Ex-Sheriff Ruttan says of his father’s family, with whom his uncle lived, “We had the luxury of a cow which the family brought with them, and had it not been for this domestic boon, all would have perished in the year of scarcity. The crops had failed the year before, and the winter that followed, was most inclement and severe. The snow was unusually deep, so that the deer became an easy prey to their rapacious enemies, the wolves, who fattened on their destruction, whilst men were perishing for want. Five individuals, in different places, were found dead, and one poor woman also, with a live infant at her breast; which was cared for and protected.” “Two negroes were sent to Albany for corn, who brought four bushels. This, with the milk of the cow dealt out day by day in limited quantity, kept them alive till harvest.” “The soldiers’ rations were reduced to one biscuit a day.” Referring to other days after the famine he says: “Fish was plentiful”—the “fishing tackle was on a primitive plan; something similar to the Indians, who fixed the bait on part of the back bone of the pike, which would catch these finny tribe quite as expeditiously as the best Limerick hook; but our supply was from spearing by torchlight, which has been practiced by the Indian from time immemorial; from whom we obtained a vast deal of practical knowledge.” Roger Bates, near Cobourg, speaking of the first years of Upper Canada, says that his grandfather’s family, living in Prince Edward for a while, “adopted many ingenious contrivances of the Indians for procuring food. Not the least simple and handy was a crotched pole, with which they secured salmon in any quantity, the creeks being full of them.” He removed to the township of Clarke, where he was the first white settler, and for six months saw no white person. “For a long time he had to go to Kingston, 125 miles, with his wheat to be ground. They had no other conveyance than batteaux; the journey would sometimes occupy five or six weeks. Of an evening they put in at some creek, and obtained their salmon with ease, using a forked stick, which passed over the fish’s back and held it fast. Sometimes they were so long gone for grist, in consequence of bad weather, that the women would collect together and have a good cry, thinking the batteaux had foundered. If their food ran short, they had a dog that would, when told, hunt a deer and drive it into the water, so that the young boys could shoot it.”