INDIAN MODE OF HUNTING BEAVER. 91 



As a haunt and home of the muskrat, I ven- 

 ture to say that Cumberland, on the Saskatche- 

 wan, is the banner producing post on this con- 

 tinent. For miles and miles about this trading 

 place there are immense grassy marshes, cut up 

 and intersected by waterways and lagoons in 

 every direction. From a hundred to a hundred 

 and fifty thousand . musquash skins was the 

 usual returns from the post a few years ago. 

 Three times during the year the hunters made 

 their harvest, first in October, when the little 

 animals were busy making their funny little 

 cone mud houses and cutting bunches of long 

 grass for their winter's food. 



At that time the Indian would set his bunch 

 of No. 1 steel traps before sundown and then 

 lay off in his canoe at a short distance from 

 the shore in some pond and shoot at those swim- 

 ming past until it became too dusk to fire. Then 

 he would make to some place to dry ground, haul 

 up his canoe, make a fire and have his supper. 

 When his after-meal pipe was finished he would 

 silently shove his canoe into the water and make 

 his first visit. When setting his traps he would 

 take the precaution to place on the end of the 

 pole that the chain was fastened to, a piece of 

 paper, a bunch of grass or a piece of birch bark. 

 This enabled him to find his traps in the dark, 

 as the sign would show on the sky line as he 



