Volume 1

112 VARIOUS INCIDENTS AND OCCUPATIONS.
telling them it would have served them right if we had
shot them.
I sent Desmarais and others to seine. They returned
with five large sturgeon. Wolves are very numerous ; they
go in large droves, and keep up a terrible howling, day and
night. My men caught a fox, a fisher, and two raccoons in
their traps. I am told the sick woman, this evening, found
great relief from something having, as she expressed it,
burst inside
quantity of foul matter.
the wound, which instantly discharged a great
Sunday, Oct. ^th. Part of the Indians decamped up the
river to hunt beaver. My man is very unwell still ; the sick
woman is so far recovered that she walks about, and sits up
to make shoes. My hunter's child is sick. The buffaloes
are moving southward in one body. My men brought a
raft of flooring wood of bois blanc split. I supplied the
sick with flour, sugar, and some tea. My men caught five
raccoons in their traps along the beach.
Oct. 6th. Early this morning my hunter went out and
returned at ten o'clock ; he had shot a bear and two red
deer. I sent eight men for the meat. My men caught
three raccoons in their traps. At three o'clock the others
returned with the meat. The bucks, having done rutting,
are very lean and poor, whilst the does are fat. It is surprising
how suddenly this change takes place in red deer.
Oct. yth. One of my men cut his hand with an ax, in a
Desmarais has been employed for a few
very ugly manner.
days on making a seine which is now finished ; 2 pounds of
sturgeon twine produces 4 fathoms 45 meshes high, and 2
skeins maitre de nits and 40 balls finishes a seine. At ten
o'clock I sent two men in a large canoe down river for red
deer, it being necessary that one of the canoes should
pass the winter below, as we may need it
early in the spring.
I propose to follow it on horseback, being anxious to know
how Langlois is coming on with his Indians.
Oct. 8th. I gave all hands a dram, and at nine o'clock
set off alone on horseback. It soon began to snow; the