24 FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 



At the end of the story of his second voyage, Champlain 

 describes at some length the harpooning of whales in the 

 fisheries of the Gulf, the killing of a number of porpoises 

 by the crew of the ship on which he was returning to France 

 and the catching of a quantity of fish by means of baited 

 hooks trailed on a long line behind the vessel. 



In Volume IV of his history he gives the following de- 

 scription of the manner in which the Huron Indians took fish 

 in nets under the ice. ' ' The men make the nets to capture fish 

 in summer as well as in winter, when they generally fish, 

 reaching their prey even below the 

 ice, either with the line or the seine. 

 They perform this kind of fishing 

 by making several holes in a circle 

 through the ice, through which they 

 have to draw up the seine some five 

 feet long and three feet wide. At this 

 opening they begin to let down their 

 net, which is attached to a wooden 

 pole from six to seven feet long, and 

 having brought it under the ice, they 



move this pole with the net from hole 

 Samuel de Champlain. to ^ where it ig geized by ft man Qr 



two through the holes ; and this they continue until the open- 

 ing of five or six feet is reached. This is done, by means of 

 certain small stones attached to the end; and afterward they 

 draw it up by its two ends, and thus secure the fish caught 

 in it. This is, in short, the method they employ in fishing 

 during the winter. " 1 



i "Les hommes font les rets pour pescher, & prendre le poisson 

 en este comme en hyuer qu'ils peschent ordinairement, & prennent 

 le poisson jusques soubs la glace a la ligne, ou a la seine. Et la 

 faQon de ceste pesche est telle, qu'ils font plusiers trous en rond 

 sur la glace, & celuy par ou Us doibuent tirer la seine a quelque 

 cinq pieds de long, & trois pieds de large, puis commanc,ent (sic)t 

 par cest ouuverture a mettre leur filet, lesquels Us attachant a vne 

 perche de bois, de six a sept pieds de long, & la mettent dessoubs la 

 glace, & font courir ceste perche de trou en trou. ou vn homme, ou 

 deux mettent les mains par les trous, prenant le perche ou est at- 

 tache vn bout du filet, jusques d. ce qu'ils viennent ioindre rouuer- 



