39 
use dogs at the first setting of the net and also for a woman to cross on the 
ice above the net. To prevent the net from freezing when being hauled, 
a basin is cut in the ice next to the hole through which the net is drawn. 
This basin fills with water, and the fish are extracted under water in 
this basin. It is a bitter occupation in extremely cold weather; chilled 
hands ache as though ice were being pushed into the fingers underneath 
the nails. The old nets of willow fibre have been entirely supplanted by 
the common white twine net. No record of skin-line nets, except for 
beaver, could be found among the Bear Lake people today. Hearne (1795, 
page 265) has described fish-nets made from lines of deerskins among the 
northern Indians, however. 
The common method of catching trout in the spring is through a hole 
in the ice with hook and line attached to the end of a willow sapling a few 
feet longer than the thickness of the ice. This willow takes the place of 
the line in going through the hole, so that a slight stroke of the chisel does 
not cut the tackle. The line under water is about 8 feet long, but an 
additional 20 or 30 feet is coiled up to the willow in such a way that it is 
automatically released when the bait is taken. A piece of whitefish or 
herring is preferred for bait. Modern steel hooks have completely dis- 
placed the old ones of wood and bone. 
Spearing fish through the ice was a common practice among the 
Satudene and is still done occasionally at the mouth of Great Bear river. 
Fish-weirs were formerly made of either stones or brush, but trapping 
baskets were apparently unknown. Fish are also sometimes caught by 
snagging them with a hook on the end of a long pole. 
Fish are either eaten fresh, or dried in the sun after cutting. The 
commonest method of cooking in prehistoric times seems to have been 
roasting before the fire on sticks. Boiling is now more frequent, apparently 
because it is easier. Metal kettles have, even in the memory of the people, 
supplanted the use of hot stones in water-tight baskets of woven spruce 
root. Salt was formerly not used as seasoning, and even today has little 
attraction. The liver and eggs of the loche are eaten and the large intestine 
of the trout is roasted as a delicacy, having somewhat the flavour of a clam. 
There is no individual ownership of fishing places. 
Moose and Caribou, Moose and caribou form a food supply for the 
Satudene second only to fish. Moose are indigenous to the entire bush 
country surrounding Great Bear lake and follow a few rivers almost to the 
coast. The barren ground caribou are restricted to the barrens and edges 
of the timber. The woodland caribou are found as far north as the Sans 
Sault rapids of the Mackenzie (between Norman and Good Hope). Bear 
mountain, between Keith and Mc\icar bays, is about their eastern limit 
in this area. Far more are found to the south of Bear lake than to the north- 
west. The mountain caribou live in the Rockies west of the Mackenzie 
and in the foothills, but do not come to the river. 
The Great Bear Lake Indians take moose generally by shooting, 
principally in the spring when the hunter can run over the light crust on 
snow-shoes while the moose is impeded by the deep snow, or else in the 
summer when the flies drive the moose to the rivers. They know the habits 
of the moose astonishingly well, at what time and where it will be likely 
