The ground on the eastern side of the point is neither so much broken nor so sandy as that on the opposite one, and there we found two farm houses, adjoining to each of which were about thirty acres of cleared land. At one of these we procured a couple of sheep, some fowls, and a quantity of potatoes, to add to our store of provisions, as there was reason to apprehend that our voyage would not be speedily terminated: whilst the men were digging for the latter, the old woman of the house spread her little table, and prepared for us the best viands which her habitation afforded, namely, coarse cake bread, roasted potatoes, and bear’s flesh salted, which last we found by no means unpalatable. The haunch of a young cub is a dish much esteemed, and we frequently met with it at table in the upper country; it is extremely rich and oily, nevertheless they say it never cloys the stomach.
Towards evening we returned to the vessel, and the storm being much abated, passed, not an uncomfortable night.
BEAR HUNTING.
At day-break the next morning I took the boat, and went on shore to join a party that, as I had been informed the preceding evening, was going a bear hunting. On landing, I found the men and dogs ready, and having loaded our guns we advanced into the woods. The people here, as in the back parts of the United States, devote a very great part of their time to hunting, and they are well skilled in the pursuit of game of every description. They shoot almost universally with the rifle gun, and are as dextrous at the use of it as any men can be. The guns used by them are all imported from England. Those in most estimation carry balls of the size of thirty to the pound; in the States the hunters very commonly shoot with balls of a much smaller size, sixty of them not weighing more than one pound; but the people in Canada are of opinion that it is better to use the large balls, although more troublesome to carry through the woods, as they inflict much more destructive wounds than the others, and game seldom escapes after being wounded by them. Dogs of a large size are chosen for bear hunting: those most generally preferred seem to be of a breed between the blood hound and mastiff; they will follow the scent of the bear, as indeed most field dogs will, but their chief use is to keep the bear at bay when wounded, or to follow him if he attempt to make off whilst the hunter is reloading his gun. Bears will never attempt to attack a man or a dog while they can make their escape, but once wounded or closely hemmed in they will fight most furiously. The young ones, at sight of a dog, generally take to a tree; but the old ones, as if conscious of their ability to fight a dog, and at the same time that they cannot fail of becoming the prey of the hunter if they ascend a tree, never do so, unless indeed they see a hunter coming towards them on horseback, a sight which terrifies them greatly.
The Indians generally go in large parties to hunt bears, and on coming to the place where they suppose these animals are lurking, they form themselves into a large circle, and as they advance endeavour to rouse them. It is seldom that the white hunters muster together in sufficient numbers to pursue their game in this manner; but whenever they have men enough to divide themselves so, they always do it. We proceeded in this manner at Point Abineau, where three or four men are amply sufficient to hem in a bear between the water and the main land. The point was a very favourable place for hunting this year, for the bears, intent, as I before mentioned, upon emigrating to the south, used, on coming down from the upper country, to advance to the extreme end of the point, as if desirous of getting as near as possible by land to the opposite side of the lake, and scarcely a morning came but what one or two of them were found upon it. An experienced hunter can at once discern the track of a bear, deer, or any other large animal, in the woods, and can tell with no small degree of precision how long a time before, it was, that the animal passed that way. On coming to a long valley, between two of the sand hills on the point, a place through which the bears generally passed in going towards the water, the hunters whom I accompanied at once told how many bears had come down from the upper country the preceding night, and also how many of them were cubs. To the eye of a common observer the track of these animals amongst the leaves is wholly imperceptible; indeed, in many instances, even after the hunters had pointed them out to me, I could but barely perceive the prints of their feet on the closest inspection; yet the hunters, on coming up to the place, saw these marks with a glance of the eye.
BEAR HUNTING.
After killing a bear, the first care of the hunters is to strip him of his skin. This business is performed by them in a very few minutes, as they always carry knives about them particularly suited for the purpose; afterwards the carcase is cut up, an operation in which the tomahawk, an instrument that they, mostly, carry with them also, is particularly useful. The choicest parts of the animal are then selected and carried home, and the rest left in the woods. The Indians hold the paws of the bear in great estimation; stewed with young puppies, they are served up at all their principal feasts. On killing the animal, the paws are gashed with a knife, and, afterwards, hung over a fire, amidst the smoke, to dry. The skins of the bears are applied to numberless uses, in the country, by the farmers, who set no small value upon them. They are commonly cured by being spread upon a wall or between two trees, before the sun, and in that position scraped with a knife, or piece of iron, daily, which brings out the grease or oil, a very considerable quantity of which oozes from them. Racoon and deer skins, &c. are cured in a similar manner. The Indians have a method of dressing these different skins with the hair on, and of rendering them at the same time as pliable as a piece of cloth; this is principally effected by rubbing the skins, with the hand, in the smoke of a wood fire.
Towards the middle of the day, the hunt being over, the party returned to the habitation on the point. On arriving there I found my companions, who had just come on shore, and after having strolled about the woods for a time, we all went on board the ship to dine.
BIRDS.
The sky had been very gloomy the whole of this day; it became more and more so as the evening approached, and the seamen foretold that before morning there would be a dreadful storm. At no time a friend to the watery element, I immediately formed the resolution of passing the night on shore; accordingly having got the boat manned after dinner, I took with me my servant, and landed at the head of the bay on the eastern side of the point. Here being left to ourselves, we pitched our tent by moonlight, under the shelter of one of the steep sand hills; and having kindled a large fire in the front of it, laid down, and were soon lulled to repose by the hollow roar of the wind amidst the tall trees of the surrounding forest. Not so my companions, who visited me at an early hour the next morning, and lamented sorely that they had not accompanied me on shore. There had been a tremendous sea running in the lake all night; the wind had shifted somewhat to the southward, and Point Abineau, in consequence, affording but little protection to the vessel, she had rolled about in a most alarming manner: one of the stancheons at her bow started by her violent working; the water came pouring in as from a pump; a scene of confusion ensued, and the sailors were kept busily employed the greater part of the night in stopping the leak. The vessel being old, crazy, and on her last voyage, serious apprehensions were entertained lest some worse accident should befal her before morning, and neither the crew nor the passengers felt themselves at all easy until day-light appeared, when the gale abated. We amused ourselves this morning in rambling through the woods, and along the shores of the lake, with our fowling pieces. On the strand we found great numbers of gulls, and different birds of prey, such as hawks, kites, &c.; here also we met with large flocks of sand larks, as they are called by the people of the country, in colour somewhat resembling the grey lapwing; their walk and manner also are so very similar, that, when on the ground, they might be taken for the same bird were they but of a larger size; they are not much bigger than a sparrow. In the woods we fell in for the first time with a large covey or flock of spruce partridges or pheasants, as the people call them in this neighbourhood. In colour, they are not much unlike the English partridge, but of a larger size, and their flesh differs in flavour little from that of the English pheasant. They are different in many respects both from the partridge and pheasant found in Maryland and in the middle states, but in none more so than in their wonderful tameness, or rather stupidity. Before the flock took to flight I shot three birds singly from off one tree, and had I but been acquainted with the proper method of proceeding at the time, it is possible I might have shot them all in turn. It seems you must always begin by shooting the bird that sits lowest on the tree, and so proceed upwards, in which case the survivors are not at all alarmed. Ignorant, however, of this secret, I shot at one of the uppermost birds, and the disturbance that he made in falling through the branches on which the others were perched put the flock to flight immediately.