OF BRITISH AND RUSSIAN AMERICA. 



323 



when tliey run out on the ice or plunge into the river, though this mode i^ 

 very seldom used, the general way being to stalk them 



Deer are chased on snow-shoes, the hunter loading and firing as he run?. 

 They also make deer pounds, and kill numbers of deer at a time in them, with 

 snares, of which there are several hundred in one pound. When there are a 

 large number of Indians together, they sometimes surround a herd of deer. 



They kill fish in bars, terminating 

 ^ in a basket, by the side of which is a 



5^3;:, - stage upon which the fisherman stands. 



The hars and the basket are made 

 of willows, bound together with ba- 

 hiche, (deer parchment,) wetted and 

 cut into lines, and then dried, and ait? 

 fastened to poles driven into the bed 

 of tlie river. The basket is nine or 

 ten feet long, by about four broad ; 

 the mouth reaches to the bottom, and 

 the other end floats on the top of the 

 Fishing stage and basket. ^ater. When the fish enter the 



mouth of the basket they are immediately pushed to the upper end of it with 

 scoops, made like rackets for playing tennis ball, and then killed with a blow 

 of a stick. When the basket gets inconveniently full, the fish are carried to the 

 shore in a canoe. 



The Hong-Kutchin have another way, but this is only used for killing the 

 big salmon, while the bar is for the smaller fish, such as pike, white fish, &c. 

 The largest salmon weighs from forty-five to fifty pounds, the smaller from 

 eighteen to twenty-five pounds. In salmon fishing a stage is erected on the 

 bank of the river, and a man stationed upon it gives notice when a salmon 

 is passing ; this he knows by the ripple it makes when ascending the strong cur- 

 rent. The other men, each in the middle of his small canoe, push out, all 

 provided with a bag at the end of a pole; the bag is about five leet deep, and 

 has an oblong frame around its mouth three feet long by one broad; the pole is 

 eight or nine feet long. The Indian paddles his canoe in front of the fish, and 

 pushes his net to the bottom right in front of it ; as soon as the salmon enters 

 the bag the man pulls it to the surface and stabs the fish with a kniW fastened 

 to a pole about five feet long; he then either lifts the salmon into his canoe, or 

 drags it ashore in the net. 



This mode of killing the salmon requires very great skill in the management 

 of the small 

 canoe, as will 

 be -easily seen 

 when I say 

 that the canoe 

 is flat-bot- 

 tomed — is - 

 about nine feet 

 long and one 

 broad, and the 

 sides nearly 



straight up and down like a wall. The fish makes the water foam when it is 

 firet hauled up ; if it strikes the canoe it will knock a hole in it; if it goes under 

 the canoe it will upset it ; and as none of the Kutchin can swim, the conse- 

 quences might be unpleasant. 



The Taitsick-Kutchin make nets similar to ours in shape, constructed of 

 willows instead of twine. The outer bark is scraped off", and the inner taken off" 

 and twisted into thread. The Youcon Indians do not make this kind of net, 



ivatchin boat. 



