296 



ACCOUNT OP THE INDIANS. 



provided they are preserved dry, they will re- 

 main good for several years. 



The Carriers take beavers in nets, made of 

 thongs of cariboo skins, or in baskets made of 

 young cypress stadies ; and sometimes they shoot 

 them with bows and arrows, or guns, or take 

 them in steel traps, which we sell to them, and 

 of which they begin to understand the value. 

 Cats, martins, fishers, foxes, minks, &c. they take 

 in a kind of spring trap, which consists of a large 

 piece of wood, which these animals, by nibbling 

 at the bait, cause to fall upon and crush them. 

 Bears, sw T ans and hares they generally take in 

 snares ; and the cat, also, they sometimes take 

 in this manner. They hunt the beaver and bear, 

 more for the sake of their flesh, than to obtain the 

 skins ; for it is with the meat of these animals 

 that they make their feasts, in remembrance of 

 their deceased relatives. 



At such festivals, they cut up as many dressed 

 moose and red deer skins as they can well procure, 

 into slips, about eighteen inches long, and twelve 

 inches broad, and distribute them among their 

 friends and relatives. And they firmly believe, 

 that these ceremonies must be performed, before 

 their departed relative can be at rest, in the 

 place whither he has gone, which they think to 



