SALMON. 65 



tains fish too that are fat and oily, and best 

 adapted to supply heat and the elements of nu- 

 trition. 



The winters are long and intensely cold, often 

 30 Fahr. below zero, the snow lying deep for at 

 least six months. Birds migrate, most of the 

 rodents and the bears hybernate, and such animals 

 as remain to brave the biting cold, retire where 

 it is very difficult and often impossible to hunt 

 or trap them. In a small lodge, made of 

 hides or rushes, as far from windproof as a sieve 

 would be; wrapped in miserable mantles (simply 

 skins sewn together, or ragged blankets, bought 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company), cowering and 

 shivering over the smouldering logs, are a family 

 of savages. The nipping blasts and icy cold forbid 

 their venturing in pursuit of food; flesh they 

 could not cure during the summer, for they 

 have not salt, and sun-drying is insufficient to 

 preserve it. A miserable death, starved alike by 

 cold and hunger, must be the fate of this, and of 

 all Indian families away from the seaboard, but 

 for salmon: sun-dried, it preserves its heat and 

 flesh-yielding qualities unimpaired ; uncooked, 

 they chew it all day long, and frequently 

 grow fat during their quasi-hybernation. The 

 waterways are thus made available for the 



VOL. I. F 



