nowshoes that white men have
strung with cord; but cord is of little use, for cord, or rope, shrinks
when wet and stretches when dry, whereas deerskin stretches when wet
and shrinks when drying. Of all deerskin, however, that of caribou
stretches less when wet than any other; besides, it is much stronger
and that is why it makes the best mesh for snowshoes. In lacing a
shoe, a wooden needle is used, but the eye, instead of being at one
end, is in the centre. Amik had also started work on several hunting
sleds of the toboggan type--the only kind used by the natives of the
Great Northern Forest. They are made of birch wood and not of birch
bark, as a noted American author asserted in one of his books on
northern life.

A hunting sled is made of two thin boards, split from a birch log by
using wooden wedges, and the boards are shaved flat and smooth, first
with the aid of a very sharp axe and then with a crooked knife. A
hunting sled is ten to twelve inches wide, and commonly eight feet
long. The widest part of the sled is at the first cross-bar, then it
tapers both ways, an inch less at the tail, and four or five inches
less at the end of its gracefully curved prow. That is done to prevent
jamming among trees. The two boards are fastened to four cross-bars
with deerskin thongs, never with pegs or nails, and the ground-lashing
is made fast to the cross-bars. A wrapper of deerskin is provided in
which to lash the load. The lashing thong is eighteen to twenty feet
in length. Dog-sleds are made much longer, and up to about sixteen
inches in width, and are provided with an extra line that trails out
behind, by which the driver holds back the sled when going down hill,
in order to prevent it from over-running the dogs. A hunting-sled,
however, is usually hauled by man by means of a looped strap, or
tump-line, with a broad centre which goes over the hunter's shoulders
or head, and has its two ends fastened to the first cross-bar below the
prow.

During the next few days Oo-koo-hoo and Amik had also finished setting
their traps, snares, and deadfalls for all the furred creatures of the
woods, including wolves and bears. Already the camp had taken on a
business-like air, for the big stretching frames for the skins of
moose, bear, and caribou had been erected near the lodges; and as the
hunters had secured both moose and caribou, the frames were already in
use. Trapping had begun in earnest, and though fairly succes