THE CHASE. 367 
On the next page, the same learned author says: “ The Cari- 
bou travel in herds, varying from eight or ten to two or three 
hundred, and their daily excursions are generally towards the 
quarter from whence the wind blows. The Indians kill them 
with the bow and arrow or gun, take them in snares, or spear 
them in crossing rivers or lakes. The Esquimaux also take them 
in traps, ingeniously formed of ice or snow. Of all the deer of 
North America they are the most easy of approach, and are 
slaughtered in the greatest numbers. A single family of Indians 
will sometimes destroy two or three hundred in a few weeks, and 
in many cases they are killed for the sake of their tongues 
alone.” : 
The Esquimanx trap these deer, using the reindeer moss for 
bait. The trap is constructed of frozen snow or ice, inclosing a 
room of sufficient dimensions to hold several deer, and over this 
is laid a thin slab of ice, supported on wooden axles forward of 
the centre of gravity. The top of this is only accessible by a way 
prepared for the purpose, and beyond the tempting moss is laid. 
In reaching it, the deer passes over the treacherous slab of ice, 
which is tilted by the weight of the deer, and he is precipitated 
into the room below, when the top, relieved of the weight, 
resumes its horizontal position, and is ready set for another 
victim. 
They are snared with thongs made of the skin of the animal, 
by placing the noose in positions where the head will pass through 
it, something in the manner described in snaring the moose, and 
if they do not find a tree convenient to which the line may be 
attached, they will hitch it to the middle of a loose pole, which 
soon becomes entangled in the bushes and among the rocks, so 
that the animal cannot escape to any great distance. 
Great numbers are captured by the Indians by driving them 
into pens or inclosures made of bushes, and placed in the course 
of some well beaten path, where a narrow gateway is left, from 
either side of which a diverging line of bushes or piles of stone, 
perhaps one hundred feet apart, are placed. These may extend 
a mile or two, and at their extremities be far apart. A watch is 
kept from some high point of observation, and when a herd of 
deer is observed approaching, the whole family, men, women, and 
children, quietly skulk around them, and drive them within the 
converging lines of objects which, in their stupidity and defective 
eyesight, they regard as impassable barriers, and so rush straight 
forward upon the path into the inclosure, in which is a labyrinth 
