ve feet in circumference, and with walls about three feet high.

The latter were composed of thick slabs of ice placed on edge, and
cemented together by frozen water, while tiny apertures, cut here and
there, enabled the crouching hunters to note every foot of the approach
of their wary game. A few of the decoys were of pine wood, rudely carved
out and _burnt_ to something like the natural coloring of the bird they
were intended to represent; but a large proportion of them were
"sea-weed" or "spruce" decoys; that is, bunches of the weather-bound
sea-wrack, or bundles of evergreen twigs, made about the shape and size
of the body of a goose.

These were elevated on blocks of snow-ice, which strikingly imitated, at
a little distance, the hue of the under feathers, and a fire-blackened
stake set in the ice, at one end, with a collar of white birch bark at
its junction, completed the rude but effective imitation. Such are the
appliances which a hundred years ago brought the geese in thousands
under the arrows of all the many tribes which range between the Straits
of Canso and the most northern inhabited regions about Hudson's Bay.

Within the enclosure a few armfuls of fir branches--laid upon the hard
ice, and kept carefully clear of snow, formed a soft floor, on which now
sat three hunters, Peter, and Jacob, and Louis Snake, much younger men
than he of the one arm. Each sat enveloped in the folds of a dingy
blanket, and their guns rested against the icy walls--two of them
rickety, long-barreled flint-locks; but Peter's new acquisition, a true
"stub-twist," Hollis's double, was as good a fowling-piece as any
sportsman needs.

True to their customs, the Indians were taciturn enough, although Peter
thanked La Salle rather warmly for his new weapon.

"I find 'em good gun; not miss since I got 'em. Give t'other gun my
nethew." And he pointed to the worst looking of the two antiquated
weapons, as Cleopatra may have surveyed her rather costly
drink-offering, with visible misgiving as to such reckless liberality.

"You were very kind, Peter. I suppose he has no family," said La Salle,
smiling.

"Yes, me _berry_ kind my peeple," suavely responded the chief, a just
pride beaming in his eyes. "That young man no family yet--only squaw
now."

"It is evident that the average Indian doesn't understand a joke,"
muttered La Salle, as he said "Good by" to the motley trio, and darted
off to meet a distant group, which he rightly judg