Original - North Central Michigan College Library

Crafcelg anUreally animated thei^ beauty, by a liberal useof vermilion.My house being completed, my winter'sfood was the next object; and for this purpose,with the assistance of my men, I soon took twothousand trout and whitefish, the former frequentlyweighing fifty pounds each and thelatter commonly from four to We six. preservedthem by suspending them by the tail inthe open air. These, without bread or salt,were our food through all the winter, the menbeing free to consume what quantity theypleased and boiling or roasting them wheneverthey thought proper. After leaving MichilimackinacI saw no bread; and I found lessdifficulty in reconciling myself to the privationthan I could have anticipated.On the fifteenth of December the Bay ofChagouemig was frozen entirely over. Afterthis I resumed my former amusement of spearingtrout, and sometimes caught a hundred ofthese fish in a day, each weighing on an averagetwenty pounds.My house, which stood in the bay, was shelteredby an island of fifteen miles in length,8and between which and the main the channelis four miles broad. On the island there wasformerly a French trading-post, much frequented;and in its neighborhood a largeIndian village. To the south-east is a lake,called Lake des Outaouais, from the Ottawa.8Modern Madelaine Island. Editor.191