48 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



happens that high winds prevent the canoes 

 from transporting them thither, and the 

 residents are kept in consequence without a 

 supply of food for two or three days toge- 

 ther. The fish caught in the net are the 

 attihawmegh, trout, carp, methye and pike. 



The traders also get supplied by the 

 hunters with buffalo and moose deer meat, 

 (which animals are found at some distance 

 from the forts,) but the greater part of it is 

 either in a dried state, or pounded ready 

 for making pemmican ; and is required for 

 the men whom they keep travelling during 

 the winter to collect the furs from the 

 Indians, and for the crews of the canoes on 

 their outward passage to the depots in 

 spring. There was a great want of pro- 

 vision this season, and both the Companies 

 had much difficulty to provide a bare suf- 

 ficiency for their different brigades of canoes. 

 Mr. Smith assured me that after the canoes 

 had been despatched he had only five hun- 

 dred pounds of meat remaining for the use 

 of the men who might travel from the post 

 during the summer, and that five years pre- 



