506 



l^^OKTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[NO. 27. 



have become famous in Arctic literature, have been selected with a 

 view to the local abundance of this fish. 



Whitefish are taken altogether in gill nets, and at all times of the 

 year. The nets are less successful, however, during the almost con- 

 tinuous day of midsummer than later, when there is more or less dark- 

 ness. But it is in autumn, just before the lakes close, that the ' fall 

 fishery ' is made, when more are taken than at any other season. At 

 this time the whitefish congregate in the shallower parts of the lakes 

 to spawn, and being then abundant and at their best, and the weather 

 being favorable for their preservation, are taken in great numbers. A 

 few citations will give some idea of the immense quantities of these 

 fish which are annually taken, and of their great importance. Ogilvie, 

 who spent a part of the fall of 1888 at Fort Chipewyan, says that the 

 Hudson's Bay Company required 36,000 for the use of its post, the 

 Koman Catholic mission 12,000, and the remainder of the population 

 at least 30,000 more. Most of these were caught near the post during 

 three weeks." 



E. G. McConnell spent the autumn of 1887 about Great Slave Lake 

 and has this to say in regard to its whitefish : 



Tlie Big Island fishery supplied Fort Simpson and Fort Providence last year 

 with about 40,000 fish, besides affording constant support to a number of In- 

 dians. At the mouth of the Beaver about 20,000 were taken and the fisheries at 

 the mouth of Hay River, in the bay in front of Fort Rae, and near Fort Reso- 

 lution, yielded corresponding quantities. I estimated the total yield of the lake 

 for the year 1887 at about half a million pounds. * * * xhe whitefish taken 

 at Big Island average nearly 3 pounds in weight while those from Fort Rae 

 are much smaller, and may belong to a different species.^ 



After the regular fall fishery is brought to a close by the freezing 

 over of the lakes, large numbers of whitefish are sometimes taken in 

 nets set beneath the ice. Richardson describes this method as follows : 



The Attihawmeg is taken in the winter time in gill nets set under the ice. 

 Each net is fifty or sixty fathoms long, and of a depth proportionate to that 

 of the water, and in setting it for the first time a series of holes are made 

 through the ice, at such a distance apart, that a long stick can be readily passed 

 in the water from one to the other : a line, rather longer than the net to which 

 it is fastened, being attached to the stick, is carried along and brought out at 

 the extreme hole. The net being buoyed up above by thin oblong pieces of fir, 

 and loaded below with stones, is drawn beneath the ice by means of the line, 

 and firmly fixed at each end to stakes thrust through the holes. After the first 

 time the intermediate holes in the ice, being useless, are allowed to freeze up, 

 but the extreme ones are opened daily, and the net examined by the fisherman, 

 who draws it out at one hole, while his assistant veers away the line at the 

 other. * * * Most of the fish enter the net by night. They freeze as they 

 are taken from the water, and are thus preserved in a perfectly sound state 

 until spring.^ 



« Ann. Rept. Dept. Interior (Canada) for 1889, p. 90, 1890. 

 ^Ann. Rept. Geol. Surv. Canada, IV, p. 74D, 1891. 

 ^ Fauna Boreali-Americana, III, p. 197, 1836. 



