380. AMERICAN FISHES. 



fish visit, to a greater or less extent, all the rivers in this region, and 

 form the principal dependence of the inhabitants as the means of sub- 

 sistence. The natives always make a feast to express their joy at the 

 arrival of the Salmon. The person who sees the first one in the river 

 exclaims, Td-loe naslay ! ta-loe naslay ! Salmon have arrived ! Salmon 

 have arrived ! The exclamation is caught up with joy, and repeated 

 with animation by every body in the village. 



" ' September 2. We have now the common Salmon in abundance. 

 They weigh from five to seven pounds. There are also a few of a 

 larger kind, which will weigh sixty or seventy pounds. Both of them 

 are very good when just taken out of the water ; but when dried, as 

 they are by the Indians here by the heat of the sun, or in the smoke of 

 a lire, they are not very palatable. When salted, they are excellent. 

 As soon as the Salmon come into Stuart's Lake, they go in search of 

 the rivers and brooks that fall into it, and these streams they ascend 

 so far as there is water to enable them to swim ; and when they can 

 proceed no farther up, they remain there and die. None were ever 

 seen to descend these streams. They are found dead in such num- 

 bers, in some places, as to infect the atmosphere with a terrible stench, 

 for a considerable distance round. But even when they are in a putrid 

 state, the natives frequently gather them up and eat them, apparently 

 with the same relish as if they were fresh. 



" ' October 21. We have now in our store twenty-five thousand 

 Salmon. Four in a day are allowed to each man. I have sent some 

 of our people to take White Fish, Attihawmeg. 



'" November 16. Our fishermen have returned to the fort, and in- 

 form me that they have taken seven thousand White Fish. They 

 weigh from three to four pounds, and were taken in nine nets of sixty 

 fathoms each. 17. The lake froze over in the night. 



" ' 1812. January 30. I have returned from visiting five villages 

 of the Nateotains, built on a lake of that name, which gives origin to 

 a river that falls into Gardner's Inlet. They contain about two thou- 

 sand inhabitants, who subsist principally on Salmon and other small 

 fish, and are all well made and robust. The Salmon of Lake Nateo- 

 tain have small scales, while those of Stuart's Lake have none. 



" ' May 23. — Stuart's Lake. This morning the natives caught a 

 Sturgeon that would weigh about two hundred and fifty pounds. Wo 



