114 A JOURNEY TO THE 



1770. woman ? I must acknowledge that examples of this kind 

 ecem er. ^^^^ ^f infinite service to me, as they tended to keep up my 

 spirits on those occasions with a degree of fortitude that would 

 have been impossible for me to have done had the Indians 

 behaved in a contrary manner, and expressed any apprehension 

 of starving. 

 31st. Early in the morning of the thirty-first, we continued our 

 journey, and walked about fourteen miles to the Westward 

 on Island Lake, where we fixed our residence ; but Matonabbee 

 was at this time so ill as to be obliged to be hauled on a 

 1771- sledge the whole day. The [71] next morning, however, he so 

 January. ^^^ j-ecovercd as to be capable of walking ; when we proceeded 

 on to the West and West by North, about sixteen miles farther 

 on the same Lake, till we arrived at two tents, which con- 

 tained the remainder of the wives and families of my guides, 

 who had been waiting there for the return of their husbands 

 from the Fort. Here we found only two men, though there 

 were upward of twenty women and children ; and as those 

 two men had no gun or ammunition, they had no other 

 method of supporting themselves and the women, but by 

 catching fish, and snaring a few rabbits : ^ the latter were scarce, 

 but the former were easily caught in considerable numbers 

 either with nets or hooks. The species of fish generally 

 caught in the nets are tittemeg, pike, and barbie ; and the 

 only sorts caught with hooks are trout, pike, burbut, and 

 a small fish, erroneously called by the English tench : the 

 Southern Indians call it the toothed tittemeg, and the 

 Northern Indians call it saint eah. They are delicate eating ; 

 being nearly as firm as a perch, and generally very fat. They 

 seldom exceed a foot in length, and in shape much resemble a 

 gurnard, except that of having a very long broad fin on the 

 back, like a perch, but this fin is not armed with similar 

 spikes. The scales are large, and of a sooty brown. They 



[^ Lepus americanus (Erxleben).] 



