78 FISHING UNDER THE ICE. 



vegetables. One of the Swiss was lately frozen 

 to death on the plains ; and a Meuron settler 

 returning to the colony with a horse sledge of ' 

 provisions perished also from the severity of the 

 winter. 



Feb. 14. — Times do not yet wear a more 

 favourable aspect, and most of the settlers are 

 upon an allowance of a pint of wheat each a 

 day. Sometimes a few fish are taken with nets, 

 from under the ice, which are put down by 

 making holes at the distance of about fifteen or 

 twenty feet from each other, and affixing the 

 net line to a pole of this length, by which the 

 net is drawn in the water from one opening to 

 the other, till it is easily set. The fish that 

 are caught, are pike, perch, and a species of 

 herring, called gold-eyes, and for which an exor- 

 bitant price is frequently paid. The northern 

 Indians angle for fish in winter, by cutting 

 round holes in the ice about a foot or two in 

 diameter, and letting down a baited hook. This 

 is always kept in motion to prevent the water 

 from freezing, and to attract the fish to the spot. 

 Immediately they take a fish, they scoop out 

 the eyes and swallow them, thinking them as 

 great a delicacy as the European does the 

 oyster. 



My professional duties calling me to Pembina, 



