165 
taking the whitefish, which the Indians catch in nets in 
from fifteen to twenty fathoms of water, and without 
which they could not subsist at all. 
“At the Sault the Indians subsist by hunting stags, 
moose or elk and some beaver, and by the whitefish which 
is very good and is found in great abundance, but this fish 
is very difficult to take to all but these Indians, who are 
trained to it from childhood.” 
He says, on his return from his first voyage up the 
lakes, and after the loss of the Griffin: “On reaching 
Lake Conti (Lake Erie) near the mouth of the Detroit 
River, the soldiers who were in canoes killed with 
their swords and with their axes more than thirty stur- 
geons which came to spawn on the banks of the lake.” 
Charlevoix, in his voyage to North America, 1721, in 
speaking of Lake St. Clair, the smallest lake of the chain 
which lies between Lake Erie and Lake Huron: ‘“ The 
islands in the river seemed placed on purpose for the 
pleasure of the prospect, and the river and the lake 
abound in fish. Were it not for the Hurons at Detroit 
the other tribes of Indians would starve. This is in the 
flat lands thereabout which would furnish them sufficient 
subsistence though it were cultivated ever so little, but 
they can subsist upon the fish of the river which are 
plentiful. We entered the Lake Huron where we soon 
had the pleasure of fishing for sturgeon.” 
Speaking of Lake Superior, he said: “The Indians 
from gratitude for the plentiful fish with which this lake 
supplies them, and from the respect which its vast extent 
inspires, have made a sort of divinity of it.” Speaking 
of Michillimackinas, he says: ‘‘ The Indians live entirely 
by fishing, and there is perhaps no place in the world 
where they are in greater plenty. The most common 
sort of fish in the three lakes which discharge themselves 
into these straights are the herring, the carp, the goldfish, 
the pike, the sturgeon, the ‘attikumaig or whitefish, and 
especially the trout. There are three sorts of these 
