[Footnote 7:  Nowhere in the world are there so many kinds of grouse as in North America.  In the more northern regions are several species of ptarmigan or snow partridges (Lagopus), which turn white in winter, and the spruce partridges (Canachites); in the more genial climate of the great plains of eastern Canada and in the Far West the ruffled grouse and hazel grouse (Bonasa), the sage cocks (Centrocercus), the prairie hens (Tympanuchus), and the blue or pine grouse (Dendrapagus).

“To snare grouse requires no other process than making a few little hedges across a creek, or a few short hedges projecting at right angles from the side of an island of willows, which those birds are found to frequent.  Several openings must be left in each hedge, to admit the birds to pass through, and in each of them a snare must be set; so that when the grouse are hopping along the edge of the willows to feed, which is their usual custom, some of them soon get into the snares, where they are confined till they are taken out.  I have caught from three to ten grouse in a day by this simple contrivance, which requires no further attendance than going round them night and morning” (Hearne).]

[Illustration:  INDIANS LYING IN WAIT FOR MOOSE]

But—­a hundred years ago and more—­the dominant features in the fauna of the Middle West was the bison.  Between the Athabaska and Saskatchewan Rivers on the north, the Rocky Mountains on the west, and Lake Superior on the east the bison passed backwards and forwards over the great plains and prairies in millions, when white explorers first penetrated these lands.  They moved in herds which concealed the ground from sight for miles.  Here are some word pictures selected from the writings of the pioneers between 1770 and 1810: 

“The buffaloes chiefly delight in wide open plains, which in those parts produce very long coarse grass, or rather a kind of small flags and rushes, upon which they feed; but when pursued they always take to the woods.  They are of such an amazing strength, that when they fly through the woods from a pursuer, they frequently brush down trees as thick as a man’s arm; and be the snow ever so deep, such is their strength and agility, that they are enabled to plunge through it faster than the swiftest Indian can run in snowshoes.  To this I have been an eyewitness many times, and once had the vanity to think that I could have kept pace with them; but though I was at that time celebrated for being particularly fleet of foot in snowshoes, I soon found that I was no match for the buffaloes, notwithstanding they were then plunging through such deep snow, that their bellies made a trench in it as large as if many sacks had been hauled through it.  Of all the large beasts in those parts the buffalo is easiest to kill, and the moose are the most difficult; neither are the (red) deer very easy to come at, except in windy weather:  indeed it requires much practice and a great deal of patience to slay any of them, as they will by no means suffer a direct approach, unless the hunter be entirely sheltered by woods or willows.