i6o Transactions of the Royal Canadian Institute [vol. x 



tice under similar circumstances in connection with their frailer em- 

 barcations."- 



For winter travelling the Western Denes have, as an adjunct to the 

 snowshoe, which is, of course, of universal use in Asia as well as in 

 America, a peculiar stick with a discoid attachm.ent which prevents it 

 from sinking into the snow.^ The Gilacks of Eastern Siberia use an 

 identical implement which, according to Bush, "near the bottom has 

 a small hoop fastened around it by a network of deerskin thongs [ex- 

 actly like its Den6 equivalent] which prevents it from sinking into the 

 snow in winter".^ 



The Western Eskimos have also adopted this peculiar staff; but, 

 in his work on "Primitive Travel and Transportation", the late Prof. 

 O. T, Mason deems it of recent introduction in America, as is also the 

 case with the Eskimo and Loucheux wooden snow goggles, which are 

 likewise found in Asia.^ 



Among the Carriers of British Columbia, the snow-stick has a 

 second object which I have thus described: "The hand of the hunter, 

 warm and trembling from the excitement of the chase, if passed through 

 the leather hoop which often accompanies the upper part of the staff, 

 can thereby be steadied and find a reliable support for the barrel of his 

 gun while in the act of firing".^ 



Now here is what I read in a rather little known work: "There is 

 an element of picturesqueness which the Samoyad has introduced into 

 his use of fire-arms: he fires with a gun-rest not unlike that of the old 

 matchlock days. It is made of wood, is about two inches in diameter 

 and four feet long, and reminds you more particularly of a dwarfed 

 billiard-rest ".« 



I am well aware that, from an ethnological standpoint, this little 

 particularity is of no importance. I simply give it as an excellent illus- 

 tration of the axiom that the same needs create the same means. There 

 still remains the truly aboriginal snow-stick, which is believed to have 

 originated in Asia. 



As to fishing on a large scale, that is by means of traps, the same 

 systems and identical contrivances prevail among the Kamtchadales 



^ "A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean", 

 p. 119; London, 1795. 



^ P. 154 of my "Notes ... on the Western Denes" I give a description, with two 

 figures, of this implement such as we find it to-day among the Carrier Indians of British 

 Columbia. 



" Op. ciL, pp. 134-35- 



* Op. cit., p. 272; Washington, D.C. 

 5 "Notes", p. 155, 



• "The great Frozen Land", p. 80. 



