I have already described the methods of hunting the reindeer and of
capturing small game.
The beaver is not plentiful in the Ungava district, and not until the
headwaters of the Koksoak and the lakes near the source of George's
river are reached are they to be found at all, excepting occasional
stragglers.
The Indians have few of the skins of this animal to sell at the trading
post of Fort Chimo.
The methods of capture differ in some respects from those elsewhere
employed.
The habits of the beaver are so well known that a statement of their
manner of life is unnecessary.
The food supply north of latitude 55° is so limited in quality and
quantity that the scarcity of the animals is due entirely to the absence
of the food necessary for their existence.
When the dams and structures made by the beaver are discovered the
people devise means to capture it.
If it is convenient to get at the holes leading to the structure, which
are always under water so deep that it will not freeze to the bottom,
they are closed with a stick of wood and an opening made in the top of
the hut. The animal is then caught by the hind legs or tail and lifted
out. It seldom attempts to defend itself at first. As soon as the hunter
can do so he jerks the animal out, and with a blow on its head kills it.
If he should pause for an instant from the time the hand is put on the
animal until the death blow is given, that very instant he certainly
will be bitten with teeth so sharp and powerful that the fingers may be
snipped from the hand as though with a pair of shears. The wound thus
inflicted is often very severe and difficult to heal, as the bite is not
only cutting but crushing.
Where the water can be drained from the pond or lake in which the
beavers' hut is built, the Indians often leave it high and dry by
damming off the supply and allowing the water to drain away. As soon as
the house is out of water the occupant emerges and is killed. Beavers
are sometimes shot while sporting on the water during moonlight nights.
Some of the animals are captured by means of a net of peculiar
construction. This net is of fine deerskin thongs netted into a circle
nearly 2 feet in diameter, with meshes about an inch square. The meshes
in the outer row are threaded upon a stout thong of deerskin, in length
about four times the diameter of the net. This thong is now tied at the
ends, and over one end thus tied is slipped a ring made of spruce root
and wound with sinew to strengthen it. This ring is about an inch in
diameter, only sufficient to allow freedom of the ends of the line. It
is fastened to one of the meshes of the net in order to keep its place.
Where the water is too deep and only a single beaver is in the lodge the
net is carefully spread over the mouth of the exit so placed as to form
a purse into which the head and neck of the animal will be thrust as it
leaves the hut. The mouth of the purse now tightens from the ring
slipping along the string, and thus strangles the animal or else causes
it to drown as it struggles to escape from the tightening cord.
The net is said to be a very effective means of capturing the beaver and
will succeed when it has become too wary to be shot on the surface of
the water.
The flesh of the beaver is considered valuable food by these people.
They prize it highly and prefer the flesh of the female to that of the
male.
[Illustration: FIG. 141.--Crooked knife, Nenenot.]