42 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



racket-like contrivance for supporting the weight on the 

 surface of frozen snow, and that they enable the wearer 

 to cover twenty-five or thirty miles a day, wliereas with- 

 out them he would break through the frozen crust, and 

 probably be unable to walk five miles in the same time. 

 Heavy animals, such as deer and bears,^ do break through 

 it, and therefore at such times are completely at the 

 mercy of the hunter, who can walk round them, and 

 slaughter them at his convenience, without trouble or 

 danger, for the poor brutes can make no resistance. 



Some deer, as wipiti and moose, often get surrounded 

 by deep snow, which they tread down for a limited 

 distance, forming a kind of pit, or hollow, from which 

 they cannot escape. Such hollows are called moose or 

 wipiti " yards," and usually contain family parties of three 

 or four to six or eight deer, and being imprisoned for the 

 winter have to subsist on the foliage of the trees. Appa- 

 rently they do this without difficulty, for they are nearly 

 always in good condition. Deer imprisoned in "yards" 

 have no more chance of escape or resistance than oxen in 

 a slaughter-house, and the hunter finding them " pots " 

 the lot, old and young. I believe that the game-laws of 

 Canada now forbid this wholesale slaughter ; but at the 

 time of which I am writing men did their own pleasure, 

 and never failed to destroy a yard to the last fawn. 



It happened that my second experience of deer- 

 shooting was at the destruction of a moose-yard. I soon 

 learned to use snow-shoes with facility, and when the 

 weather became favourable for journeying, I and four 

 Indians, including Tom and Sam, started on an expedi- 

 tion in search of game. 



Deer-yards are never easy of discovery, because there 

 are seldom any tracks leading up to them, and the pit is 

 deep enough to completely hide the occupants. On this 

 occasion our attention was attracted by a pack of lurking, 



1 Note that bears hibernate, but their hibernation is sometimes 

 interrupted. I have seen them about in the snow. 



