246 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. CHAP. xv. 



It is computed that not less than 74,000 geese are killed 

 annually by the Indians of Hudson's Bay, and that not 

 less than 1,200,000 geese leave their breeding grounds 

 by the Hudson's Bay line of march for the South, being 

 the probable proportion of the vast army of at least 

 2,000,000 geese, which with wild clang pass across the 

 continent between the Atlantic and the Eocky Mountains, 

 to seek a winter home in the South.* 



The mode in which Domenique with his tribe of Mon- 

 tagnais on one side of the Dividing Eidge, and the 

 Nasquapees on the other, passed their winter, may be 

 described in a few words. 



Having selected their camp ground near the lake, they 

 swept away the snow with little wooden shovels con- 

 structed for the purpose, and pitched their lodges of 

 caribou skin. The inside of the tent was lined with 

 spruce branches, with the exception of a space about five 

 feet square in the centre, where the fire was placed. 

 Spruce branches were also placed round about the tents 

 to the height of three or four feet. This miserable shelter 

 formed their home throughout the intense cold of an 

 almost arctic winter, and it has formed the dwelling 

 places of these Nomadic tribes for centuries. When the 

 weather permitted, the hunters went out to seek for 

 caribou or ptarmigan, and to set and visit their traps, 

 which were arranged in a circuit of many miles. Towards 

 evening they brought home the proceeds of the day's 

 hunt. The squaws set to work to skin the marten or 



the Montreal Natural History Society. TJie Canadian Naturalist and 

 Geologist, October 1861. 

 * Ibid. 



