330 



ACCOUNT OF THE INDIANS. 



same proportion. No favour which can be be- 

 stowed upon them is so gratefully received, as 

 the means of making a good meal. 



From the month of June, until the latter end 

 of September, all animals have but little fur ; and 

 therefore, at this season, the Indians do not hunt 

 them much. The greater part of the Indians, on 

 the east side of the Rocky Mountain, now take 

 the beaver in steel traps, which we sell them ; 

 frequently they shoot them, with fire arms; and 

 sometimes they make holes through their lodges 

 or huts, and then spear them. Otters they take 

 in the same manner as beavers. The lynx or 

 cat, they take in snares. Foxes, fishers, martins, 

 minks, &c. they take in a spring trap. — The large 

 animals are hunted chiefly for their flesh ; 

 and are therefore killed, principally when they 

 are the fattest, which most of them are in the 

 fall, and some of them in the winter. Buffaloes, 

 moose, red deers, bears, &c. are generally .killed 

 with fire arms. The Indians, however, in the 

 plains, have other methods of killing the buffa- 

 loe. 



Sometimes the young men mount their hors- 

 es, and pursue them and bring them down with 

 their bows and arrows, which they find more* 

 convenient for this purpose than fire arms, as 

 they can more easily take an arrow from the 



