MONTAGNAIS OF THE LAKE 
clothing and snowshoes are manufactured 
from the hides of caribou; the sinews 
furnish thread, the intestines provide water- 
proof bags in which the fat and marrow 
are preserved, while the meat constitutes 
their principal food the year round. 
Modern breech-loading firearms are now 
used extensively by these Indians, though a 
few muzzle-loaders are still seen. With the 
repeating rifle the men when successful in 
intercepting the deer are able to kill them 
byscores. One old chief, being asked by the 
Factor how many he had killed, replied that, 
though he was a very old man, he had been 
lively enough when the deer were sighted, 
and with his two sons had secured about 
two hundred and fifty! In spite of repeated 
warnings from the Factor as to the danger 
of extermination the Indians slaughter 
many more caribou than they can possibly 
use, frequentlyspearing them in the streams, 
and after cutting out the tongues, letting 
the current carry away the bodies. An idea 
of the immense number of caribou some- 
times slaughtered may be obtained from 
the site of some old camps, where the heaps 
of cracked bones from which the marrow 

MICHIKAMATS COUNTRY 
has been extracted are often ten feet in 
diameter and two or three feet high. A 
these camping places I have counted as 
many as two hundred antlers in a single 
pile, and five or six of these piles. 
When the hunters intercept the caribou 
migration and make a big kill, there are 
busy times, indeed. The deer must be 
dressed immediately, as they soon freeze 
solid and remain frozen and in a good state 
of preservation until late in May. If the 
hunt has heen a success the Indians are 
assured of food and clothing for the long, 
cold winter. Camp is now moved to the 
neighborhood of the slaughter, and a 
quantity of the fresh meat is kept by 
smoking. It is first cut into strips, then 
hung about the smoke-hole of the tepee; 
when cured it forms a light, nourishing food 
to be carried on long tramps. This is the 
work of the women. Meanwhile the men are 
setting out the traps, since the smell of the 
freshly slaughtered meat and the refuse 
serve as a lure to wolves, wolverines and 
other furbearing animals. 
The meat of the deer killed during the 
summer months isall preserved by thesmoke 
