340 
A VOYAGE TO 
^779* Traps of different forts, fome calculated to fall upon them, 
others to catch them by the feet, others by the head, are 
amongft the moft common; to which may be added, fe- 
veral ingenious contrivances for taking them in nets. 
Poifoned baits are likewife in ufe; and the nux vomica 
is the drug principally employed for this purpofe. Be¬ 
fore their knowledge of the Ruffians, by which they be¬ 
came acquainted with fire-arms, they alfo carried bows 
and arrows to the chace. But fince that period, almoft 
every Kamtfchadale is provided with a rifle-barrel gun; 
and, though far from being dextrous in the ufe of it, its 
fuperiority over the former inftruments he is ready to ac¬ 
knowledge. 
The fables * of Kamtfchatka are faid to be confiderably 
larger than thofe of Siberia, and their fur much thicker 
and brighter, though not of fo good a black as thofe in 
the neighbourhood of the Olekma and the Vitime f, a 
circumftance which depreciates their value much more 
than their fuperiority in other refpedts enhances it. The 
fables of the Tigil and Ouka are counted the belt in Kamt¬ 
fchatka ; and a pair of thefe fometimes fell for thirty rou¬ 
bles (five pounds fterling). The worffc are thofe of the 
Southern extremity. The apparatus of the fable hunters 
confifl of a rifle-barrel gun of an exceedingly fmall bore, a 
net, and a few bricks : with the firft they ffioot them when 
they fee them on the trees ; the net is to furround the hol¬ 
low trees in which, when purfued, they take refuge ; and 
the bricks are heated, and put into the cavities, in order 
to fmoke them out. 
■* MuHela zibellina. 
y 
f Rivers emptying themfelves into the Lena, near its fource. 
I mufl 
