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Show 332 TRAVELS THROUGH UPPER CANADA: fomc pbces, of the ~rl!alef1. height, they arc (() even and ftrai,;ht tlut it a pp ca r~ a, if thL y h :-~d b en thrown up by the hand of art, and you may almoil: f:l!1ry them to b the old works of forne vail fortifi c.ttion. Thefc rcg;uLtr mounds cxtct l in :1ll dird ions, but chiei1y from nPrth to iou! b, which dcrnoJ t ftratcs tlut wcfierly wind wcr ns pr ·v.lcnt furm 'r ly in this part of th country as they are at the prt:l\:nt lby. I illo ttld fu ppofc that fomc of tbck mounds arc upwards of nr.: hundrctl feet abo\·e the lev 1 f the lal ·c. The g··ound on the c.11tern J1de of the point·., neit 1cr fo much br ]r 1.1 nor fo £mdy as that on the oppofite one, and there we found two fimn h0ufes, acljoinin;.r to each of which were abou t thirty acres of karcd land. At one of thc:fc we procured a coup1e of fh ccp, fome fowl s, anci a quantity of potato s, to ad I to our ftorc of proviliuns, as th rc was reafon to apprehend that our voyag would not be fpccdily terminated: whilfi the men were digging or the latter, the old woman of the hou ll: fprcad her little table, and prepnrcd for us the beJl: viancis whi ·h her habitation aftordecl, namely, coarfc ake bread, ro.lit d potatoes, and beJr's fl eili falted, which lafl: we found by no means unpalatable. The haunch of a young cub is a difh much efiecmed, and we frequently met with it Jt table in the upper country; it is xtremely rich and oily, ncverthclcfs they fay it never cloys the f1:omach. Towards ev niug we return d to the vefiCl, and the O:orm being much abated, pa!lcd, not an, uncomfortable night. At day break the next morning I took the boat, and went on fhor to join a party that, as I had been informed the preceding vening, wc1s going a bear-hunting. On landing, I found the men and dogs r ady, nnd having loaded our guns we advanced into the woods. The people here, as in the back parts of the United States, devote a vrry great part of their time t hunting, and th y arc well 1killcd in the purfuit of game of every defcription. They fr10ot almofi univer.G1lly with the rifle gun, and are as dextrous at the ur of it as any men can be. The guns ufed by them arc all import d from England. Thofe in mofr cftimation carry balls of the fize of thirty to the pound; in the States the hunters very commonly ilioot with balls of a much iinaller iize, iixty af them .• BEAR HUNTING. 333 th "'111 not we:;ghin .._. more than one pound; but the people in Cana a arc u[ opinion th tit is better to ufc the large balls, alt:JOugh more tronbleiomc to ca ry th rongh the wood , a'l they in fti ,.:1: much more d..:fhu ive vv·ou H 1s tl1an the others, and game feldom dcapc 2Jter being wounded l)y hem. Do::;s of a hrge fihe arc cho!i.:n for car hnt.ti ng : tho[~ no[!; g 1, rally prcfcrrctl fi..cm to be of a breed between the blood hound and nd~ifr; they will {; 11 w the fc~nt of the hLar, as indc ·d moil: fie! c < "S \<.i ll, but th eir thief u{i: is to h :ep the bear at bay whe11 wounled, or to follow h im if he attempt to mak.e otr' hill1 the hunter i r ·loading his·gun. D ars will never attempt to attJ.ck a man or a clog while h y can make their efcq e, but once wounded or cloi~Jy hemmed in th <.:y will fight moJl: fmioufly. The young one ~, at fight of a dog, generally tal~c to a tree; bnt the old oncs, as if conkious of their abili ty to fight a don·, and a the f<une time that they cannot fi1il of b ·coming the prey of the hunt r if they afcend a tree, never do fo, unlcfS indeed they icc a hunter coming towards them on hodeb.H:J·, a i1ght whi_;h t rrifies them greatly. 1 h t Iudians generally go in large parties to hunt bears, and on coming to the place whe ·e they fuppofc the fe animals are lurking, they form themfelves into a large circle, and as th ey advance endeavour to roufe them. It is felclom that the white hunter· muficr together in fufficient numbers to purfuc their game in thi · manner; but whenever they have men enough to divide thernfelves fo, they always do it. t? procc ded in this manner at Point Abincau, where thrc~ or lour men arc amply fufficient to hem in a bear between the water and tbl! maiu land. The point was a very fctvourable place for hunting this year, for th bears, intent, as I before mentioned, upon emigrating to the 1(;uth, ult:d, on coming down from the upper country, to advar cc to the e.xtreme encl. of the point, as if defirous of getting as ncar as pof1ibJc by land to the oppofitc fide of the lake, and fcarcely a mornir g carne but wllJ.t one or two of them were fonnd upon it. An cxpericncul hunter c. n Jt Ollc · difcern tl e track of a bear, deer, or any other brge animal, in he woods, and can tell with no fmall degree of prccilion how tor,g a titne Qefore, it was, that the animal pafied that way. On comjn0 to a lor g ' ~allLJ |