INTO THE TERRA-NOVA COUNTRY 29 



the body in birch rind and cover it with a heap of 

 stones. 



Cormack thus describes the long deer fences made by 

 the Beothicks, and their method of killing the caribou : 

 " On the north side of the lake, opposite the River Exploits, 

 are the extremities of two deer fences, about half a mile 

 apart, where they lead to the water. It is understood that 

 they diverge many miles in north-westerly directions. The 

 Red Indians make these fences to lead and scare the deer 

 to the lake, during the periodical migration of these animals ; 

 the Indians being stationed looking out, when the deer get 

 into the water to swim across, the lake being narrow at this 

 end, they attack and kill the animals with spears out of their 

 canoes. In this way they secure their winter provisions 

 before the severity of that season sets in. . . . What arrests 

 the attention most, while gliding down the stream (the 

 Exploits), is the extent of the Indian fences to entrap the 

 deer. They extend from the lake downwards, continuous 

 on the banks of the river, at least thirty miles. There are 

 openings left here and there in them, for the animals to go 

 through and swim across the river, and at these places the 

 Indians are stationed, and kill them in the water with spears, 

 out of their canoes, as at the lake. Here, then, connecting 

 these fences with those on the north-west side of the lake, 

 is at least forty miles of country, easterly and westerly, 

 prepared to intercept the deer that pass that way in their 

 periodical migrations. It was melancholy to contemplate the 

 gigantic, yet feeble, efforts of a whole primitive nation, in their 

 anxiety to provide subsistence, forsaken and going to decay." 



A Red Indian woman, named Shawnawdithit,' was living 

 near the Exploits River with some white people at this 



' Sometimes called Shandithit. 



