INDIAN DEER DRIVES 181

continued the work of decimation by pushing the deer
off many of their best winter ranges. Then the Indians
became possessed of repeating rifles, and dire were the
results. It is not so very many years ago since the
Lillooet and Chilcoten Indians, who hated one another
like poison, used to rival each ‘other in the number they
could slaughter ina day. The biggest of these butcheries
took place when the first heavy snowfall drove the
unfortunate deer down to the lower “ bunch grass ”’ hills,
where they would, if unmolested, have been sure of
abundant food all winter.

The method whereby these Indians killed them at such
times was by organizing regular drives. On certain
creeks there were fair-sized valleys, the heads of which
ended in large, often steep-sided basins, which nearly
always had several gulches leading up to the summits,
These gulches afforded a natural pass for the deer to
reach the top when disturbed, and consequently they
invariably retreated up them. Knowing these basins
well, the Indians would post a man or two at a suitable
place at the head of each pass, while others, perhaps
assisted by dogs, would drive the deer from the valley
below. It was by no means an uncommon thing for
twenty or thirty deer to be killed in a drive, and the
Lillooet Indians used to boast that they held the
record with a total of sixty-nine. This sort of thing
continued until all the deer in every valley suitable
for a drive were either killed or driven away from their
winter range, to live as_ best they could elsewhere,
which, if it happened to be a hard winter, meant death
from starvation. Then, no sooner did spring come than
the slaughter commenced again, and continued until the
grass began to grow on the higher ranges and the deer
could scatter.

But it was not the Indians only who did the damage.
For them there is some excuse. They killed because they
wanted meat to eat and hides to use for making ‘‘ buck-
skin’? ; moreover, they wasted but little. There were,
unfortunately, many white men, who should have known