470 TRAPS OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 



and instead of pulling at the bait to release the spring, it gnaws in two 

 a string - which holds the snare down and which has something on it 

 appetizing to the animal. In the Iroquois rabbit trap the string is 

 steeped in salt (fig. 1). 



The simplest nooses at Point Barrow are made of baleen and set 

 around when 1 fine gravel has been placed to attract the birds. Ac- 

 counts are also given of nooses of whalebone set in water along the 

 shores where ducks dive for their favorite plants, and which catch 

 the birds by the neck. This reminds one of the use of the mesh 

 net for the same purpose in California. From Nelson and other 

 observers among the Eskimo, and from the examination of collections 

 in the museums, it is learned that the methods and places of setting a 

 noose are limited only by the habits of the different animals. 



In the Mackenzie River country, and wherever the Hudson Hay 

 Company's people have prosecuted their work, the snare and the springe 

 are very commonly employed. Even reindeer and moose are strangled 

 by means of snares set in their way. Father Morice figures in the 

 Transactions of the Canadian Institute, 189-1, a great variety of appli- 

 cations of the noose. 



In Wood's New England Canaan we have the quaintest description 

 of a New England trap: 



"The Salvages take these in trappes made of their naturall Hempe 

 which they place in the earthe where they fell a tree for browse and 

 when he roundes the tree for the browse if hee tread on the trap 

 he is horsed up by the legg by means of a pole that starts up and 

 catcheth him." a 



The gentleman of Elvas '' gives the following description of the trap 

 among the Autiamgue tribes: 



"With great springes which lifted up their feet from the ground; 

 and the snare was made with a strong string, whereunto was fastened 

 a knot of a cane, which ran close about the neck of the conic, because 

 they should not gnaw the string." 



Teit, in his account of the Thompson River tribe, 1 describes deer 

 fences and springes used in catching large and small animals. Mrs. 

 Allison describes snares for catching deer and birds in the same 

 region. This custom prevails also in California among many tribes 

 described by Frost and Powers. Zufii boys catch blackbirds with 

 snares made of horsehair fastened to a rope; these snares are laid on 

 the ground and seeds placed between. When the birds alight the} T 

 put their feet into the snare and are drawn up and captured. The 

 older Zuilis drive sunflower stalks into the ground and fasten a noose 

 on the top. When a hawk, watching for field mice, alights on the 



a New England Prospect, Prince Society; Boston, 1883, p. 202. 

 "" Hakluyt, Voyages, Vol. Ill, p. 114. 



c Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, Anthropology, Vol.11, 

 pp. 247-249, figs. 228, 229. 



