yards long.  At the point of the triangle there was a little enclosure.  The Hurons were so expeditious in this work that in less than ten days these long fences and the “pound” or enclosure at their convergence were finished.  They then started before daybreak and scattered themselves in the woods at a considerable distance behind the commencement of these fences, each man separated from his fellow by about 80 yards.  Every Huron carried two pieces of wood, one like a drumstick and the other like a flat, resonant board.  They struck the flat piece of wood with the drumstick and it made a loud clanging sound.  The deer who swarmed in the forest, hearing this noise, fled before the savages, who drove them steadily towards the converging fences.  As they closed up, the Hurons imitated very cleverly the yapping of wolves.  This frightened the deer still more, so that they huddled at last into the final enclosure, where they were so tightly packed that they were completely at the men’s mercy.  “I assure you,” writes Champlain, “there is a singular pleasure in this chase, which takes place every two days, and has been so successful that in thirty-eight days one hundred and twenty deer were captured.  These were made good use of, the fat being kept for the winter to be used as we do butter, and some of the flesh to be taken to their homes for their festivities.”

Champlain himself, in the winter of 1615, pursuing one day a remarkable bird “which was the size of a hen, had a beak like a parrot and was entirely yellow, except for a red head and blue wings, and which had the flight of the partridge”—­a bird I cannot identify—­lost his way in the woods.  For two days he wandered in the wilderness, sustaining himself by shooting birds and roasting them.  But at last he found his way back to a river which he recognized, and reached the camp of the Hurons, who were extremely delighted at his return.  Had they not found him, or had he not come back of himself, they told him that they could never again have visited the French for fear of being held responsible for his death.

By the month of December of this year (1615) the rivers, lakes, and ponds were all frozen.  Hitherto, Champlain had had to walk when he could not travel in a canoe, and carry a load of twenty pounds, while the Indians carried a hundred pounds each.  But now the water was frozen the Hurons set to work and made their sledges.  These were constructed of two pieces of board, manufactured from the trunks of trees by the patient use of a stone axe and by the application of fire.  These boards were about 6 inches wide, and 6 or 7 feet long, curved upwards at the forward end and bound together by cross pieces.  The sides were bordered with strips of wood, which served as brackets to which was fastened the strap that bound the baggage upon the sledge.  The load was dragged by a rope or strap of leather passing round the breast of the Indian, and attached to the end of the sledge.  The sledge was so narrow that it could be drawn easily without impediment wherever an Indian could thread his way over the snow through the pathless forests.