CANDLE-FISH. 93 



When dry, the candle-fish are carefully packed 

 in large frails made from cedar-bark or rushes, 

 much like those one buys for a penny at Billings- 

 gate ; then they are stowed away on high stages 

 made of poles, like a rough scaffolding. This 

 precaution is essential, for the Indian children 

 and dogs have an amiable weakness for eatables ; 

 and as lock-and-key are unknown to the red- 

 skins, they take this way of baffling the appetites 

 of the incorrigible pilferers. The bales are kept 

 until required for winter. However hungry or 

 however short of food an Indian family may be 

 during summer-time, it seldom will break in 

 upon the winter ' cache.' 



I have never seen any fish half as fat and as 

 good for Arctic winter-food as these little candle- 

 fish. It is next to impossible to broil or fry 

 them, for they melt completely into oil. Some 

 idea of their marvellous fatness may be gleaned 

 from the fact, that the natives use them as 

 lamps for lighting their lodges. The fish, when 

 dried, has a piece of rush-pith, or a strip from 

 the inner bark of the cypress-tree (Thuja 

 gigantea), drawn through it, a long round needle 

 made of hard wood being used for the purpose ; 

 it is then lighted, and burns steadily until con- 

 sumed. I have read comfortably by its light; 



