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TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



[Vol. IV. 



them. Apart from the snow walking stick, they now have no less than 

 four very distinct varieties of snow-shoes (•aih) each of which is known 

 under a different name. These are the khe-la-pas, the pf]u, the -atJi-za 

 and the sds-kfu. 



Fig. 141. 



The khe-la-pas* was the first model of snow-shoes known to our 

 aborigines. It is still used in cases of urgency, when better or more 

 fashionable snow-shoes cannot conveniently be made or, under all cir- 

 cumstances, by poor or unskilled people. Nevertheless this form is now 

 obsolete, and is generally laughed at by the possessors of more elegant 

 implements. The ground stick of this snow-shoe is of one piece from 

 fore-end to tail, and the whole is left flat, as is the case, I think, with 

 most of the snow-shoes in use in Eastern Canada. Fig. 141 represents 

 a khe-la-pas. 



The finer netting or filling of every Carrier snow-shoe is of delicate 

 cariboo skin lines, and the coarse or middle one is of moose rawhide 

 line. As these implements are said to be adventitious here, I will refrain 

 from going into the details of the netting process which our Indians are 

 not likely to have materially altered since the introduction among them 

 of these winter commodities. Suffice it to say that a whole independent 

 filling in is made out of a continuous string. The ground or side sticks 

 are generally made of young saplings of black spruce or of Douglas 

 pine (P. murrayana) ; but those of mountain maple (Acer glabrum) or 

 of mountain ash (Pyrus Americana) are more esteemed, though heavier. 

 In all cases the cross-sticks are, as a rule, either of willow or of birch. 



In fig. 142 we have the most recent type of Carrier snow-shoe. It 

 will be seen at a glance that it is not inelegant. It is the pfjii or 

 " stitched together " by allusion to the peculiar form of its head. To 



* " Mocassin (or f,^rtM.fj?<r^)-end-rounded ; " by allusion to its form. 



