NORTHERN OCEAN 77 



[22] To snare partridges requires no other process than 1770. 

 making a few little hedges across a creek, or a few short hedges ^P"'" 

 projecting at right angles from the side of an island of willows, 

 which those birds are found to frequent. Several openings 

 must be left in each hedge, to admit the birds to pass 

 through, and in each of them a snare must be set ; so that 

 when the partridges are hopping along the edge of the willows 

 to feed, which is their usual custom, some of them soon get 

 into the snares, where they are confined till they are taken 

 out. I have caught from three to ten partridges in a day by 

 this simple contrivance ; which requires no further attendance 

 than going round them night and morning. 



I have already observed that nothing material happened 

 to disturb our repose till the first of April, when to our ist. 

 great surprise the fishing nets did not afford us a single fish. 

 Though some of the preceding days had been pretty success- 

 ful, yet my companions, like true Indians, seldom went to 

 sleep till they had cleared the tent of every article of pro- 

 vision. As nothing was to be caught in the nets, we all went 

 out to angle ; but in this we were equally unsuccessful, as we 

 could not procure one fish the whole day. This sudden 

 change of circumstances alarmed one of my companions so 

 much, that he began to think of resuming the use of his gun, 

 after having laid it by for near a month. 



[23] Early in the morning we arose; when my guide 

 Conne-e-quese went a hunting, and the rest attended the nets 

 and hooks near home ; but all with such bad success, that we 

 could not procure enough in one day to serve two men for a 

 supper. This, instead of awakening the rest of my com- 

 panions, sent them to sleep ; and scarcely any of them had the 

 prudence to look at the fishing nets, though they were not 

 more than two or three hundred yards from the tent door. 



My guide, who was a steady man, and an excellent hunter, 

 having for many years been accustomed to provide for a large 

 family, seemed by far the most industrious of all my crew ; 



