unprofitable, and after experimenting with them for three years they
were abandoned. The agents in charge were each spring on the verge of
starvation before the opening of the waters brought fish and food or
they were relieved by the brigades from Ungava. They had to depend
almost wholly upon their hunters for provisions. It was not attempted
in those days to carry in flour, pork and other food stuffs now
considered by the traders necessaries. And almost the only goods
handled by them in the Indian trade were axes, knives, guns,
ammunition and beads.

Indian House Lake now, as then, is a general rendezvous for the
Indians during the summer months, when they congregate there to fish
and to hunt reindeer. In the autumn they scatter to the better
trapping grounds, where fur bearing animals are found in greater abun-
dance. We were too late in the season to meet these Indians, though
we saw many of their camping places.

A snowstorm began on October seventh, but the wind had so far abated
that we were able to resume our journey. It was a bleak and dismal
day. Save for now and then a small grove of spruce trees in some
sheltered nook, and these at long intervals, the country was destitute
and barren of growth. Below our camp, upon entering the lake, there
was a wide, flat stretch of sand wash from the river, and below this
from the lake shore on either side, great barren, grim hills rose in
solemn majesty, across whose rocky face the wind swept the snow in
fitful gusts and squalls. Off on a mountain side a wolf disturbed the
white silence with his dismal cry, and farther on a big black fellow
came to the water's edge, and with the snow blowing wildly about him
held his head in the air and howled a challenge at us as we passed
close by. Perhaps he yearned for companionship and welcomed the sight