198 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. CHAI-. XIT. 



Pere Arnaud lost the whole of his baggage at the foot 

 of a rapid they were endeavouring to ascend, and after a 

 month's toil they reached the borders of Lake Mushualagan 

 at the beginning of October. At this lake the Montagnais 

 who accompanied him determined to winter, not only be- 

 cause it was good hunting-ground, but also on account of 

 its being a great rendezvous in the spring for the heathen 

 Indians of their tribe. Lake Mushualagan is about fifty 

 miles long, and varies from three to nine miles in breadth ; 

 it is surrounded by high mountains, is very deep, and 

 contains pike, the kokomesh, a variety of salmon trout, 

 the memehil, ' a red kind of fish,' &c. 



Pere Arnaud was soon left by the Montagnais and Nas- 

 quapee who journeyed with him to Lake Mushualagan. 

 The Indians found that they could not support such a 

 large party by fishing and hunting in one locality. The 

 Montagnais departed to seek better hunting-grounds, the 

 Nasquapees set out to rejoin those of their people who 

 had their lodges on Lake Pletpi, three days' journey from 

 Mushualagan, only one family of Montagnais remaining 

 with the missionary. 



Three weeks were spent in endeavouring to lay up a 

 store of food for the winter, when another party in eleven 

 canoes came to the lake from the coast, but many of them 

 were ill, and an unusually large proportion were widows 

 and young orphan children. The fish began to retire to 

 deep water beyond the reach of nets, the hunt in the 

 woods was unsuccessful, and a rigorous winter began to set 

 in. The Indians who had left the missionary some weeks 

 before began to return, having also been unsuccessful 

 in their hunt ; so that the entire party were compelled to 



