334 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



strong horizontal bars into a regular fence, extend their arms for nearly the 

 length of a mile in the form of a Roman V. The extremity of the avenue is 

 closed by stakes with sharp points sloping towards the entrance, on which the 

 reindeer, driven together and hotly pursued by the Indians, may impale them- 

 selves in their desperate flight. The structure is erected with great labor, as 

 the timber has to be transported into the open country from a considerable dis- 

 tance. Some of these may be a century old, and they are the hereditary pos- 

 session of the families or tribes by whom they were originally constructed. 



But in spite of all their contrivances and the use of fire-arms, the Kutchin, 

 whose numbers on the banks of the Yukon are estimated at about a thousand 

 men and boys able to hunt, are frequently reduced to great distress. Hence 

 the old and infirm are mercilessly left to their fate when game is scarce, and 

 famine makes itself felt. Attempts have been vainly made to better the con- 

 dition of the northern Indians by inducing them to tame the reindeer. Their 

 superstition is one of the obstacles against this useful innovation, for they fear 

 that were they to make some of the reindeer their captives, the remainder would 

 immediately leave the country. " And why," they add, " should we follow like 

 slaves a herd of tame animals, when the forest and the barren ground provide 

 us with the elk, the wild reindeer, and the musk-ox, and our rivers and lakes are 

 filled with fishes that cost us nothing but the trouble of catching them ?" 



Each family possesses a deer-skin tent or lodge, which in summer, when in 

 quest of game, is rarely erected. The winter encampment is usually in a grove 

 of spruce-firs ; the ground being cleared of snow, the skins, which are prejDared 

 with the hair, are extended over flexible willow poles which take a semicircular 

 form. This hemispherical shape of lodges is not altogether unknown among 

 the Chepewyans and Crees, being that generally adapted for their vapor baths, 

 framed of willow poles, but their dwelling-places are conical, as stiff poles are 

 used for their construction. 



When the tent is erected the snow is packed on outside to half its height, 

 and it is lined equally high within with the young spray of the spruce-fir, that 

 the bodies of the inmates may not rest against the cold wall. The doorway is 

 filled up by a double fold of skin, and the apartment has the closeness and 

 warmth but not the elegance of the Esquimaux snow hut, which it resembles 

 in shape. Though only a very small fire is kept in the centre of the lodge, yet 

 the warmth is as great as in a log-house. The provisions are stored on the 

 outside under fir branches and snow, and further protected from the dogs by 

 sledges being placed on top. 



