334 THE POLAR WORLD. 



strong horizontal bars into a regular fence, extend their arms for nearly the 

 length of a mile in the form of a Koman V. The extremity of the avenue is 

 closed by stakes with sharp points sloping towards the entrance, on which the 

 reindeer, driven together and hotly pursued by the Indians, may impale them- 

 selves in their desperate flight. The structure is erected with great labor, as 

 the timber has to be transported into the open country from a considerable dis- 

 tance. Some of these may be ii centuiy old, and they are the hereditary pos- 

 session of the families or tribes by whom they were originally constructed. 



r>ut in spite of all their contrivances and the use of fire-arms, the Kutcliin, 

 whose numbers on the banks of the Yukon are estimated at about a thousand 

 men and boys able to hunt, are frequently reduced to great distress. Hence 

 the old and infirm are mercilessly left to their fate when game is scarce, and 

 famine makes itself felt. Attempts have been vainly made to better the con- 

 dition of the northern Indians by inducing them to tame the reindeer. Their 

 superstition is one of the obstacles against this useful innovation, for they fear 

 that were they to make some of the reindeer their captives, the I'emainder would 

 immediately leave the country. " And why," they add, " should we follow like 

 slaves a herd of tame animals, when the forest and the barren ground j)rovide 

 lis with the elk, the wild reindeer, and the musk-ox, and our rivers and lakes are 

 filled with fishes that cost us nothing but the trouble of citching them ?" 



Each family possesses a deer-skin tent or lodge, which in summer, when in 

 quest of game, is rarely erected. The winter encampment is usually in a grove 

 of spruce-firs; the ground being cleared of snow, the skins, which are prepared 

 with the hair, are extended over flexible willow poles which take a semicircular 

 form. This hemisj)herical shape of lodges is not altogether unknown among 

 the Chepewyans and Crees, being that generally adapted for their vapor baths, 

 framed of willow poles, but their dwelling-places are conical, as stiff poles are 

 used for their construction. 



When the tent is erected the snow is packed on outside to lialf its height, 

 and it is lined equally high Avithin with the young spray of the spruce-fir, that 

 the bodies of the inmatqig may not rest against the cold Avail. The doorway is 

 filled up by a double told of skin, and the apartment has the closeness and 

 warmth but not the elegance of the Esquimaux snow hut, which it resembles 

 in shape. Though only a very small fire is ke])t in the centre of the lodge, yet 

 the warmth is as great as in a log-house. The provisions arc stored on the 

 outside under fir branches and snow, and further protected from the dogs by 

 sledges being placed on top. 



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