98 REINDEER LAKE AND FORT DU BROCHET 



connections to lakes. Many small land-locked 

 inland lakes apparently contain no fish, or very 

 few, and those usually pike. 



The fish contained in Reindeer Lake are, if we 

 exclude the small fry of which I had not sufficient 

 time or opportunity to take account, Whitefish, 

 Lake Trout, Back's Grayling, or Arctic Grayling (?) 

 Pike, Pickerel, Red Sucker, Black Sucker, and 

 lastly a small herring-like fish, indigenous appar- 

 ently to the south end of the lake, which, after 

 reference to specimens in the Museum at Ottawa, I 

 believe to be the Alaska Herring, or Mooneye Cisco. 



The Whitefish is the great food fish, both for 

 the natives of Reindeer Lake and their sled-dogs. 

 The flesh is white and delicate, and delicious to 

 eat ; and one never tires of it even when it is 

 made a constant diet. They are caught only in 

 gill-nets, and weigh on an average between two 

 and three pounds. The smallest fish I saw taken 

 weighed one pound, and the largest six pounds. 

 In shape the whitefish is narrow-backed, with a 

 full, curved outline and deep-girthed sides which 

 are covered with silvery coarse scales ; the head 

 is small, and tapers sharply to the fine-lipped, 

 toothless mouth. The lower sides and belly are 

 silvery white, which is the striking colour of 

 the fish, for they look like bars of silver when 

 freshly caught ; the upper sides glint with pale 

 bluish-purple, or reddish-purple in some instances, 

 and darken into the brown over back, while 

 the scale outlines there show black. The dorsal 

 fin is of ordinary size ; not large, and brightly 

 coloured like the grayling, which it resembles 

 somewhat in shape and size. 



