156 THE DEER FAMILY 



their boats to the rivers and fiords which strike into 

 the interior. When navigation is no longer possible 

 they debark and continue on foot to the deer-country. 

 They carry barrels filled with salt, and sometimes go 

 in large companies. When the rendezvous is reached, 

 they camp. Then they ambush themselves along a 

 promising 'lead,' or deer-track, armed with long, six- 

 foot, muzzle-loading sealing-guns, which they charge 

 with about ' eight fingers ' of coarse gunpowder and 

 'slugs' of lead, fragments of iron or bits of rusty nails, 

 whichever they may have. They fire point-blank into 

 a herd of caribou as it passes, and being usually good 

 shots, contrive to kill almost anything they aim at, or 

 to wound it so badly with these dreadful missiles that 

 it soon collapses. Then they skin and cut up the meat, 

 for these men know a little of every trade, and pack it 

 in the barrels with the salt as a preservative. When 

 enough slaughter has been achieved, the barrels of 

 meat are slung on carrying-sticks which rest on two 

 men's shoulders and conveyed back to the boats, those 

 not so laden bringing full stores of fresh venison for 

 immediate use. This crusade is pursued generally in 

 the remoter northern areas, where the difficulty of 

 obtaining other supplies is greatest. Other parties of 

 fishermen who cannot reach the uplands by boat go 

 by train of late years, in preference to making long 

 marches. They pay freight inward for their barrels of 

 salt and outward for the packed venison. The trains 

 drop them on the various marshes, and there they 

 operate just as the others above described. They 

 camp near the track-side, for their unhandy equip- 

 ment cannot be carried far afield, and they shoot the 



