376 LEWIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



perhaps under the very Pole itself, where, undisturbed by the 

 cruel hands of man, they rear their young in the most perfect 

 security, and only leave those peaceful climes when driven from 

 them by the severity of threatening winter. 



Wild geese make their appearance on the Delaware and Chesa- 

 peake Bays in October ; and when many are flying early in the 

 season it is considered a certain prognostic of a long and hard 

 winter, a belief in which all the inhabitants of those parts which 

 they visit place implicit confidence. 



During their journey through the Canadas, their thick ranks 

 are considerably thinned by the slaughter made among them by 

 the Indians, who kill immense numbers for their own support and 

 for that of the English settlements about Hudson's Bay. 



The geese are cleaned and salted away for the winter's use, and 

 afford the principal article of flesh that the people have to rely 

 upon for several months in the year. 



Mr. Pennat says, " The English at Hudson's Bay depend greatly 

 on geese of this and other kinds for their support, and in favor- 

 able years kill three or four thousand, which are salted and 

 barrelled. Their arrival is impatiently expected by the inhabit- 

 ants, as they are one of the chief articles of their food and also 

 the harbingers of spring ; and the month is named by the Indians 

 the Groose-moon. They appear usually at our settlements in num- 

 bers about St. George's day, and fly northward to nestle in se- 

 curity. They prefer islands to the continent, as farther from the 

 haunts of men. Thus, Marble Island was found in August to 

 swarm with swans, geese, and ducks, the old ones moulting, and 

 the young unfledged and incapable of flying. The English send 

 out their servants as well as the Indians to shoot these birds on 

 their passage. It is in vain to pursue them ; they therefore form 

 a row of huts made of boughs, at musket-shot distance from each 

 other, and place them in a line across the parts of the vast marshes 

 of the country where the geese are expected to pass. Each stand 

 is occupied by a single person ; these, on the approach of the 

 birds, mimic their cackle so well that the geese will answer, wheel, 



