<)6 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTK. 



[Vol. IV. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Bone and Horn Implements. 



Several bone or horn objects formerly in use among the Western 

 Denes have already been rnentioned in connection with stone implements 

 •of congenerous nature. As they were mostly weapons or working tools 

 which have long been replaced by iron or steel substitutes, few of them 

 could be illustrated from existing specimens. Such as will 

 be found described in the present chapter are, however, 

 still largel}' used by the natives, even of the Carrier 

 tribe. 



They are, with few exceptions, industrial implements. 

 Among those which serve in connection with hunting or 

 trap[)ing, one of the most conspicuous is the tsa-yii-tJiej 

 (beaver-medicine-recipient, or castoreum bottle). As will 

 be seen further on, this same vessel is of birch bark 

 among the Carriers. But the Tse'kehne, who are essen- 

 tially huntsmen and whose country abounds in large game, 

 make it out of a cariboo horn, and adorn (?) it with such 

 primitive designs as may be noticed in fig. 45. Therein 

 the trapper keeps the castoreum which he dilutes either 

 on the steel trap, or in the mud contiguous thereto, in order 

 l*"'?- 45- to decoy the beaver into its ultimate capture. 



Of course this mode of trapping is practicable only during the spring 

 or summer months. In the winter, beaver is sought after with nets set 

 in holes cut in the ice a short distance from the rodent's habitation and 

 store. I have elsewhere given an account of this winter trapping which 

 will, perhaps, bear reproduction here. " Once they have found his [the 

 beaver's] lodge, an indispensable preliminary to secure his capture is to 

 discover the exact location of his path or trail under ice. It appears 

 that he follows well marked routes when swimming from, or returning to 

 his winter quarters. These our Denes easily find out by sounding the 

 ice in different directions with cariboo horns. Their well exercised ears 

 readily discover by a peculiar resonance of the ice where the rodent's 

 usual path lies. So, at a given point, they cut a hole wherein the}' set 

 their babiche beaver net,"* taking care to plant at a short distance a 



The Western Denes," etc., Proc. (!an. Inst. vol. vii., p. I31. 



