162 Quadrupeds. 



Supply, their wholesome fare, and cheerful cups : 

 Obsequious at their call, the docile tribe 

 Yield to the sled their necks, and whirl them swift 

 O'er hill and dale, heaped into one expanse 

 Of marbled snow, as far as eye can sweep, 

 With a blue crest of ice unbounded glazed." 



The mode of hunting the wild Rein-deer by the Lap- 

 landers, the Esquimaux, and the Indians of North 

 America, has been accurately described by late tra- 

 vellers. Captain Franklin gives the following interest- 

 ing account of the mode practised by the Dog-rib 

 Indians, to kill these animals. " 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 somewhat suddenly, 

 after the manner of a Deer, and always taking care to 

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

 herd leave off feeding to gaze upon this extraordinary 

 phenomenon, it instantly stops, and the head begins to 

 play its part, by licking its shoulders, and performing 

 other necessary movements. In this way the hunters 

 attain the very centre of the herd without exciting sus- 

 picion, and have leisure to single out the fattest. The 

 hindmost man then pushes forward his comrade's gun, 

 the head is dropped, and they both fire nearly at the 

 same instant. The Deer scamper off, the hunters trot 

 after them ; in a short time the poor animals halt, to 

 ascertain the cause of their terror ; their foes stop at the 

 same moment, and having loaded as they ran, greet the 

 gazers with a second fatal discharge. The consternation 

 of the Deer increases ; they run to and fro in the utmost 

 confusion; and sometimes a great part of the herd is 

 destroyed within the space of a few hundred yards." 



