10 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



below 5° ; the mean temperature for the month 

 was 23°. 



In the beginning of October a party had been 

 sent to the westward to search for birch to make 

 snow-shoe frames, and the Indian women were 

 afterwards employed in netting the shoes and 

 preparing leather for winter-clothing to the men. 

 Robes of rein-deer skins were also obtained from 

 the Indians, and issued to the men who were to 

 travel, as they are not only a great deal lighter 

 than blankets, but also much warmer, and alto- 

 gether better adapted for a winter in this climate. 

 They are, however, unfit for summer use, as the 

 least moisture causes the skin to spoil, and lose 

 its hair. It requires the skins of seven deer to 

 make one robe. The finest are made of the skins 

 of young fawns. 



The fishing, having failed as the weather be- 

 came more severe, was given up on the 5th. It 

 had procured us about one thousand two hundred 

 wMtefish, from two to three pounds each. There 

 are two other species of Coregoni in Winter 

 Lake, Back^s grayling and the round fish ; and a 

 fev^ trout, pike, methf/e, and red carp, were also 

 occasionally obtaiited from the nets. It may be 

 worthy of notice here, that the fish froze as they 

 were taken out of the nets, in a short time be- 

 came a solid mass of ice, and by a blow or two 



