330 THE REIN-DEER. 



In both cases he is generally successful, and rarely shoots 

 before the animal reaches a distance of twelve paces. 

 The most ingenious method of taking them is, however, 

 noticed by Dr. Richardson, as practised by the inhabitants 

 to the southward of Chesterfield's Inlet. It is by a trap 

 made of snow and ice. " The sides of the trap are built 

 of slabs of snow, cut as if for a snow-house. An inclined 

 plane of snow leads to the entrance of the pit, which is 

 about five feet deep, and of sufficient dimensions to con- 

 tain two or three large deers. The pit is covered with a 

 large thin slab of snow, which the animal is enticed to 

 tread upon, by a quantity of the lichens on which it feeds 

 being placed conspicuously on an eminence beyond the 

 opening. The exterior of the trap is banked up with snow, 

 so as to resemble a natural hillock, and care is taken to 

 render it so steep on all sides but one, that the deer must 

 pass over the mouth of the trap before it can reach the 

 bait. The slab is sufficiently strong to bear the weight of 

 a deer, until it has passed the middle, when it revolves on 

 two short axles of wood, precipitates the deer into the trap, 

 and returns to its place again, in consequence of the lowei 

 end being heavier than the other." 



Hearne describes another method still, by which these 

 important animals are brought within reach of the more 

 imperfect weapons of the Indians, that of driving into a 

 pound, as is also done with the wild buffalo; the principle 

 is the same. A fence, or the appearance of it, is placed 

 in the form of an angle, the entrance being wide, into which, 

 when the herds enter, they are impelled forward by noise 

 behind, until they are gradually enclosed in the centre fold. 

 In the present instance, the centre pound or fold is some- 

 times a mile in circumference, and is intersected with brush 

 and fences, in which snares made of thongs of Rein-deer 

 skins, are fixed, and in which, when entangled, they are 

 easily speared. 



IA Europe, the Rein-deer inhabits the more northern 



