to our fish diet. It was healthy and
nourishing to persons of good appetites and unimpaired digestive organs;
but to those not to the "manner born," or unaccustomed to it all their
days, it appeared, whether cooked or raw, as partaking more of the
nature of soap grease, than of anything more inviting. Cut it has gone
to return no more: much to the satisfaction of some, and to the regret
of others.

I and my Indian fishermen used to catch about ten thousand white fish in
gill nets every October and November. These we hung up on great stages
where they froze as solid as stones. A few hundred we would pack away
in the snow and ice for use in the following May, when those left on the
stages began to suffer from the effects of the spring warmth. These ten
thousand fish were needed by the missionary's family and his dogs: the
faithful dogs, from whom so much was required, lived on them all the
time, while the missionary's family had them on the table twenty-one
times a week for six months.

During the winter we had certain varieties of game which I shot, or
which the Indian hunters brought in and exchanged with us for tea,
sugar, cotton, flannels, or other things. All trade was done by barter,
as there was no money then in the land. During the spring and summer
months, occasionally, a wild goose or some ducks were obtained, and
proved acceptable additions to our bill of fare.

Once or twice during the summer the boats of the Hudson Bay Company--the
great trading corporation of the country--brought us from civilisation,
our yearly supplies. These consisted of: a few bags of flour, a keg of
bolster, a can of coal oil, tea, sugar, soap, and medicines. They also
brought an assortment of plain, but good, articles of clothing and dry
goods which we required in our own household, and with which we also
paid the Indians whom we had to hire, as fishermen, dog-drivers,
canoemen or guides on my long journeys over the great mission field
which was several hundreds of miles square.

So many were the calls upon us on account of the sickness and terrible
poverty of the people, that often our little stock of flour was soon
gone. Other luxuries quickly followed, and is the mission home, as in
the wigwams of the natives, the great staple was fish, fish, fish.

So many have inquired how Mrs Young and I managed so long to live and
thrive, and keep up our health and spirits, on an almost exclusive fish
diet, that I will here give