ict 
VLR GING AWN, 1D EE R: 
has been torn by torrents or other accidents, where they are feen 
licking the earth. Such fpots are called Jicking-places. The hunti- 
men are fure of finding the game there; for, notwithftanding they 
are often difturbed, the Buffaloes and Deer are fo paffionately fond 
of the favory regale, as to bid defiance to all danger, and return in 
droves to thefe favorite haunts. 
The fkins are a great article of commerce, 25,027 being imported 
from New-York and Penfylvania in the fale of 1764. 
The Deer are of the firft importance to the Savages. The fkins 
form the greateit branch of their trafick, by which they procure 
from the colonifts, by way of exchange, many of the articles of life. 
To all of them it is the principal food throughout the year; for by 
drying it over a gentle but clear fire, after cutting it into fmall pieces, 
it is not only capable of long prefervation, but is very portable in 
their fudden excurfions, efpecially when reduced to powder, which is 
frequently done. 
Hunting is more than an amufement to thefe people. They give 
themfelves up to it not only for the fake of fubfiftence, but to fit 
themfelves for war, by habituating themfelves to fatigue. A good 
huntfman is an able warrior. ‘Thofe who fail in the fports of the 
field are never fuppofed to be capable of fupporting the hardfhips 
of a campaign; they are degraded to ignoble offices, fuch as dreff- 
ing the fkins of Deer, and other employs allotted only to flaves and 
women 7. 
When a large party meditates a hunting-match, which is ufually 
at the beginning of winter, they agree on a place of rendezvous, often 
five hundred miles diftant from their homes, and a place, perhaps, 
that many of them had never been at. They have no other me- 
thod of fixing on the fpot than by pointing with their finger. The 
preference is given to the eldeft, as the moft experienced f . 
+ Laaw/fon, 208. t Catefey, App. xiis 
When 
