Part 6 (1/2)
”If we get two of thehted,” said Saet a shot at two in a line However, before he could fire Mustagan quickly stopped him and said:
”No, no, not that way I will show you how Step back and keep still, and see how our fathers used to get theun caht of the bow and arrows, but as Mustagan had [brought] none along he wondered if the oldto quickly try and an had quietly slipped back into a grove of tall, slender young trees that grew up like great fish poles
Here he quickly cut down one that could be easily handed by a strong man This he rapidly trimmed of all its branches, and then quietly returned with it to the spot where Sa down to one of hishich the moccasin had been securely fastened around his ankle to keep out the snow Cutting off a piece about two feet long, he again fastened up his shoe, and then, with the string thus secured, began tosecurely to the s pole; then in the other end of the string he ed so that it would be about four inches in dias, and one only possible in a land of such intense cold
Taking his hand out of his ers with his saliva and then i As fast as it was thus wet it froze as stiff as wire, and stood straight out fro, the loop of the slip noose included, until the whole stood out as though an, carrying his long pole with this uniquely formed noose on its end, moved cautiously and quickly under the tree in which the partridges were still sitting Carefully he began raising up the pole until it was higher than the head of the partridge nearest the ground Then he deftly brought it so that the noose was directly over the head of the bird
With a quick jerk he pulled the pole doith the head of the bird in the noose of the string, which, of course, tightened with the sudden jerk Mustagan quickly killed the bird by crushi+ng in the skull Then, loosing it froain ofthe noose as before In this way he succeeded in securing the whole covey of those partridges From his favourable position Sahted with the success of the old Indian, who had in this ithout the loss of one charge of powder, or even an arrow, secured ten or a dozen fine, plues On their way home, in answer to Sa this es, the Indian stated that the secret of his success in getting the in his noose the bird lowest down ”When you do that,” he added, ”the birds above think that as those below theround to see what they can find to eat Never take a bird that is higher up in the tree than any other If you do you get no more The rest will at once fly away”
Another bird that rereat snohite owl His wonderful covering of feathers, even down to the toes, enables hienerally sleeps by day in sooes down, for his nightly raids upon the rabbits and partridges He is also fond of mice, and as there are some varieties of these active little creatures that run around a good deal even in the winter, and at night, the owls are ever on the lookout for thereat white owls in their night huntings fly far away froreat trouble, especially if there are no trees with dense branches aht sun happens to peep up over the horizon ere they are safely stoay in some shadowy place, they are at the ht on the icy or snowy surface of the lake They are then easily captured
When a clever Indian dog-driver sees one thus standing out on the ice he quickly stops his dog-train, and, running toward the bewildered owl, gets on the side on which the sun is shi+ning Then hetoward hiht, brilliant rays of the sun shi+ne right into his great, staring eyes Thewhip in his hand, keeps approaching, taking care, however, that his shadow does not fall on the bird If he did, that instant the oould be off So the h to one side to have the oays in the brilliant light The result is he does not see the approaching h thelash winds itself suddenly around the neck of the owl, and he is thus captured
When better food is scarce these large owls are eaten by the Indians
Some are so fond of them that they are ever on the lookout to capture them They have several ht pole securely in the ice On the top of this is nailed a little board, and on this is set a steel trap or snare The owls get tired with their constant flying about, and, seeing this handy resting place, are then quickly caught as they alight upon it Another method was explained to Sa theit The first thing they did was toas a beaver To this was added a tail about five feet long Then to the nose of this great bogus e ball of twine This was the whole outfit, except, of course, the guns One evening an Indian arrived with the news that at a certain place the great white owls had been seen in nuo and see what could be done in capturing so and the place mentioned was not very far away, Sam had little Roderick packed with hiun, and attended by one of the Indian servants, they drove over to the spot The big mouse was placed on the snow as far out fros with the cariole were driven into the shadow of a large spruce tree that grew on the very edge of the lake Here the Indian, with Sah co outside, for theondrous beauty For a time they remained there under the tree in complete silence Then the clear vision of the Indian enabled him to be the first to detect the presence of an owl
”Hist!” he quietly uttered, and then as he pointed out the object they were able to see a great owl sailing round and round up in the air, perhaps fifty feet directly over the big black bogus mouse Suddenly he made a swift dive down for it But at that instant the Indian, who had hold of the end of the cord, gave it a sudden jerk and pulled thejump of the mouse seemed to disconcert the owl, and so he quickly fleay But it was only for a moment, and then back he ca nearer and nearer all the ti mouse But another sudden jerk had pulled the mouse out of his reach, and so the owl failed once un ready,” said the Indian to Sam; ”he will be mad now, and so ill soon have him near”
It was just as the Indian had predicted The owl see been fooled the second ti e by its size, ain ely But onceit in like athis the owl lost all caution, and was soon within range of Sareat ghostly bird fell suddenly on the ice not more than forty or fifty feet away
”Look out for his claws,” said the Indian to Saa only the beautifuleyes, had reached out his naked hand, from which had dropped histhere on its back was only wounded, and so when Sam's hand was reached out to seize it the very opposite happened, for the oith one of its terrible talons, closed on Sarip that the poor boy fairly howled from the pain The sharp claws had pierced hirip he could not break The Indian, however, quickly ca knife he skillfully encircled the owl's leg with its sharp edge This severed every sinew and tendon, and caused the claws to be so powerless that they could be easily pulled out of Saled hand
The oas speedily killed, the wounded hand carefully wrapped up, and the return to Sagasta-weekee was made as quickly as possible For weeks Sam suffered froh he shot a nuood care never to let a naked hand come in contact with an owl's claws
Poor little Roderick, who had gone out that evening in great expectancy of a good tis that he began crying in sympathy, and kept it up until hoerton R Young
CHAPTER SEVEN
WOUNDS FROM CLAWS VERSUS TEETH DISCUSSED--MR ROSS'S STORY OF THE BATTLE WITH THE EAGLES--THEIR MOUNTAIN AERIE--THEIR HUNTING SKILL--THEIR VORACITY--THE EAGLETS--THE CONFLICT--THE RESULT--THE PAINFUL WOUNDS
The next day, as Sa his hand dressed, quite a discussion arose in reference to which wounds were the more painful, those received from the teeth of wild animals or those from the claws Sam's present opinion, very decidedly expressed, was that those froeneral testimony also of the Indians when questioned on the subject, one of their reasons being that the teeth were sed wound as did the claws Another was that the claere very much dirtier than the teeth, and hence the wounds of the claerethan were those from the teeth
”But what about hydrophobia fros and wild animals?” said Frank
To this Mr Ross's reply was that that dreadful disease was about unknown ah there were said to have been so from the bites of the fox
”Did not a Governor-General of Canada die from the wounds received from the bites of a fox?” said Alec
”Yes,” replied Mr Ross ”It was a taone , and then became mad itself,”