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. EF 
