MODE OF TRAPPING BEAVER. 239 



practiced extensively in the Hudson's Bay territory. 

 The Indians ascertained the situation of their burrows 

 by sounding the ice along the margins of the ponds 

 with ice chisels, the sound of the stroke revealing in 

 some way the presence of a chamber in the bank. After 

 the burrows were found, an opening w^as made in the 

 ice over the mouth of each entrance, for the double pur- 

 pose of discerning by the movement of the water when 

 a beaver had entered, and of closing it up behind him. 

 The next step was to stake across the stream, where it 

 entered the pond, to prevent their escape out of the 

 pond. After these preparations were completed, and 

 a person was stationed on the ice near each entrance, 

 the lodges were broken open to drive out their in- 

 mates and force them to take refuge in their burrows. 

 As soon as the motion of the water showed that one 

 or more of them had entered a burrow, its mouth was 

 closed, and every one thus entrapped was sure to be 

 taken. After they were thus locked up, the next 

 movement was to open their burrows from above, 

 whereupon, without resistance, they were captured 

 and dispatched. Hearne, from whose work the above 

 account is taken, remarks: "When their houses are 

 broken open, and all their places of retreat are dis- 

 covered, they have but one choice left, as it may be 

 called, either .to be taken in their houses or their 

 «vaults; in general they prefer the latter; for where 

 there is one beaver caught in the house, many thou- 

 sands are taken in their vaults."^ 



When beavers are shot in the pond, they sink to the 

 bottom and are thus lost, for wdiich reason the gun is 



^ Hearne's Journey, etc., p. 235. 



