raw hide, cleared of the hair and cut into thongs, serves
for snares, bow-strings, net-lines, and every other sort of ropes. The
finer thongs make netting for snow-shoes--an indispensable article to
these people--and of these thongs fish-nets are also woven; while the
tendons of the muscles, when split, serve for fine sewing-thread.
Besides these uses, the flesh of the caribou is the food of many tribes,
Indians and Esquimaux, for most of the year; and, indeed, it may be
looked upon as their staple article of subsistence.

There is hardly any part of it (even the horns, when soft) that is not
eaten and relished by them. Were it not for the immense herds of these
creatures that roam over the country, they would soon be
exterminated--for they are easily approached, and the Indians have very
little difficulty, during the summer season, in killing as many as they
please.

Norman next gave a description of the various modes of hunting the
caribou practised by the Indians and Esquimaux; such as driving them
into a pound, snaring them, decoying and shooting them with arrows, and
also a singular way which the Esquimaux have of taking them in a
pit-trap built in the snow.

"The sides of the trap," said he, "are built of slabs of snow, cut as if
to make a snow-house. An inclined plane of snow leads to the entrance of
the pit, which is about five feet deep, and large enough within to hold
several deer. The exterior of the trap is banked up on all sides with
snow; but so steep are these sides left, that the deer can only get up
by the inclined plane which leads to the entrance. A great slab of snow
is then placed over the mouth of the pit, and revolves on two axles of
wood. This slab will carry the deer until it has passed the line of the
axles, when its weight overbalances one side, and the animal is
precipitated into the pit. The slab then comes back into a horizontal
position as before, and is ready to receive another deer. The animals
are attracted by moss and lichens placed for them on the opposite side
of the trap--in such a way that they cannot be reached without crossing
the slab. In this sort of trap several deer are frequently caught during
a single day."

Norman knew another mode of hunting practised by the Esquimaux, and
proposed that the party should proceed in search of the herd upon the
following day; when, should they succeed in finding the deer, he would
show them how the thing was done; and he had no doubt of