64 BULLETIN 139, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Hunting animals with torches or other lights makes use of the lur- 

 ing or bhnding effects of this medium. Its use is extensive in space 

 and time and is employed for the taking of various animals. Among 

 the Haida and other Indians of the coast of British Columbia, birds 

 are taken by torclilight. The Iroquois hunt pigeons in the same 

 way. 



Wood, quoting Sproat, says of the Aht: 



'"Burning the water' is employed in catching salmon, and is car- 

 ried on by two natives, one of whom paddles the canoe while the 

 other stands in the bow, where a torch is kept burning, and strikes 

 the fish as they glide through the water"" (pi. 24). 



The Indians of Cape Flattery hunt seals in this way: Indians, 

 torch in hand, penetrate deep caverns at extreme ])oint of Cape 

 Flattery and kill seals, who are blinded by light.''^ 



"Torching" geese is practiced by the Nutka Indians, called 

 Esquates, who live not far from Nutka. "Wild geese * * * 

 caught with nets made from bark, in the fresh waters of that country. 

 Those who take them make choice for that purpose of a dark and 

 rainy night, and with their canoes stuck with lighted torches, proceed 

 with as little noise as possible to the place wliere the geese are col- 

 lected, who dazzled by the light, suffer themselves to be approached 

 very near, when the net is thrown over them, and in tliis manner 

 from 50 to 60, or even more, will sometimes be taken at one cast."" 



The Chasta Costa (Athapascan), Rogue River, Oregon, fish by 

 torchlight. A torch is placed in the crevice of a rock over the water 

 to attract fish from the deep holes near to the surface within reach 

 of the spearsmen.^* 



On Feather River, Cahfornia, the Indians fished all night long, 

 having a small fire in the bottom of the canoe built on a layer of earth 

 placed there for the purpose. 



The Indians of Puget Sound made use of the torch to catch 

 game — a device entirely unknown among the more northern Indians. 

 They hunted elk and deer at night, attracting them within bowshot 

 by the bright hghts. At certain points on the coast, where great 

 flocks of waterfowl flew from point to point, they erected tall poles 

 and on them stretched nets made of cords manufactiu*ed from wild 

 hemp and cedar roots. Getting behind these at night they would 

 raise their torches, and it was astonishing to see what numbers of 

 birds v/ould fly against the nets and drop to the ground, stunned by 

 the force of the collision and thus rendered powerless to escape the 

 hunters.'^ 



" J. O. Wood. Uncivilized Races, Hartford, 1878, vol. 2, p. 729. 



"James Q. Swan. Indians of Cape Flattery, Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, No. 220, 

 Washington, 1868, p. 88. 

 " Jewett's Narrative of 1803, New York, 1816 p. 134. 

 "Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey, 1877, vol. 3, p. 30. 

 '•Strong. Wah-kee-nah and Her People, New York, 1893, p. 121. 



