It was really
pitiful to see them staggering about, sometimes running afoul of a
large stone, at other times tumbling down hill and falling into creeks
not yet frozen over. In one spot we found a whole herd lying dead."
Throughout British North America, from the Yukon to Newfoundland, and
from Labrador to Vancouver's Island, the rivers and freshwater lakes
swarm with fish, and fish that in most cases is exceedingly good to
eat. Salmon are most strikingly abundant in the rivers of British
Columbia and Newfoundland, but they also ascend most of the rivers
flowing into the Atlantic and Hudson's Bay. In the great lakes of
Canada and of the middle west there are trout and white fish
(_Coregonus_), pike, bass, chub, barbel, and five species of sturgeon.
In the rivers and lakes of the far north-west is found the blackfish
(_Dallia_).
Hearne writes of Lake Athabasca that it swarms with fish, such as
pike, trout, perch, barbel, and other kinds not easily identified.
Apparently there is also a form of gar-pike found here (see p. 74);
this is described as having scales of a very large and stiff kind, and
being a beautiful bright silver in colour. The size of these gar-pike
range from two feet to four feet in length. Their flesh was delicately
white and soft, but so foul and rank in taste that even the Indians
would not eat it.
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