But in the end he is always the best provided
for; everyone is obliged to send him a certain portion, as it is in
his tent that the numerous ceremonies relating to the pound are
observed. There the young men are always welcome to feast and smoke,
and no women are allowed to enter, as that tent is set apart for the
affairs of the pound. Horses are sometimes used to collect and bring
in buffalo, but this method is less effectual than the other; besides,
it frightens the herds and soon causes them to withdraw to a great
distance. When horses are used the buffalo are absolutely driven into
the pound, but when the other method is pursued they are in a manner
enticed to their destruction."
A somewhat similar method was adopted by the northern Kris and
Athapascans for the capture of reindeer.
As regards means of transport, the use of dogs as draught animals was
by no means confined to the Eskimo: they were used in wintertime to
draw sledges over the snow or ice by nearly all the northern Indian
tribes, and by the people of the Rocky Mountains and Pacific coast.
After the Amerindians of the prairies and plains received horses
(indirectly through the Spaniards of Mexico)[12] they sometimes
employed the smaller and poorer kind of ponies as pack animals; but
for the most part throughout the summer season of the Canadian
Dominion--from May to October--transport and travel by canoe was the
favourite method.
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