432 NOTES OF AN EGGING EXPEDITION TO SHOAL LAKE. 



along all the lakes and marshes for eggs, and for every otlier eatable that falls 

 in their way ; and during the month of July and part of August they sufier much 

 privation of food, unless possessed of means to enable them to draw on the set- 

 tlement for flour ; but when the young ducks take to their wings and the fish 

 begin to approach the shore, they are able again to set hunger at defiance for a 

 time. In the beginning of October the fall fishing commences, i. e., the white 

 fish (the a-ticki-meg of the Indian) approach the shore and the shoals for the pur- 

 pose of spawning, and if the season be favorable those who command a little 

 industry and plenty of nets will be able to lay in a good stock for winter use ; 

 })ut when the fishing fails and the rabbits disappear, as the case is this year, these 

 people are, indeed, brought low — even to starvation's door. Flour is selling 

 there this winter at 405. per cwt. Another trait of these people of primitive 

 habits and manners is, that, although occupying these villages for a long time, 

 they have neither president, council, nor magistrate, and I never heard of any 

 crime of any kind l)eing committed by any of them except once, and that was 

 a case of manslaughter which arose out of undue provocation. 



