108 THE LABEADOE PENINSULA. CHAP. vn. 



Eabbits and porcupines formerly existed in great numbers 

 throughout this country, (so the Indians say), but now 

 none are to be found. The first-named animal is of the 

 greatest importance to Indians, and was formerly one of 

 their most reliable sources of food. The disappearance 

 of the rabbit must have been largely instrumental in 

 driving Indians from the Moisie. There are now many 

 parts of Eastern Canada which would not sustain even a 

 few families of hunters, if it were not for the rabbits. 



In the region west of Lake Superior, rabbits are 

 very numerous, and form the main-stay of the Indians 

 there. When Mr. Gaudet was exploring the Lake of the 

 Woods in 1858, he visited 'the Pelican,' a chief among 

 the Ojibways. His family consisted of ten persons, 

 and they caught and consumed forty rabbits a day. 

 Eabbits at the best are very poor food, and when In- 

 dians are compelled to live for months together on this 

 little animal, they become weak, emaciated, and prone to 

 disease. 



A party of fourteen men, including two Indian 

 hunters, took 2,000 rabbits at the Savanne and Prairie 

 Portage during the winter of 1858-9, and made some 

 capital rabbit penimican, by boiling down sixty rabbits 

 at a time, with a little pork fat, taking out the bones, 

 and letting the gelatinous soup freeze. The spruce 

 partridge are also very numerous in the Lake Superior 

 region, but here there are none to be seen. They 

 go about the Savanne Portage* in droves of 100 and 



* The Savanne Portage is near the dividing ridge between Lakes Superior 

 and Winnipeg. The country abounds in rabbits and partridge, and the lakes 

 teem with fish. 



