CHAPTER VI 



MISCELLANEOUS HUNTING METHODS 



It would be interesting to study the means 

 which have been employed in kilUng big game 

 from prehistoric times down to the era of smokeless 

 powder. Such a review of hunting methods would 

 east most interesting side lights on the whole 

 subject of civilization and its development, and 

 the development of inventive skill. 



In the early prehistoric period man was nearly 

 as wild as the wild animals which he sought for 

 food. The great Irish elk, and his contemporaries 

 of the animal kingdom, probably paid little atten- 

 tion to the hairy, skin-clad men, with stone axes 

 and flint-tipped spears, whom they encountered. 

 Men were few in number, and were doubtless 

 disregarded by the larger animals, as deer dis- 

 regard foxes in our woods today. If prehistoric 

 men overcame the Irish elk, or other animals of 

 such size and resourcefulness as the modern 



moose, it was accomplished by force of numbers, 



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