THE ALKATCHO CARRIER OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 351

lation decline some seventy years ago. It is doubtful whether
any of the villages in the vicinity of Alkatcho ever included more
than 300 people. The village itself was primarily a winter set-
tlement, and for the greater part of the year the Carrier lived
as smaller family units scattered over a considerable area. Very
often a good part of the winter was spent among the Bella Coola
on the Coast. During the fall hunting season the families dis-
persed, each to its trap-line, where it lived in makeshift shelters
in relative isolation. For a week or two late in the summer the
village population again re-convened for potlatch festivities, and
then scattered.

Carrier economic activity centered almost entirely about hunt-
ing and fishing. The women supplemented the resulting diet by
gathering berries, digging wild roots, and scraping bark. In
earlier times, before they were practically wiped out by improved
hunting techniques, the caribou, beaver, and mountain-goat were
the principal animals hunted. With the development of trade
along the Coast, fur-bearing animals, otter, fox, marten, mink,
lynx, fisher, and muskrat, became increasingly important. Fish
ranked with mammals as the major source of food. The numerous
lakes and streams were well stocked with salmon, trout, and
suckers.

Before the introduction of guns, steel traps, and horses, the
Carrier economic environment could barely sustain the popu-
lation. Famines were not uncommon, and most winters were
spent with the Bella Coola. At a later date, technological im-
provements made possible a higher living standard; but by and
large, Carrier economy was little above the subsistence level.

The technological level was always relatively low. Animals
were trapped in snares—spring traps utilizing the principle of
the unequal balance, deadfalls, and surrounds. None of these
techniques was very efficient. Even today, as much as 50 per cent
of the animals spring the snares and escape. Game animals, like
the caribou and deer, were hunted by large groups and driven
into a surround made by attaching small sticks on a spruce root
rope from tree to tree. Such a fence reputedly reached a perim-
_ eter of fifteen miles. At several openings in the fence a noose