As we wandered we came to a tree, where a young sprit was bowed down over a bow, and some acorns strewed underneath. Stephen Hopkins said, it had been to catch some deer. So as we were looking at it, William Bradford being in the rear, when he came looked also upon it, and as he went about it, it gave a sudden jerk up, and he was immediately caught by the leg. It was a very pretty device, made with a rope of their own making, and having a noose as artificially made as any roper in England can make, and as like ours as can be....[45]
These devices were also sometimes used for trapping moose, bears, wolves, wild cats and foxes.[46]
Most hunting was carried out during the fall, after a spring and summer of watching the habits and locations of the deer.[47] Ten to twenty or more men from a village would move into temporary quarters in the woods to hunt at this time, each man retiring to his own well-defined hunting territory of “... two, three or foure miles, where hee sets thirty, forty, or fiftie Traps....”[48] It was necessary to tend such a trapline closely, since the human hunter competed with other carnivores for his kill. A circuit of the traps was made every two days. Even so, the hunter might find that a wolf had been there before him, seeing which, he would set to building a trap for the wolf as well.[49]
Unlike the two proceeding techniques, taking deer by means of drives required the cooperative efforts of a number of people. This number might range from twenty to three hundred, according to one observer.[50] Fences of brush were built, sometimes a mile or two in length, through the woods, in the shape of a funnel. Deer were chased into the wider end, and Indians waited at the narrow end to shoot them as they passed. Since it was possible for the deer to leap over the fence, the hunters were careful not to startle them. Working at night, they set snares for the deer that had escaped their arrows.[51] If the evidence from other Indian groups can be applied in this case, it can be said that the hunting party included women and older children as well as the hunters themselves, and that these former were stationed along the length of the brush fence, outside it, to keep the deer from jumping over.
There is evidence that another technique of hunting common in North America, especially among the Algonquians farther north, was also used by the Wampanoags: driving the deer into water where they are more vulnerable to the hunters. There is no direct description of this process taking place, but there is the information that laws made special provision for paying the sachem within whose territory a deer was shot in the water.[52] And Williams tells us that there is a special word to designate the skin of such a deer.[53]
Another hunting device, used for beavers, otters, and wolves, was the deadfall.[54] One variety was made by piling up a large number of rocks, designed to fall on the animal which entered the trap.[55] This style of trap was used because these were animals capable of gnawing their way out of a trap that left them alive.[56]
Apparently allied to hunting, at least in part, was the practice of setting fire to the woods at intervals, in order to burn out the undergrowth.[57] Where this was not done the woods were difficult to travel through, and thick scrub would have hampered deer drives considerably.[58]
Marine Hunting: Marine hunting was not a major activity of the Wampanoags as it was of the Indian groups further to the north; however, it was practiced to some extent. Seals were taken as they napped on rocks in the warm sun.[58] Various species of whale were also common along the more exposed coasts, but it is not known if the Wampanoags actually hunted them in boats. They did make use of both the flesh and the oil of those that were cast up on the beaches.[59]
Fishing: Fish were a major dietary item in the spring and continued to be of importance during the remainder of the year. Both fresh and salt water fish were taken. These included: bass, bream, cod, mackerel, flatfish,[60] skate, haddock, striped bass, sturgeon, Atlantic salmon, shad, herring, frostfish,[61] eels, lampreys, trout, roach, dace, pike, perch, catfish and pickerel.[62] Of these the salmon, trout, shad, herring, bass, and sturgeon run up the fresh water streams from the sea.[63] Trout, roach, dace, pike, perch, catfish, and pickerel are fresh water species only.[64]
Techniques for catching fish varied with the circumstances.[65] The hook and line apparently came in for a good deal of use.[66] However, the only specific fish for which its use is mentioned are bass and cod.[67] To take these fish, the hooks were baited with lobsters.[68] Probably the hook and line was used for ice fishing during the winter, and if so it was also used for pike, perch, bream, and pickerel.[69]