4 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



Wolf Pond was a favourite haunt of my companions 

 almost their home in fact because here they were 

 always sure of a good supply of fish at all seasons, though 

 in the winter, when the water was frozen, it was some- 

 times difficult to get the pickerel to bite, and the other 

 fish rarely did so. The squaw and her daughter (a girl 

 of eighteen) performed most of the fishing, and, I am 

 sorry to say, the greater part of the hard work about the 

 camp. But this they seemed to think quite their natural 

 employment, and I never heard either of them murmur 

 or complain. 



In many parts of the great North- West, and par- 

 ticularly in some spots now well known (I am writing of 

 thirty-seven years ago), as the Red River district, and 

 the country north of Lake Superior, the Indians had 

 often to subsist entirely on fish, and but for the supply 

 of this food they would often have starved. Indeed, 

 when the fishing failed, as it sometimes did in the 

 winter-time, deaths from want were often numerous. I 

 shall have more to say about fish and fishing presently. 



Near Wolf Pond (which is not marked on the maps) 

 game was not plentiful, as it is not in any part of the 

 British possessions compared with what it is, or used to 

 be, in the parts of the continent possessing a more genial 

 climate. Pelt-bearing animals had to be sought for far 

 and near ; and the Indians, of whom there were several 

 families near the pond, used to take excursions in all 

 directions, remaining away many days at a time, leaving 

 their squaws and children to catch and dry fish, and to 

 cultivate a little grain during the summer. 



The pond was closely surrounded with woods, mostly 

 composed of pine trees ; but farther back there were 

 maples, hemlocks, junipers, and many others, and several 

 cedar swamps, in places with the trees growing so closely 

 together that it was impossible for a man to move about 

 among them. The gloom in these swamps was so deep 

 that a watch could not be read unless it was held close 



