3Q ACCOUNT OF THE AJICTIC REGIONS. 



directing his route by the compass, with the assis- 

 tance generally of Indian guides, he performs jour- 

 neys of 1000 or 1500 miles in the course of two 

 or tlirec moiitlis. Tlie iJlxirmigans or willow-par- 

 tridges, which arc generally plentiful in winter near 

 Hudson's Bay ; the musk-oxen, the wild buffaloes, 

 the rein-deer, and the hares, which are found in cer- 

 tain situations throughout the northern parts of 

 America, even to the Frozen Ocean, together with 

 the quantity of fishes which occur in almost every 

 river and lake, afford a tolerably regular supply of 

 provisions *. 



* The willow-partridges are caught in a very simple Avay- 

 They are attracted by an artificial surface of gravel spread on 

 a hillock of snow, on sight of which, these birds requiring 

 this iirticle for assisting digestion in the winter time, when 

 they feed on the tops of the willows, descend in large flocks 

 upon it with precipitation : A net extended by poles is erect- 

 ed near the edge of the surface of gravel, and a string con- 

 nected with the props by which it is supported, is held by a 

 person on watch in any neighbouring cover, who, on observ- 

 ing a sufficient number of birds on the gravel, pulls away the 

 supports of the net, so that it falls upon them, and often en- 

 t ngles above fifty at a haul. In this way 200 or 300 birds 

 have frequently been takea in a winter's morning. Hares are 

 commonly taken witli snares, sometimes to the amount of 

 forty or fifty in a night; — the oxen, buffaloes and deer are 

 hunted or shot ; — and fishes ai'e caught with nets extend- 

 ed beneath a surface of ice in a lake or across a river, or taken 

 by a baited hook introduced into a small hole made in the ice^ 

 which; to be eflectual, is kept in continual motion. 



