1892-93.] 



NOTES ON THE WESTEHN D^N^S. 



99 



embrace their various fishing and hunting contrivances, would be equiva- 

 tent to supposing well constituted a body lacking nerv^e or bone. Besides 

 giving us some idea of their proficiency as craftsmen, they enable us 

 to witness, as it were, the workings of their mind as applied to their 

 means of providing for the necessaries of life. So that those very details 

 which may appear unimportant to the superficial reader, add in the 

 estimation of the scientist, a psychological interest to a study which is 

 primarily technological. What has already been said of the Western 

 Denes' fish or animal traps has led us to the conclusion that, if those 

 aborigines are wanting in the appreciation of the beautiful, they are by 

 no means devoid of the faculty of judging and selecting that which is 

 best suited to the attainment of their ends. A review of their snaring 

 devices cannot fail to confirm this impression. 



At least eight different methods of snare setting, generally varying 

 according to the nature of the game, obtain among the single Carrier 

 tribe. I leave it to the following figures to explain the details, and shall 

 content myself with noting en passant that which they cannot tell. 



UH- 



-/-^x 7" 



Fig. 86. 



Figs. 86 and 8/ represent bear-snares * whereby the game is either 

 choked down on the ground (fig. 86) or flung up in the air (fig. 87). The 

 action of the former is exceedingly simple, though it cannot fail to prove 

 very effective. Of course it is clear that the bear upon getting engaged 

 in the noose, which is in all cases held in the proper position through 



* The root for snare in general is ///, and this word is suffixed to the name of the game for 

 which each snare is intended. Euphony demands that it be preceded by an m ; therefore bear- 

 snare is l,3s-nipij ; lynx-snare, ivashi-nipi/, etc., in Carrier. 



