The Journal of a Sporting Nomad 



same thing applied to the gall. The sight of 

 those four feet would have killed any one but a 

 Celestial, for they had the appearance of hands. 

 I felt that I should have to be extremely ill 

 before I could be persuaded to cure myself in 

 any way in which bear's feet took a part. Pos- 

 sibly " John " was right ; he is found to be so more 

 often than not, and seems to have forgotten 

 more than most of the world knows ! 



I amused myself during our enforced wait for 

 the Indians by collecting curios ; some of these 

 were very uncommon and were envied tremend- 

 ously by a man who had been in this country 

 some years, and collected such things. Amongst 

 them were three bows and over two dozen arrows 

 that the Indians used for shooting sea-otter. 

 The bows are made of spruce, generally one of 

 the thick roots of the tree being used for the pur- 

 pose, nearly flat, but slightly convex on the out- 

 side. The string is formed from the large sinew 

 taken from the back and neck of a caribou. 

 Short lengths of this sinew are also used in lieu 

 of cotton for sewing purposes ; when dry it is 

 quite easily split up into strands fine enough to 

 go through the eye of a needle. The bows have 

 to be soaked in water before using them, more 

 especially if they have been put on one side for 

 some months. This prevents their cracking. 

 The quiver and arrows are interesting, the former 

 being made out of two hollow pieces of wood 



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