167 
throughout the year. The fish of Lake Huron are much 
the same as those in Lake Superior.” 
Carver arrived at Mackinaw at the beginning of No- 
vember, 1767, after having been to the Mississippi River 
and up that stream as far as the Falls of St. Anthony. 
He says: “We passed the winter very pleasantly at the 
Straits of Mackinaw. One of their amusements at this 
time was to fish through the ice for trout. Though the 
Straits were covered with ice we found means to make 
holes through it, and letting down a strong line fifteen 
yards in length to which we fixed three or four hooks 
baited with the small fish before described, we frequently 
caught two at atime of forty pounds weight each, but 
the common size is from ten to twenty pounds. The 
method of preserving them during the three months the 
winter generally lasts, is by hanging them up in the air, 
and in one night they will be frozen so hard that they 
will keep as well as though they were cured by salt.” 
This may properly be considered as the first authentic 
notice of preserving fish by the freezing process, and 
while it is crude it still was as effective as the work now 
done by the immense freezers found in almost every im- 
portant town on the lakes. 
George Heriot, Deputy Postmaster General of British 
North America, in his book of travels, published in 1807, 
says of Mackinaw that the Indians of that locality “catch 
herring, whitefish and trout, the trout being from four to 
five feet in length, some of which are seventy pounds in 
weight. This fish is bred in Lake Michigan and is known 
by the name of Mackinaw trout, and affords a most de- 
licious food.” Of Green Bay he says: “There isa vil- 
lage composed of natives at the mouth of this river who 
employ themselves in fishing.” 
At the Sault Ste. Marie, ‘““At the bottom of the rapids 
and among their billows which foam with ceaseless im- 
petuosity, innumerable quantities of excellent fish may 
be taken from the spring until winter. The species 
