276 
tains now possess good rifles, principally 
Winchesters. 
The Indian, or, as they are called. 
*““Siwash,” population of Dease and Liard 
rivers is small, and this immense country 
is truly a wilderness. There are but few 
high mountains, but vast stretches of un- 
dulating hills covered with willows, small 
pine, aspen and birch, and between the 
hills a network of lakes and small streams. 
This is the home of the moose, and it 
will be many years before this sagacious, 
wary animal becomes extinct here. The 
Indians kill a great many every year, but 
I consider the wolf their worst enemy. 
They, too, are plentiful, and being difficult 
to trap and their skins of little value, the 
Indians take but few of them. They gen- 
erally, travel ain! bands, of 95 >to 7, and 
though possessed of great cunning, 
strength and endurance, often go hungry. 
as the moose does not always fall an easy 
prey. So desperate do these bands of 
wolves become when hungry that they 
often kill and devour one of their own 
number. I once came upon the scene of 
one of their battles. The snow was beaten 
down and locks of fur were scattered in 
every direction. A little farther on blood, 
too, appeared on the snow, and, finally, 
about one mile from where this running 
battle commenced, there lay a front leg- 
‘bone and foot to tell the story. 
-Both black and grey wolves are found 
Caribou are in the high hills, and 
here. 

RECREATION. 
sheep and goats in the mountains. Black 
bears are plentiful, and there are a few 
grizzlies. Red, cross and silver foxes, 
wolverines, martens, beaver and Canada 
grouse inhabit the lower belts of timber, 
and rock and willow ptarmigan the up- 
lands. The region is visited by few water 
fowl, and a limited number of the smaller 
feathered tribe. One sees but little life 
here in winter, and the surroundings be- 
come somewhat monotonous; yet the 
small black pines with their long, feather- 
like plumes and the more stately spruce, 
everywhere bending under their load of 
soft white snow, often form beautiful pic- 
tures. 
So far I have been unable to trace the 
use, by the Indians, of any native traps. 
They use the deadfall for fox and marten, 
the snare and the deadfall for bear and 
lynx, and they metimes use a babische 
net in catching beaver. Before the ad- 
vent of the rifie they used the rawhide 
snare for moose and caribou. I have se- 
cured 2 beaver nets and several rawhide 
snares. 
Our shortest days here give us but 3 
hours of sunshine and but 8 hours of day- 
light, yet one soon becomes accustomed 
to this. On our trip down river we were 
usually up at 6 and seldom to bed be- 
fore 12. 
Seven hundred miles of snowshoe travel 
will have to be made before this letter can 
be mailed. 
AMATEUR PHOTO BY F. S. SHEPARD. 
A DOUBLE DIVE 

