36 CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON 



at a height of three feet and five feet, but only cut- 

 ting sufficiently deep to enable them to push the trees 

 over in the direction of the line, with the trunk still 

 held at the three-foot and five-foot cutting, thus 

 making two fairly good rails or barriers, the other 

 end of the tree being held nearly level by reason of 

 the spreading top branches. Other trees along the 

 line would be felled in the same manner, one slightly 

 overlapping the other, and so on for many miles, 

 until an effective, continuous barrier or fence was 

 erected, ofttimes fifteen miles long. , 



Another " fence " was similarly constructed at 

 some considerable distance, sometimes two miles, 

 from the first fence, running in the same general di- 

 rection, but always converging with the other 

 " fence " at an apex, which was usually at a draw 

 or pocket in the mountains with high bluffs. At 

 the proper time the entire tribe would gather, and 

 the hunters with bows and arrows would post them- 

 selves in force at the apex of the two " fences " in 

 the pocket or blind canyon in the mountains. The 

 remainder of the tribe, men, women, and children, 

 in great numbers would go out where the caribou 

 were ranging, and form an immense circle open only 

 on the side that led between the two " fences." 

 Then with much noise and even igniting trees, they 

 would close in slowly on the caribou herds, which 

 inevitably took the apparently easiest course between 

 the " fences " and were driven to slaughter by the 



