INDIAN MODE OF HUNTING BEAVER. $S 



carefully placed the trap in the same depth of 

 water as he had done the previous one, with 

 this difference, that he omitted the castorum, 

 because, as he told me afterward, the beavers 

 went on top of the house every night, the young 

 ones to slide down into the water, and the old 

 ones to do any necessary plastering. 



Another trap was set at the next house, and 

 from there we paddled the canoe a considerable 

 distance from the beaver works, and figuratively 

 rested on our oars until sundown. 



We were now going to try still-shooting 

 them. Before night sets in about sundown each 

 fine evening in the fall the beavers leave their 

 lodge, first, to eat the young willows along the 

 shore, and after satisfying their hunger to patch 

 the dam, plaster their houses and cut young 

 trees to store up for their next winter's food! 



They come to the surface on leaving the 

 lodge, and unless something frightens them swim 

 on the surface in and out along the borders of 

 the lake until they see a favorable spot to go 

 ashore; and here they set to nibbling the bark 

 of young birch or popular, and if the hunter is 

 careful he may be shot at close range. 



As I said before, talking while hunting bea- 

 ver is forbidden; and the hunter conveys his 

 wishes to the steersman by signs, thus : To draw 

 his attention he oscillates the canoe slightly; 



