HUNTING THE REIN-DEER. 



much shrrter distance. It is to be observed that the hunters nevei 

 appear openly, but employ stratagem for their purpose ; thus, by 

 patience and ingenuity, rendering their rudely-formed bows, and 

 stiJl worse arrows, as effective as the rifles of Europeans. When 

 two men hunt in company, they sometimes purposely show them- 

 selves to the deer, and when his attention is fully engaged, walk 

 slowly away from him, one before the other. The deer follows, 

 and when the hunters arrive near a stone, the foremost drops behind 

 it and prepares his bow, while his companion continues walking 

 steadily forward. This latter, the uc.r still follows unsuspectingly, 

 and thus passes near the concealed man who takes a deliberate 

 aim and kills the animal. When the deer assemble in herds, 

 there are particular passes which they invariably take, and on 

 being driven to them are killed by arrows by the men, while the 

 women with shouts drive them to the water. Here they swim 

 with the ease and activity of water-dogs, the people in kayaks 

 chasing and easily spearing them ; the carcasses float, and the 

 hunter then presses forward and kills as many as he finds in his 

 track. No springs or traps are used in the capture of these animals, 

 as is practised to the southward, in consequence of the total absence 

 of standing wood."* 



Captain Franklin describes the mode in which the Dog-rib 

 Indians kill the rein-deer, which he had from Mr. Wentzel. 



" The hunters go in pairs, the foremost man carrying in one 

 hand the horns and part of the skin of the head of a deer, and in 

 the other a small bundle of twigs, against which he, from time to 

 time, rubs the horns, imitating the gestures peculiar to the animal 

 His comrade follows, treading exactly in his footsteps, and holding 

 the guns of both in a horizontal position, so that the muzzles project 

 under the arms of him who carries the head. Both hunters have 

 A fillet of white skin round their foreheads, and the foremost has a 

 strip of the same round his wrists. They approach the herd by 

 degrees, raising their legs very slowly, but setting them down some- 

 what suddenly, after the manner of a deer, and always taking 

 care to lift their right or left feet simultaneously. If any of the 



* Private Journal. 



