Perhaps they go
farther inland, and too far for him to follow. I have seen times when
ptarmigans were so thick men killed them for dog food, and perhaps the
next year there would not be a ptarmigan to be found to put into the
pot for dinner. I have seen the snow trampled down everywhere in the
woods and among the brush by innumerable snowshoe rabbits, and I have
seen other years when not a single rabbit track was to be found
anywhere. It is the same with caribou and the fur bearing animals as
well. In those years when game is scarce the people are hard put to it
to get a bit of fresh meat to eat.
When no fresh meat is to be had salt fish, bread (rarely with butter)
and tea, with molasses as sweetening, is the diet. There is no milk,
even for the babies. If all the salt fish has been sold or traded in
for flour and tea, bread and tea three times a day is all there is to
eat.
People cannot keep well on just bread and tea, or even bread and salt
fish and tea. It is not hard for us to imagine how we would feel if
every meal we had day in and day out was only bread and tea, and
sometimes not enough of that.
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