138 THE AMERICAN MOOSE 



gnaux) with the savages, whose language I am 

 learning, as I have intimated to you several 

 times. This hunting is performed on the snow^ 

 with snowshoes {raquettes), as you see drawn on 

 this paper. These snowshoes are two feet and a 

 half long and fourteen inches wide. . . . 



"We found five, ten, fifteen, or twenty orignaux 

 in a body, which together or separately took 

 flight, and sank in the snow up to the breast. 

 If the snow was hard and packed, or if there was a 

 crust on the surface caused by a season of damp- 

 ness followed by frost, we came up with them after 

 pursuing them a quarter of a league, but if the 

 snow was soft or freshly fallen we were obliged to 

 pursue them three or four leagues before we could 

 capture them, unless the dogs should bring them 

 to bay in places where the snow was deepest. 

 When we overtook them we shot them with guns. 

 Sometimes they become furious, and make an 

 attack on the savages, who take refuge behind 

 trees to protect themselves from their hoofs, with 

 which they would trample them to death. As soon 

 as they have been killed, new huts are made on the 

 spot, with large fires in the center, while the slaves 

 skin the animals and stretch the skins to dry. 



"One of the soldiers who accompanied me 

 said that it was necessary to have blood consisting 



