54 
were among tlie most skilful hunters on the continent, regarded 
fishing as an occupation worthy only of women, and scorned their 
Chipewyan neighbours, who were keener fishermen but less proficient 
in hunting moose and caribou. Generally speaking, however, the 
average Indian, whatever his tribe, possessed more ability in both 
pursuits than the average white man, because from his earliest child- 
hood he was trained to give the closest attention and study to every 
outdoor phenomenon. 
Among all the methods of securing game, the still-hunt offers 
perhaps the greatest scope for individual skill. To the experienced 
Indian a turned leaf, a broken twig, a slight scraping of a tree, 
a faint track in the moss, each told a story. In the treeless Arctic 
the Eskimo who sighted a caribou tested the direction of the air- 
current by tossing up a shred of down or fur, or by moistening his 
finger to discover which side felt the cooler; then, if the topography 
of the ground prevented him from aj)proaching his quarry under 
cover, he would wait in hiding for several hours, or he would imitate 
its actions and gait, and boldly advancing into the open, lure it within 
range of his arrows.^ Similarly, the prairie Indian often masked 
himself under a buffalo hide and approaclied the buffalo herds unsus- 
pected. Many of the natives could imitate the calls of various birds 
and animals; and the “moose-call” of the Algonkian tribes, usually 
performed with a roll of birch-bark, has been passed on to Europeans. 
The explorer Thompson, himself no mean hunter, pays tribute to the 
skill of one of his Cree. “ An Indian came to hunt for us,” he says, 
“ and on looking about thought the ground good for moose, and told 
us to make no noise; he was told no noise would be made except the 
falling of the trees, this he said the moose did not mind; when he 
returned, he told us he had seen the jdace a doe moose had been 
feeding in the beginning of May; in two days more he had unravelled 
her feeding places to tlie beginning of September. One evening he 
remarked to us, that he had been so near to her that he could proceed 
no nearer, unless it blew a gale of wind, when this took place he set 
1 Jenness, D.; “The I/ife of the Copper Eskimo”; Report of tlie Canadian Arctic Expedi- 
tion, 1913-1918, vol, xii, pt. A, p. 146 (Ottawa, 1923). For the same practice amonp' tlie Hare anrl Doirrib, 
Petitot. E. : “Exjiloratinn dc la region dii Grand Lac des Ours,” p. 385 (Paris, 1893); Wentzel, W. F. 
Letters to the lion. Roderic McKenzie, 1807-1824, in Masson, L. P. ; “ Les Bourgeois de la Compagnie 
du Nord-Ouest,” premiere serie, p. 82, Quebec, 1889; and Franklin, John; “Narrative of a Journey 
to the Shores of the Polar Sea,” p. 244 (London, 1823). 
