Note 3 — Chapter XL · THE UPPER AMUR.

Mr. Ravenstein gives, from Russian sources, an interesting account of the manner in which these natives spend their hunting year. In March they go on snow-shoes over snow, into which, at that season, cloven-footed animals sink, and shoot elks, roe, and musk deer, wild deer and goats; the tent being fixed in valleys and defiles, where the snow lies deepest. In April the ice on the rivers begins to move, and the huntsman, now turned fisher, hastens to the small rivulets to net his fish. Those not required for immediate use are dried against the next month, which is one of the least plentiful in the year. In May they shoot deer and other game, which they have decoyed to certain spots by burning down the high grass in the valleys, so that the young sprouts may attract the deer and goats. June supplies the hunter with antlers of the roe. These they sell at a high price to the Chinese for medicinal purposes. The Chinese merchants come north in this month, bringing tea, tobacco, salt, powder, lead, grain, butter, and so forth, so that a successful huntsman is then able to provide himself with necessaries for half the year. In July the natives spend a large part of the month catching fish, taken with nets or speared with harpoons. They are able also to spear the elk, which likes a water-plant growing in the lakes. He comes down at night, wades into the water, and, whilst engaged in tearing at the plant with his teeth, is killed by the huntsman. In August they catch birds, speared at night in the retired creeks and bays of the river and lakes. Their flesh, except that of the swan, is eaten, and the down is exchanged for ear and finger rings, bracelets, beads, and the like. Thus they spend the summer months, afterwards retiring again to the mountains for game. In the beginning of September they prepare for winter pursuits. The leaves are falling, and it is the season when the roebuck and the doe are courting. The natives avail themselves of this, and, by cleverly imitating the call of the doe on a wooden horn, entice the buck near enough to shoot him. Generally speaking, this is the plentiful season of the year, so far as flesh is concerned; but, should the hunters not be fortunate, they live upon service-berries and bilberries, which they mix with reindeer milk. They also eat the nuts of the Manchu cedar and of the dwarf-like Cembra pine. The latter part of September and beginning of October are again employed in fishing, for the fish then ascend the river to spawn. About the middle of October begins the hunting of fur-bearing animals, the most profitable of all game; and this goes on till the end of the year.