248 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. CHAP. xv. 



not teem witli fish like those north-west of Lake Superior 

 and Huron. It is very difficult for the Montagnais or 

 ISTasquapee of the interior to catch fish in winter, both 

 on account of their scarcity, and the severity of the 

 climate, which freezes the lakes to a great depth. In the 

 region between Superior and Winnipeg, the Ojibways 

 plant four or five sticks in the ice, round a hole which 

 they are careful to keep open with their hatchets. 

 A young squaw, on the coldest morning, throws her 

 blanket round her, hurries to the hole in the ice, casts her 

 blanket over the sticks, crouches beneath it, and begins 

 to fish, catching in half an hour a dozen or more pickerel 

 or wall-eyed pike, with which she returns to her lodge. 



But the Indians of the Labrador Peninsula have no 

 such resource, and if the caribou fail they must look to the 

 ptarmigan (now that the porcupine is gone), .to the 

 accidental proceeds of their traps, or to the tripe de roche 

 the last resource of sharp hunger. Otelne, a Nasquapee 

 from Ashwanipi, told me at Seven Islands that even ' he 

 remembered the time when starvation was rare among 

 his people ; but the caribou and porcupine were numerous 

 then.' Such is the precarious winter-life of these savages, 

 and truly the aspect of the country which they delight 

 to call their home is sufficient to cool the ardour of the 

 warmest admirer of a life in Labrador wilds. 



After we had returned from our excursion, and held 

 some conversation with Michel, we became convinced 

 that it was wholly useless attempting to proceed any 

 further on foot, and it would be impossible for us, with 

 our small supply of provisions, to go round the shores of 

 the lakes, and through the swamps which' separated them 



