickness, mentioning in confirmation of
his opinion that they could now, by the produce of little exertion,
obtain whatever they demanded from either establishment.

At the opening of the water in spring the Indians resort to the
establishments to settle their accounts with the traders and to procure
the necessaries they require for the summer. This meeting is generally a
scene of much riot and confusion as the hunters receive such quantities
of spirits as to keep them in a state of intoxication for several days.
This spring however, owing to the great deficiency of spirits, we had the
gratification of seeing them generally sober. They belong to the great
family of the Chipewyan or Northern Indians, dialects of their language
being spoken in the Peace and Mackenzie's Rivers and by the po