TRAPS OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 



467 



the funnel consists of a series of string gates, which the animal passes, 

 and these close the mouth of the net so as to prevent escape (fig. 3). 



Among the Eskimo a unique contrivance for catching foxes was a 

 net which was made to be set around a burrow, in the corners of which 

 were long pockets, opening wide into the net. hut gradually contract- 

 ing until the fox could go no farther. Endeavoring to turn hack, it 

 became hopelessly entangled and died of fright and cold. 



(c) Pits. — The digging of pits was not common in America before 

 the discovery, owing to the lack of metallic excavating tools. Pits 

 partially dug out and partially built up were seen here and there as a 

 blind for the hunter, who concealed himself 



therein. Boas, quoting Lyon, describes an 

 Eskimo fox trap in the snow into which the 

 animal jumped and was unable to extricate 

 itself. 



The central Eskimo, according to the same 

 authority, dig a wolf trap in the snow T and 

 cover it with a slab of snow on which the 

 bait is laid. The wolf breaks through the 

 roof, and as the bottom of the pit is too 

 barrow to afford him jumping room, he is 

 caught. 



The Cree, in the Saskatchewan country, 

 place at the end of their deer drives a log of 

 wood, and on the inner side make an excava- 

 tion sufficiently deep to prevent the animal 

 from leaping back. 



Pitfalls are said to have been used by the 

 Indians of Massachusetts. They are de- 

 scribed as oval in shape, 3 rods long and 15 

 feet deep. 



The Concow Indians of California are said 

 to catch grasshoppers for food by driving them into pits. The Acho- 

 maw i, or Pit River Indians, dug deer pitfalls 10 or 12 feet deep by 

 means of sticks, and carried the earth away in baskets. In southern 

 Brazil, also, wild beasts were caught in pits dug for that purpose and 

 covered w r ith leaves. 



(d) Door traps. — The last form of inclosing trap to hi 1 mentioned 

 here is also the most mechanical', it includes those in which a door 

 falls and incloses the animal, or in which a cage, one side of which is 

 held up hy an unstable prop, falls and incloses the victim. 



Parry describes a small house trap, made. of ice and used by the 

 Eskimo for foxes, at one end of which was a door made of the same 

 material, to slide up and down in a groove. This door was sustained 

 by a line which passed over the roof and was caught inside on a hook 



Fish trap 



