CATCHING DEER 41 



Deer are either caught in nets placed as I 

 have already described,, or on a smaller scale ; 

 they are also caught in nooses, or are shot from 

 michauns, [platforms] or pits, by Shecarries 

 and villagers ; to catch them in nooses, a strong 

 line is fastened to trees, and extends across the 

 cover fifty or a hundred yards. At all the 

 openings, or paths, strong nooses of thong or of 

 the bark of a tree are suspended to the cord 

 and kept open by a little wooden pin at the 

 top, which on the least force being applied 

 readily gives way. They are kept expanded 

 on the sides by bushes, if any are growing near 

 enough, or split sticks inserted into the 

 ground ; they drive the covers towards the line, 

 and the deer are caught by their necks. 



Sometimes they set nooses in the path-ways 

 to catch them by the legs. Two strong ropes 

 with loops made at the time of twisting the 

 cord, and lined with a bit of horn on the inside, 

 to make them slip easily, are fastened to 

 branches of trees, if there are any near 

 enough; if not, to pegs firmly fixed in the 



