CHAPTER XVIII. 



CHISELLING AND SHOOTING BEAVER. 



It is only in the far back country that the 

 once plentiful beaver are to be found at the 

 present day, and though a description of one 

 of the modes the Indians adopt in killing them 

 may be of no practical use to the present gen- 

 eration of hunters on the fringe of civilization, 

 it will at least be interesting to them and re- 

 membered by some old-timers. Chiselling, or 

 trenching, beaver, as it is sometimes called, is 

 yet followed by the interior Indians, and when 

 conditions are favorable, is a most expeditious 

 way of piling up a whole lodge. 



The writer in his young days has many a 

 time accompanied the Indians on these hunts, 

 and the description of my last participation in 

 this exciting mode of hunting I will endeavor 

 to explain to the reader. I found a large lodge 

 of beaver in a very small lake, probably a quar- 

 ter of a mile long by one-eighth wide. It was 

 so late in the fall that it was too near freezing 

 to set traps in open water, and the appearance 

 of the shore conveyed to my experienced eye 



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