470 CANADA GOOSE. 



silent desolation of unknown countries, shut out since creation 

 from the prying eye of man by everlasting and insuperable 

 barriers of ice. That such places abound with their suitable 

 food, we cannot for a moment doubt ; while the absence of 

 their great destroyer, man, and the splendours of a perpetual 

 daj', may render such regions the most suitable for their 

 purpose. 



Having fulfilled the great law of nature, the approaching 

 rigours of that dreary climate oblige these vast congregated 

 flocks to steer for the more genial regions of the south. And 

 no sooner do they arrive at those countries of the earth in- 

 habited by man, than carnage and slaughter is commenced on 

 their ranks. The English at Hudson's Bay, says Pennant, 

 depend greatly on geese, and in favourable years kill three or 

 four thousand, and barrel them up for use. They send out 

 their servants, as well as Indians, to shoot these birds on their 

 passage. It is in vain to pursue them ; they therefore form a 

 row of huts, made of boughs, at musket-shot distance from each 

 other, and place them in a line across the vast marshes of the 

 country. Each stand, or hovel, as they are called, is occupied 

 by only a single person. These attend the flight of the birds, 

 and, on their approach, mimic their cackle so well, that the 

 geese will answer, and wheel, and come nearer the stand. 

 The sportsman keeps motionless, and on his knees, with his 

 gun cocked the whole time, and never fires till he has seen the 

 eyes of the geese. He fires as they are going from him, then 

 picks up another gun that lies by him, and discharges that. 

 The geese which he has killed he sets upon sticks, as if alive, 

 to decoy others ; he also makes artificial birds for the same 

 purpose. In a good day, for they fly in very uncertain and 

 unequal numbers, a single Indian will kill two hundred. Not- 

 withstanding every species of goose has a different call, yet 

 the Indians are admirable in their imitations of every one. 

 The autumnal flight lasts from the middle of August to the 

 middle of October ; those which are taken in this season, 

 when the frosts begin, are preserved in their feathers, and left 



