WILD SWANS. 329 



men use only clubs and spears in their work of slaughter; 

 Ijersous may therefore imagine how easy it is to capture 

 them. After the birds are killed, the savages commence 

 feasting, and keep it up until they have gorged them- 

 selves. They used, formerly, to make beds, pillows, and 

 head-dresses for themselves out of the feathers, but of late 

 years they have become accustomed to selling them to 

 white traders for a mere song. 



The Aleutian Indians of Alaska, who are as pro- 

 ficient with the gun and the spear as they are with the 

 hook and trident, kill more swans during the moulting 

 season than any tribe on the Continent; as the birds are 

 not only numerous, but so incapable of flight that they 

 are knocked down with clubs on the shore, or captured 

 on the water by chasing them in canoes. They are very 

 abundant in autumn and winter along the Columbia 

 River and its numerous tributaries, and it is then a 

 pleasant sight to see them violently beating the water as 

 they splash and scramble to the windward in their efforts 

 to rise, or sailing gracefully over the dark-green forests, 

 which make their whiteness more apparent by the con- 

 trast in hue. 



Swans cannot rise suddenly from the water, so they 

 have to flap along for several yards before they can get 

 on the wing, especially m calm weather. This beating 

 or flapping produces a crackling noise which can be heard 

 quite a long distance off. The sportsman who is ac- 

 quainted with this characteristic never approaches the 

 birds from the leeward; the result is, that he may ob- 

 tain several shots ere they gain headway enough to get 

 out of range. Even when they see their foe approaching 

 they do not attempt to escape immediately, but keep 

 staring at him and wheeling round and round in the 

 most perplexed manner, as if they were loth to leave or 

 stupefied at the threatened danger; and sliould they rise, 

 they are likely to fly towards him, if he is to the windT 



