64 GAME ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



accustomed to wait for the deer, and slaughter them in great num- 

 bers. Not content with this, however, they erected deer fences, 

 the remains of which can still be traced for many miles. Inland 

 from Nctre Dame Bay and far to the northwest of Red Indian 

 Lake, a double line of strong fence was put up by the Indians, 

 which at its commencement diverged many miles. The southern 

 fence ran down to the lake, so that deer should thus come near 

 their own encampment ; and the northern line was to prevent their 

 escape near the shore. The northern fence ran down to the 

 river Exploits, along the bank of which another fence was raised, 

 with openings at particular places for the deer to go to the river 

 and swim across. These openings were called " passes." A 

 number of men now go within the fence, and from the wider 

 enclosure they drive them to the narrow part, or to passes of the 

 river where others were stationed, and thus kill the deer at their 

 leisure. These deer fences are actually seen to extend thirty miles 

 on the river Exploits, and how far into the interior no white man 

 can tell. They are formed by felling trees, and must have cost 

 immense labor. The tribe which constructed them originally 

 must have been numerous and powerful, though now without a 

 single living representative. 



The Indians, especially the Mic-Macs, have another method 

 of capturing the deer, which if it were not well attested, would 

 seem almost incredible. Some of these Indian hunters will 

 actually run down a stag. Only when fat is the stag worth such 

 an arduous pursuit, and then only is he liable to such fatigued 

 exhaustion. The hunter will commence the chase early in the 

 day, and follow it up without intermission, and before night will 

 make the stag his prey without firing a shot. The stag at first 

 easily outstrips his pursuer, but after a run of four or five miles he 

 stops, and is by and by overtaken. He Ues dovra fatigued but is 

 again surprised ; and thus the chase is kept up until the poor stag 

 plunges into a pool or morass to escape, where he soon meets his 

 doom, man at length winning the day. 



How useful the tamed reindeer might become to the New- 

 foundlander, may be imagined from what we read of the Lapland 

 reindeer. It can draw a sledge over the frozen snow at the rate 

 of twenty miles an hour. To the Laplander the reindeer is every- 



