1890-91.] THE BCEOTHICK INDIANS. 101 



They were great hunters and fishermen, and had an ingenious method 

 of trapping deer. They constructed a long fence of timber by chopping 

 down trees, leaving openings at certain spots for the deer to enter. 

 The fences opened out into large " corrals " or enclosures, or led to the 

 lakes, in both of which the deer were slaughtered. Some of these drives 

 are forty miles in length, and can easily be traced at the present day. 



The most interesting remains in the museum are two skulls and several 

 of the parts of two bodies, a mummified body of a boy, and an almost 

 complete skeleton of a man, along with a fine collection of bone orna- 

 ments. 



These Indians do not appear to have been great stone workers. A 

 few examples of cults, hoes, scraping tools for hide dressing have been 

 found. They did not use pottery. Their culinary utensils were of birch 

 rind^ from the size of a teacup up to a two-gallon pail. This practice is 

 still in use among the Mic-Macs. For light they appear to have used 

 soap-stone lamps of rhomboidal shape 5 inches long on major axis, at 

 one end of which is a small notch in which the wick lay, the oil being 

 obtained from the seal and fat of the deer. It is surmised they used 

 these lamps in a similar manner to the Esquimaux of the present day 

 Of arrow heads there is evidence of the same shapes and materials as 

 those used by the western Indians. Some patterns, apparently of later, 

 date, are of slate, with ver}' keen, sharp edges, and one of iron with a 

 razor edge on it. These are made at the angle of 45°, a marked differ- 

 ence to the usual equilateral triangle. 



The bone ornaments are very interesting being the first which the 

 writer has met with. There are two styles, one used for ornamenting 

 the hair, the other the dress ; they are all well shapen,- 

 elaborately figured, and on none are the figures or patterns 

 duplicated. The form of pattern is a right angled triangle, 

 in which there is either one or two divisions. Each style of 

 ornamentation is separate, the double division does not appear 

 on the single division specimens. The hair combs are chiefly 

 two-pronged, although there are a good many three-pronged 

 specimens ; they range from 2 to 3 inches in length, are not 

 rudely or coarsely carved, and present a variety of patterns. 

 The small tooth comb, of which there are several examples, 

 are like those of the Esquimaux, the teeth are from yi to ^, 

 V V of an inch long. On some large pieces of ivory 



I 1 evidently intended for dominoes, the carving takes 



J\ /\ the shape of the letter H. This ornament runs 



through many of the specimens. All these ornaments have been cut 



