THE REIN-DEER. 137 



preached by stealth, or driven into the passes, where 

 an ambuscade lies in wait for them ; or, as they 

 freely take to the waters of rivers and lakes, they 

 are easily overtaken in the canoes, and speared. 

 The Esquimaux also shoot them with arrows, and 

 exhibit great patience in waylaying their prey. They 

 are so inquisitive as to examine any object with 

 which they are unaccustomed ; and to this the hun- 

 ter trusts ; or, creeping behind any object of partial 

 concealment, he imitates the bellow of the animal, 

 having his deer-skin coat and hood dowix over his 

 head. In both cases he is generally successful, and 

 rarely shoots before the animal reaches a distance of 

 twelve paces. The most ingenious method of tak- 

 ing them is, however, noticed by Dr Richardson, as 

 practised by the inhabitants to the southward of 

 Chesterfield's Inlet. It is by a trap made of snow 

 and ice. " The sides of the trap are built of slabs 

 of snow, cut as if for a snow-house. An inclined 

 plane of snow leads to the entrance of the pit, which 

 is about five feet deep, and of sufficient dimensions 

 to contain two or three large deers. The pit is CO' 

 vered with a large thin slab of snow, which the ani- 

 mal is enticed to tread upon, by a quantity of the 

 lichens on which it feeds being placed conspicuous- 

 ly on an eminence beyond the opening. The exte- 

 rior of the trap is banked up with snow, so as to re- 

 semble a natural hillock, and care is taken to render 

 it so steep on all sides but one, that the deer must 

 pass over the mouth of the trap before it can reach 



