THE REIN-DEER. 
137 
proached by stealth, or driven into the passes, where 
an ambuscade lies in wait for them ; or, as they 
freely take to the waters of rivers and lakes, they 
are easily overtaken in the canoes, and speaied. 
The Esquimaux also shoot them with arrows, and 
exhibit great patience in waylaying their prey. They 
are so inquisitive as to examine any object with 
which they are unaccustomed ; and to this the hun- 
ter trusts ; or, creeping heliind any object of partial 
concealment, he imitates the bellow of the animal, 
having his deer-skin coat and hood down over his 
bead. In both cases he is generally successful, and 
rarely shoots before the animal reaches a distance of 
tw'elve paces. The moat ingenious method of tak- 
ing them is, however, noticed by Dr llichardson, as 
practised by the inhabitants to the southward ot 
Chesterfield’s Inlet. It is by a trap made of snow 
and ice. “ The sides of the trap are built of slabs 
of snow, cut as if for a snow-house. An inclined 
plane of snow leads to the entrance of the pit, which 
is about five feet deep, and of sufficient dimensions 
to contain two or three large deers. The pit is co- 
vered with a large thin slab of snow, w'hich the ani- 
mal is enticed to tread upon, by a quantity of the 
lichens on which it feeds being placed conspicuous- 
ly on an eminence, beyond the opening. The exte- 
rior of the trap is banked up with snow, so as to re- 
semble a natural hillock, and care is taken to render 
it so steep on all sides but one, that the deer must 
pass over the mouth of the trap before it can reach 
VOL. HI. I- 
