A SEARCH FOR THE PLEIADES 255 
hair stand up straight, and you feel about as 
big as your finger. I have heard it when it 
made me feel as if my hat was two feet from 
my head. It is as much bigger than the house 
cat’s noise as that is bigger than a canary’s.” 
Of the larger animals, the deer is still hunted 
in this region, although the present laws, which 
protect these animals from January 1 to Au- 
gust 1, have cut off the snow-hunting, which 
was the most profitable. Before this legis- 
lation, Merrill had once taken three deer alive 
in a single day, pursuing them in snowshoes 
with a dog, when the slender hoofs cut through 
the crusted snow, and they could be over- 
taken. When thrown down in the snow the 
deer defend themselves actively with their 
hoofs, which are used very swiftly and cut like 
razors. The best way to quiet them is to hold 
their heads down by the ears, and after this 
‘has been done for ten or fifteen minutes they 
will usually submit, and can afterwards be led 
along, although sometimes the old bucks will 
fight, from first to last, so furiously that the 
hunter, entangled in his snowshoes, must kill 
his opponent in self-defence. Of bears not 
more than three or four are annually taken 
here, —a bounty of ten dollars being paid, — 
but a good many visit the region, keeping in 
the valley between Moosilauke and Carr’s 
