eyes of
his wife are seen gazing through a chink in the covering, with an
expression that denotes immense joy at the prospect of gorging for many
days on fat beaver, and having wherewithal to purchase beads and a
variety of ornaments from the white men, upon the occasion of her
husband and herself visiting the posts of the fur-traders in the
following spring.

But some of the tribes have a more sociable as well as a more productive
way of conducting business, at least as regards venison; for they catch
the deer in a "pound."

"Their mode of accomplishing this is to select a well-frequented
deer-path, and enclose with a strong fence of twisted trees and
brushwood a space about a mile in circumference, and sometimes more.
The entrance of the pound is not larger than a common gate, and its
inside is crowded with innumerable small hedges, in the openings of
which are fixed snares of strong well-twisted thongs. One end is
generally fastened to a growing tree; and as all the wood and jungle
within the enclosure is left standing, its interior forms a complete
labyrinth. On each side of the door a line of small trees, stuck up in
the snow fifteen or twenty yards apart, form two sides of an acute
angle, widening gradually from the entrance, from which they sometimes
extend two or three miles. Between these rows of brushwood runs the
path frequented by the deer. When all things are prepared, the Indians
take their station on some eminence commanding a prospect of this path,
and the moment any deer are seen going that way, the whole encampment--
men, women, and children--steal under cover of the woods till they get
behind them. They then show themselves in the open ground, and, drawing
up in the form of a crescent, advance with shouts. The deer finding
themselves pursued, and at the same time imagining the rows of brushy
poles to be people stationed to prevent their passing on either side,
run straight forward till they get into the pound. The Indians
instantly close in, block up the entrance, and whilst the women and
children run round the outside to prevent them from breaking or leaping
the fence, the men enter with their spears and bows, and speedily
dispatch such as are caught in the snares or are running loose." [see
"Hearne's Journey." pages 78 to 80].

"McLean, a gentleman who spent twenty-five years in the Hudson Bay
territories, assures us that on one occasion he and a party of men
entrapped and slaughtered i