350 CAPTAIN CARTWRIGHT'S 



they look out a fresh. But when deer are plenti- 

 ful, they are quickly provided with food without 

 much trouble, for, as two or three families usually 

 go together in the winter time, some post them- 

 selves to leeward of the herd, while others go to 

 windward, and drive them down; by which means, 

 it seldom happens that they all escape. When 

 they have good success among the deer, they also 

 kill most furs; for then^ they have leisure to 

 build, and attend to deathfalls, in which they kill 

 foxes and martens. Porcupine hunting is an em- 

 ployment assigned to the women, and is a good 

 resource, where there are strong, fir woods. 



Beavers they can do nothing at in the winter, 

 on account of the frost, but they kill numbers of 

 them in the spring and autumn; and even all the 

 summer through: but one good English furrier 

 will kill more than four Indians, where those ani- 

 mals are numerous. They kill beavers by watch- 

 ing for, and shooting them; or, by staking their 

 houses; the method of doing which, I will endeav- 

 our to explain: If the pond, where the beaver 

 house is, be not capable of being drawn dry, they 

 cut a hole through the roof of the house into the 

 lodging, to discover the angles; they then run 

 stakes through at the edge of the water, where 

 the house is always soft, parallel to each other, 

 across each angle, and so near together that no 

 beaver can pass between. The stakes being all 

 fitted in their places, they draw them up to permit 

 the beavers to return into the house, (the hole on 

 the top being covered up so close as not to admit 



