WILD SWANS. 229 
men use only clubs and spears in their work of slaughter; 
persons may therefore imagine how easy it is to capture 
them. After the birds are killed, the savages commence 
feasting, and keep it up until they have gorged them- 
selves. They used, formerly, to make beds, pillows, and 
head-dresses for themselves out of the feathers, but of late 
years they have become accustomed to selling them to 
white traders for a mere song. 
The Aleutian Indians of Alaska, who are as pro- 
ficient with the gun and the spear as they are with the 
‘hook and trident, kill more swans during the moulting 
season than any tribe on the Continent; as the birds are 
not only numerous, but so incapable of flight that they 
are knocked down with clubs on the shore, or captured 
on the water by chasing them in canoes. They are very 
abundant in autumn and winter along the Columbia 
River and its numerous tributaries, and it is then a 
pleasant sight to see them violently beating the water as 
they splash and scramble to the windward in their efforts 
to rise, or sailing gracefully over the dark-green forests, 
which make their whiteness more apparent by the con- 
trast in hue. 
Swans cannot rise suddenly from the water, so they 
have to flap along for several yards before they can get 
on the wing, especially in calm weather. This beating 
or flapping produces a crackling noise which can be heard 
quite a long distance off. The sportsman who is ac- 
quainted with this characteristic never approaches the 
birds from the leeward; the result is, that he may ob- 
tain several shots ere they gain headway enough to get 
out of range. Even when they see their foe approaching 
they do not attempt to escape immediately, but keep 
staring at him and wheeling round and round in the 
most perplexed manner, as if they were loth to leave or 
stupefied at the threatened danger; and should they rise, 
they are likely to fly towards him, if he is to the wind. 
