The Prehistoric Hunter. 39 



Along the shores of the Danish island of Zealand and the fjords 

 of Jutland are found vast deposits of shells, the remains of 

 feasts. Some of these shell- heaps are a thousand feet long and 

 nearly two hundred feet in width. They are formed of the shells of 

 the oyster, cockle, mussel, and periwinkle. Among these are found 

 the bones of ducks, swans, and geese, of the great penguin, or auk, 

 and of the large grouse known as the capercailzie (Tetrao urogallus.) 

 " This bird, no longer found in Denmark, though still inhabiting the 

 forests of Germany, deserves special mention. In spring it feeds 

 chiefly on the buds of the pine, a kind of tree not growing naturally 

 at present in Denmark, but very common during the stone age, as 

 has been ascertained by the examination of Danish peat bogs. 

 Thus it would seem that the disappearance of the pine from Den- 

 mark caused the capercailzie to leave that country." Bones of the 

 sparrow are never found in these shell-heaps. (Happy people !) 



The ducks, geese, and swans which these fowlers hunted they 

 may have killed in a manner similar to that described, as follows, by 

 Col. W. H. Gilder in " Among the Esquimos with Schwatka " 

 (" Scribner's Monthly," vol. 22, p. 81): 



" A most novel and interesting method of bird-catching is practiced during the spring 

 and early summer, while the ducks and geese are molting and unable to fly. The 

 Esquimo puts his kyak — that is, his seal-skin canoe — on his head, like an immense 

 hat, and repairs to the big lake, or the sea-side, where he has seen the helpless birds 

 swimming and feeding in the water. Here he launches his frail bark, and when seated, 

 which is not always accomplished without a ducking, takes his double-bladed oar in his 

 hands, and at once starts in pursuit of the game. . Before him, .on his kyak, where he 

 can seize it at the proper moment, lies his duck-spear, together with other implements of 

 the chase. Cautiously approaching the featherless flock, he sometimes gets quite near 

 before his presence is observed ; but even then, before he is within striking distance, 

 there is a great spluttering in the water, as the band scatters in every direction, vainly 

 beating the water with the curious looking stumps that soon will wear their plumage 

 and once more do duty as wings. Some dive below the surface and come up a great 

 way off, and always just where you are not looking for them ; but as the flock takes 

 alarm, the hunter dashes forward, feeling the necessity for speed rather than for caution. 

 He is soon within fifteen or twenty feet of the struggling mass, and, seizing a curious- 

 looking spear, with three barbs of unequal length, he poises it for a moment in the air, 

 and then hurls it with unerring aim at the devoted bird, impaling it with a sharpened 

 iron or bone spike in the center of the barbs. The handle of the spear is of wood, 

 and floats on the surface of the water, so that the hunter can recover his weapon and 

 the game at his leisure." 



