Narrative of Mrs. Alice Verreault 1960 Somewhere on the Mistassini River

From Pointe-Bleue, they went as far as the Girardville barrier.  They stayed 2 weeks at this site during the summer.  They collected blueberries round about.  They placed a fishing net to catch white fish (corégone), pike, carp, and gudgeon.
Kapitatshutsh, rapids very long to ascend.  At almost all campsites, it was a 2-day stay to move the baggage. (2 nights and 3 days)

Nataushnutsh: Cran Serré or calm between 2 rapids.

There were many moose; today it is all blocked on the right side of the Mistassini River.  There are tracks everywhere.

Kalshtelnanutsh shakahikan: place for making bark canoes, there were a lot of trout.  They tended their hare traps.

Kuakuapishish shipi: Riviere aux Papillons, site of an old cache.

Kauipishkaueshimuatsh: Portage du Brule

12 campsites on the Mistassini River before forking towards their hunting and trapping territory.  They slept at all of the portages because the trip was very long.

On one site, they killed a moose and stayed a week to be able to smoke the meat.  This procedure was done to lighten the load in the portages and they had to feed their 4 sled dogs.

Main site, stay of 2 months, Lac Cauvet.  There was beaver, fox and mink, but no lynx.

The Bossum’s hunted on the east side and the Jourdain’s on the west side.

During autumn, they slept in 3 campsites to make a round of the traps and returned to the main site.  The evening, the men prepared the skins and the women tanned the fur skins.  Trapping occurred in autumn, by canoe and on foot.  They left their canoes in a cache, at Lac Cauvet.

During the winter, they slept 2 nights per campsite, because his father made a snowshoe path to change the campsite location.

Beaver, otter and muskrat were trapped during the spring.  They had to wait for a month and a half for the ice on the Mistassini River to melt.  While waiting, they continued to trap.  From the last site, they slept at 3 campsites, while returning on the Mistassini River to get to Girardville.  From the village they called for a truck to get to Pointe-Bleue (Mashteuiatsh).