59 
black-tailed deer into bays and fiords/ and the Algonkiaii Indians 
speared the moose as it swam from one bank or headland to another. 
Steel traps for the capture of fur-bearinp; game originated, of 
course, with Europeans, but the natives in every part of the Domin- 
ion had long employed both dead-falls and snares, the former mainly 
for carnivorous animals, the latter for herbivorous. Dead-falls, 
operated by some kind of trigger, were especially common in British 
Columbia, where the Carrier Indians alone constructed at least four 
varieties.- Most of the Athapaskan tribes in the north depended 
largely on snares for the capture of caribou and moose, and every- 
where this was the accepted method for small animals like rabbits, 
hares, and marmots, and for birds like grouse and ptarmigan. Both 
snares and dead-falls reciuired the exercise of much ingenuity and 
woodcraft, and all the Indians were skilful trappers centuries before 
there were any trading posts where their furs could find a market. 
The hunting of the sea-mammals that frequented the coasts 
required not oidy ingenuity but courage. However uncertain the 
weather the Xootka Indians of Vancouver island fearlessly put to 
sea in their dug-out canoes, during the months of April and May, 
to attack the mighty whale, which with one blow of its tail could 
break to pieces their largest vessel. The whaling equipment of this 
and other west coast tribes closely resembled that of the Eskimo, 
which was adopted by Europeans until superseded by the modern 
whaling-gun. Vleares describes it thus: “The harpoons which they 
use to strike the whale or any other sea-animal, except the otter, are 
contrived with no common skill. The shaft is from eighteen to 
twenty-eight feet in length ; at the end whereof is fixed a large piece 
of bone, cut in notches, which being spliced to the shaft, serves as 
a secure hold for the harpoon, which is fastened to it with thongs. 
The harpoon is of an oval form, and rendered extremely sharp at the 
sides as well as the point — it is made out of a large muscle-shell, and 
is fixed into another piece of bone, about three inches long, and to 
which a line is fastened made of the sinews of certain beasts, of sev- 
eral fathoms in length; this is again attached to the shaft; so that 
when the fish is pierced, the shaft floats on the water by means of 
seal-skins filled with wind, or the ventilated bladflers of fish, which 
1 Si)i-r)at : Oii. fit., p. 145. 
■- Mfif-lff. ,A. Cl.: “ Xoifs on the Wesleni Denes”; Trail*. Caniulian lust., vol. iv, p. 95 ff (1802-3). 
