154 



A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



ranges to the N.W., until it reaches Clear Lake, about thirty miles 

 to the southward of the fort, and then goes to the south-westward, 

 The Cree Indians generally procure from this range their provision, 

 as well as the bark for the making of the canoes. There is another 

 range of hills on the south shore, which runs towards the Peace 

 River. 



The residents of these establishments depend for subsistence 

 almost entirely on the fish which this lake affords ; they are usually 

 caught in sufficient abundance throughout the winter, though at 

 the distance of eighteen miles from the houses ; on the thawing 

 of the ice, the fish remove into some smaller lakes, and the rivers 

 on the south shore. Though they are nearer to the forts than in 

 winter, it frequently happens that high winds prevent the canoes 

 from transporting them thither, and the residents are kept in con- 

 sequence without a supply of food for two or three days together. 

 The fish caught in the net are the tittameg, trout, carp, methye, 

 and pike. 



The traders here 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 pas- 

 sage to the depdts in spring. There was a great want of provision 

 this season, and both the companies had much difficulty to provide a 

 bare sufficiency, for the use of their different brigades of canoes. 

 Mr. Smith assured me he had only five hundred pounds of meat re- 

 maining after the canoes had been despatched for the use of the men 

 who might travel from the post during the summer, and that five years 

 preceding, there had been thirty thousand pounds in store under 

 similar circumstances. He ascribed this amazing difference more to 

 the indolent habits which the Indians had acquired since the com- 



