Ixxxvith A GENERAL HISTORY

better fituated for trade and fifhing, as the people here have recourfe to
water for their {upport.

This being the place which I made my head-quarters for eight years,
and from whence I took my departure, on both, my expeditions, I fhall
give fome account of it, with the manner of carrying on the trade there,

and other circumftances connefted with it.

The laden canoes ‘which leave Lake la Pluie about the firft of Auguft,
do not arrive here till the latter end of September, or the beginning of
O&ober, when a neceflary proportion of them is difpatched up the Peace
River to trade with the Beaver and Rocky-Mountain Indians, Others
are fent to the Slave River and Lake, or beyond them, and traffic with

_ the inhabitants of that country. A {mall part of them, if not left at the

Fork of the Elk River, return thither for the Knifteneaux, while the

reft of the people and merchandife remain here to carry on trade with
the Chepewyans.

Here have I arrived with ninety or an hundred men without any
provifion for their fuftenance; for whatever quantity might have been
obtained from the natives during the fummer, it could not be more
than fufficient for the people difpatched to their different pofts; and
even if there were a cafual fuperfluity, it was abfolutely neceflary to
preferve it untouched, for the demands of the fpring. The whole de-
pendance, therefore, of thofe who remained, was on the lake, anil fifhing
implements for the means of our fupport. The nets are fixty fathom
in length, when fet, and contain fifteen mefhes of five inches in depth.
The manner of ufing them is as follows: A fmall ftone and wooden

buoy