CHAP. xv. WINTER LIFE OP THE INDIANS. 247 



foxes, and prepare the stretchers. The men lay before 

 the fire after having eaten, and smoked, talked or slept. 

 If they succeeded in killing a caribou, they would have a 

 feast, and eat much more than was absolutely necessary, 

 lying throughout the next day in a half-stupid condition. 



The women employed themselves in dressing the 

 caribou skins, either for sale at the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany's Post in the following spring, or to convert into 

 articles of clothing. They also made snow-shoes, mo- 

 cassins, and decorated their new garments with por- 

 cupine quills. If the weather was bad, so that the men 

 could not visit the traps, they made bows and arrows or 

 fish-hooks, or wiled away the time in smoking and telling 

 stories of their success in hunting, or other incidents of 

 savage life. After having remained for a few weeks in 

 one place, the whole tribe move camp, following the 

 caribou, or going where fresh tracks of those animals had 

 been observed perhaps two or more days' journey 

 distant. 



The tents are taken down, the baggage and little 

 children placed in sledges made of two thin birch boards, 

 laced together ; all who can walk attach their snow-shoes, 

 and the procession sets out in single file. The young 

 men lead the way, making the road through the snow for 

 the others to follow. When they reach the point of their 

 destination, the whole process of raising the lodges and 

 lining them with spruce boughs has to be repeated, . 

 indeed, every time they move camp, which, when the 

 caribou are wild, occurs frequently during the winter for 

 they must follow the wandering animals, on which they 

 depend to a great extent for subsistence. The lakes do 



