CHAPTER XXIII. 



A CASE OF NERVE. 



In the far interior where flour is scarce and 

 our living consists of either fish or flesh, both 

 of which we have to get when we can and how 

 we can, the game laws are a dead letter. Nets 

 were always in the water the year round and no 

 one moved from the posts without a gun. Fish 

 and potatoes were our staple diet and were it 

 not for the abundance of the former we could 

 never have lived in the country. Lakes were all 

 about us and when one was fished out we moved 

 our nets to another. 



Flesh, however, could not always be got, and 

 when the chance offered we killed, in season or 

 out. Nothing, however, was wasted. Should 

 we shoot a deer or moose in summer, the sur- 

 plus over what we could consume in a day or 

 two was either jerked and dried or salted. 

 Many a time have my men had to visit our nets 

 a mile or two off to get wherewith for our break- 

 fast. If successful the fish had then to be 

 cleaned and cooked before we broke our fast. 

 Such being our hard battle for life I may be ex- 

 cused for the following story: 



180 



