THE SNOW GOOSE. 237 



Simple mode of taking it. 



after being plucked and gutted, are flung in 

 heaps into holes dug for that purpose, and are 

 covered only with earth. The mould freezes, 

 and forms over them an arch, and whenever the 

 family have occasion to open one of these ma- 

 gazines, they find their provisions perfectly sweet 

 and good. In that frozen climate these birds 

 have so little of the shyness of the other species, 

 that they are taken in the most ridiculous man- 

 ner imaginable. The inhabitants place near the 

 hanks of the rivers a great net, in a straight line ; 

 or else form a hovel of skins sewed together. 

 This done, one of the company dresses himself 

 in the skin of a white rein- deer, advances towards 

 the flock of geese, and then turns back towards 

 the net or hovel ; and his companions go behind 

 the flock, and by making a noise, drive them 

 forward. The simple birds mistake the man in 

 white for their leader, and follow him within 

 reach of the net; which is suddenly pulled down, 

 and captivates the whole. When he chuses to 

 conduct them even into the hovel, they follow in 

 the same manner; he creeps in at a hole left for 

 that purpose, and out at another on the opposite 

 side, which he closes up. The geese follow him 

 through the first, and as soon as they are in, he 

 passes round and secures every one of them. 

 Mr. Hearne, however, in his " Journey to the 

 Northern Ocean," says that the snow geese 

 there are very different in their manners, beinj* 



