NELSON] BIRD TRAPPING AND SNARING 133) 
When the migrating season commences the people take advantage of 
it to capture the birds with salmon nets. Each net is from 50 to 100 feet 
in length and is spread open by wooden rods; a man or a woman at each 
end and another in the middle holds the net flat on the ground; when 
a flock of ptarmigan come skimming along within two or three feet of 
the ground, the net is suddenly raised and thrown against and over 
the birds, so as to cover as many as possible. The persons at the ends 
hold the net down, while the one in the middle proceeds to wring the 
necks of the captured birds. After throwing them to one side the net 
is again placed in position. In this manner a hundred birds or more 
are sometimes captured in a few minutes. 
Gulls are taken about the northern shore of Norton sound and the 
coast of Bering strait by means of bone or deerhorn barbs, pointed at 
both ends and having a sinew or rawhide cord tied in a groove around 
the middle, the other end of the cord being fastened to any suitable 
object that will serve as an anchor; or a jong line is anchored at both 
ends and floated on the surface of the water with barbs attached to it 
at intervals. Each barb is slipped lengthwise down the throat of a 
small fish which serves as bait. As the gulls in their flight see the dead 
fish floating on the water they seize and swallow them; when they 
attempt to fly away the barbs turn in their throats and hold them fast. 
_ Figure 7, plate L1, represents one of these barbs made of deerhorn; 
it was obtained from Norton sound. 
Along the northern coast of Norton sound the people gather the eggs 
of sea fowl from the clitts by means of seal nets, which they roll into a 
eable and lash in that shape with cords; the nets are then lowered 
over the cliffs and the upper ends firmly fastened to rocks or stakes. 
The egg gatherer fastens a sash about his waist, removes his boots, 
and goes down the net, hand over hand, to the ledges below, the meshes 
of the net forming excellent holding places for the fingers and toes; the 
hunter then fills the inside of his frock above the sash with the eggs 
and climbs to the top of the cliff. 
In a camp at Cape Thompson, on the Arctic coast, I saw many dead 
murres which had been caught by letting a man down by a long line 
from the top of the cliff to the ledges where the birds were breeding; 
there he used a scoop net and caught as many birds as he wished by 
putting it over them while they sat stupidly on their eggs. 
On the islands of Bering strait the people catch great numbers of 
auklets with scoop nets, and also by placing the rudely stuffed skin of 
one of the birds on a rocky ledge and a fine-mesh net or snare about 
it. These birds swarm around the rocky cliffs like bees and continually 
alight near each other, so that the hunter has only to place the snares 
in position and come out of concealment to take the birds as they are 
caught. 
Figure 5, plate LI, illustrates one of these snares from St Lawrence 
island. It consists of a wooden stake, about five inches in length, 
