rument, and the fish, fastened on the prongs, rises to the
surface, floated by the buoyancy of the staff. Nothing now remains to be
done but to haul it to him, with either a long stick or another fish-gig
(for an Indian, if he can help it, never goes into the water on these
occasions) to disengage it, and to look out for fresh sport.

But sometimes the fish have either deserted the rocks for deeper water, or
are too shy to suffer approach. He then launches his canoe, and leaving the
shore behind, watches the rise of prey out of the water, and darts his gig
at them to the distance of many yards. Large fish he seldom procures by
this method; but among shoals of mullets, which are either pursued by
enemies, or leap at objects on the surface, he is often successful.
Baneelon has been seen to kill more than twenty fish by this method in an
afternoon. The women sometimes use the gig, and always carry one in each
canoe to strike large fish which may be hooked and thereby facilitate the
capture. But generally speaking, this instrument is appropriate to the men,
who are never seen fishing with the line, and would indeed consider it as a
degradation of their pre-eminence.

When prevented by tempestuous weather or any other cause, from fishing,
these people suffer severely. They have then no resource but to pick up
shellfish, which may happen to cling to the rocks, and be cast on the
beach, to hunt particular reptiles and small animals, which are scarce,
to dig fern root in the swamps or to gather a few berries, destitute of
flavour and nutrition, which the woods afford. To alleviate the sensation
of hunger, they tie a ligature tightly around the belly, as I have often
seen our soldiers do from the same cause.

Let us, however, suppose them successful in procuring fish. The wife
returns to land with her booty, and the husband quitting the rock joins
his stock to hers; and they repair either to some neighbouring cavern or
to their hut. This last is composed of pieces of bark, very rudely piled
together, in shape as like a soldier's tent as any known image to which I
can compare it: too low to admit the lord of it to stand upright, but
long and wide enough to admit three or four persons to lie under it.
"Here shelters himself a being, born with all those powers which education
expands, and all those sensations which culture refines." With a lighted
stick brought from the canoe they now kindle a small fire at the mouth of
the hut an