FROM CHIPEWYAN TO THE RAILROAD 313 



There was a dance that evening as a farewell spree for 

 the men who were going out in boats, and the next morn- 

 ing, against a very strong head -wind, we started. The 

 wind had blown so hard all night that it had cleared the 

 lake of ice directly in front of the post, but the water was 

 so rough and the wind so strong the men could barely 

 keep the boat moving with their huge fifteen-foot sweeps. 

 For several hours they worked diligently until we got 

 around an island (Potato Island), directly opposite Chip- 

 ewyan, and here we camped, for it seemed impossible to 

 cross the lake that day. This is the island, by-the-way, 

 where in the earliest days of fur- trading the Northwest 

 Company had its headquarters. 



When we landed we found about all the women from 

 the post cutting and drying the fish, which were running 

 in unusually large numbers because of the early spring 

 and low water that had driven them into narrowed chan- 

 nels. The greater part of the island was covered by stag- 

 ings raised to about six feet, on which the fish were hung 

 as rapidly as cut in half and relieved of their backbones by 

 the squaws. As I watched the quantities of fish dumped 

 before these women, who could not handle them as rap- 

 idly as they were brought in by the boats, I wondered 

 again at the improvidence of this people that pass a good 

 half of their lives in starvation. Instead of putting more 

 women at work, they let what fish the few women could 

 not attend to rot in the sun. 



The men set the nets, which are about forty fathoms 

 long by three feet deep, and haul the fish ashore, where the 

 squaws do the rest. 



The women get one " skin " for every fifty fish dried, or 

 a " skin " for forty white-fish, as these have scales which 

 must be removed. The white-fish are prepared for eat- 

 ing, while the jack-fish and others are dried for the dogs, 



