FORT RAE 



85 



covered with new ice an inch in thickness, which cut quite 

 through the planks of the bow before the boat could be stop- 

 ped. We several times ran upon sunken rocks among Les Isles 

 Fortes, fortunately without breaking the scow. We reached 

 Rae on the 29th, having been fourteen days on the return trip. 



On the 29th Mr. Hodgson and I crossed the arm to the 

 "Mountain," about seven miles south of the post, to hunt ducks 

 in the numerous ponds in that vicinity. My companion had 

 bagged almost a hundred there in a few hours the preceding 

 week, but nearly all were gone when we arrived. The lake had 

 frozen over on the 25th. It had broken up again the next day, 

 but it was not safe to remain on the west shore when the tem- 

 perature began to fall, as it did on the third day, so we made 

 haste to embark upon our return. Three miles from the post 

 a dense fog enveloped us; there was not a breath of wind to 

 assist us in keeping our course; I undertook to steer my Dog 

 Rib canoe by a pocket compass and, with the sluggish needle 

 and the exceedingly sensitive canoe, it was a difficult piece of 

 navigation. After two hours of wandering we reached the 

 shore, and my canoeing was ended for the season. 



October at Rae. When the lake had frozen over a large num- 

 ber of nets had been lost as the ice broke up and drifted south- 

 ward. This interrupted the fishing, which was not resumed 

 until the 19th of October, when the ice set fast for the winter. 

 Over twenty thousand fish were hung during the "fall fishery" 

 by the Company and the Roman Catholic mission; principally 

 whitefish and inconnues. The whitefish obtained at Rae are 

 small or medium-sized. The best fisheries on the Great Slave 

 Lake are at Resolution, Big Island at the outlet of the lake, 

 and recently at Hay River, where a storm, accompanied by a 

 ''big wave," in 1890, brought a large species of whitefish to the 

 fishing grounds off the mouth of the river, where it has since 

 remained. Previous to that time the whitefish taken at that 

 fishery had been similar to those at Rae, not exceeding two or 

 three pounds in weight. The lake trout, Salvelinus namycush 

 Walb., is caught in considerable numbers at Resolution during 

 the winter, but is seldom seen at Rae, though common at Trout 

 Rock, twenty-five miles southeast of that post. Inconnues, 

 Stenodus mackenzU, weighing ten to fifteen pounds, are caught 

 in considerable numbers but are of poor quality. They dete- 



