APPENDIX. 519 



of the Fauna Boreali- Americana; so that we need not 

 enlarge on that subject, but merely mention that at all 

 fishing places, the principal supply for winter use is ob- 

 tained in the autumn, immediately before or soon after 

 the lakes freeze over. As the fish are taken from the net, 

 a rod is passed through their gills, by which they are 

 suspended to lofty stages, where they are out of the reach 

 of dogs and beasts of prey. Those that are hung up 

 before the frost has set permanently in acquire a putrid 

 taint, but are thought to be rather improved in qua- 

 lity ; the others that are caught later are preserved 

 sound by the frost all the winter. 



The Attihawmeg. (Coregonus albas.) F. B. A. 3. 

 p. 195. t. 89. f. 2. A. & B. ; and t. 94. a. b. c. 



This celebrated fish is found in every piece of fresh 

 water between Lake Erie and the Arctic Sea ; and it 

 may be said that it is through the abundant supply of 

 food which its fisheries yield, that the fur trade is 

 carried on. The attihawmeg, or poisson blanc of the 

 voyageurs, grows to the greatest size in the larger and 

 deeper lakes, attaining lOlbs. weight and upwards in 

 Huron, Superior, or Great Bear Lakes ; but those 

 generally taken throughout the fur countries average 

 about three or four pounds. When in season, it is a 

 rich, agreeable, and very wholesome fish, that never palls 

 the appetite ; and is preferable, even when lean, for a 

 daily article of diet, to any other fish of the country. 

 Though of the salmon family, the European fish that 

 resembles it most, when cooked, is, perhaps, a fat 

 Loch Fyne herring, fresh from the water. The most 

 usual method of cooking it in the fur countries is by 

 boiling, so as to form an excellent white soup ; but it is 



L L 4 



