34 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



tridges, porcupine, and deer. The men build little cabins 

 about the deer-hunting grounds in the interior, and from them 

 they will start out in the very early morning and hunt all day 

 long, and tramp for forty or fifty miles over hills and gorges, 

 carrying with them but the scantiest supply of food. They 

 will sometimes remain in these cabins, and continue this sort 

 of a life, despite all kinds of inclement weather, for a month at 

 a time. Deer are not plentiful, and are hard to get, but the 

 porcupine is found in greater numbers and is easily killed. 

 The Canadian porcupine is an animal more or less peculiar to 

 this region. It comes out of its hiding-places in winter and is 

 easily tracked in the snow. Its food is the berry and the bark 

 of trees, which it gnaws in such a manner as to be easily recog- 

 nized by the hunter. When overtaken on the ground it rolls 

 itself up in a ball and erects its spines for a defence ; when 

 pursued it shows great agility in taking to the tree-tops. The 

 lives of the women, as is generally the case everywhere, are more 

 monotonous and confined than those of the men. They stay at 

 home and cook, and make all the clothes and boots. These lat- 

 ter are made of sealskin, and very good boots they are, too ; and 

 some of the women help in cleaning and preparing the fish, 

 which are salted away in the storehouses. Of course, they do 

 some fancy-work also. Is there a spot on the face of the 

 globe where the women do not do fancy-work in some form or 

 other ? It is one of the prerogatives and a universal habit of 

 the sex, and one deserving of every encouragement. Barren 

 as are the interiors of the little houses in Labrador, they are 

 still relieved by bits of color, which the women weave into 

 appropriate forms. Hassocs, watch-cases, pouches, and cush- 

 ions are the main forms that fancy-work takes in Labrador. 

 The hassocs are a series of pockets made out of long strips of 

 cloth and prettily set off with ribbons and beadwork in a vari- 

 ety of ways according to the taste of the maker. Of course, 

 in so sparsely settled and busy a place there can be little 



