HISTORY OF QUADRUPEDS. 123 



whilst another party on the shore surrounds an ex- 

 tensive tract : they are attended by Dogs, which they 

 let loose, and press towards the water with loud 

 cries. The animals alarmed by the noise, fly before 

 the hunters, and plunge into the lake, where they 

 are killed by the people in the canoes with lances 

 and clubs. Another method requires a greater de- 

 gree of preparation and art. The hunters enclose a 

 large space with stakes and branches of trees, form- 

 ing two sides of a triangle; the bottom opens into 

 a second inclosure, which is fast on all sides : at the 

 opening are hung numbers of snares, made of the 

 slips of raw hides. They assemble as before, in 

 great troops ; and, with all kinds of hideous noises, 

 drive into the inclosure not only the Moose, but 

 various other kinds of Deer, with which that coun- 

 try abounds. Some, in forcing their way through 

 the narrow pass, are caught in the snares by the neck 

 or horns ; whilst those which escape these, meet 

 their fate from the arrows of the hunters, directed 

 at them from all quarters. They are likewise fre- 

 quently killed with the gun. When they are first 

 discovered, they squat with their hind parts, and 

 make water; at which instant the sportsman fires; 

 if he miss, the Moose sets off in a most rapid trot, 

 making, like the Rein-Deer, a prodigious rattling 

 with its hoofs, and running twenty or thirty miles 

 before it stops or takes the water. The usual time 

 for this diversion is in winter. The animal can 

 run with ease upon the firm surface of the snow; 

 but the hunters avoid entering on the chase till the 

 heat of the sun is strong enough to melt the frozen 

 crust with which it is covered, and render it so soft 

 as to impede the flight of the Moose, which sinks 

 up to the shoulders, flounders, and gets on with 



