They could fashion arrow-heads, and knew how best to season the
wood for making both the long and cross-bow; they had seen the fish-hooks
these people manufactured from bone and hard wood; they knew that strips of
fresh-cut skins would make bow-strings, or the entrails of animals dried
and rendered pliable. They had watched the squaws making baskets of the
inner bark of the oak, elm, and basswood, and mats of the inner bark of
the cedar, with many other ingenious works that they now found would prove
useful to them, after a little practice had perfected their inexperienced
attempts. They also knew how to dry venison as the Indians and trappers
prepare it, by cutting the thick fleshy portions of the meat into strips,
from four to six inches in breadth, and two or more in thickness. These
strips they strung upon poles supported on forked sticks, and exposed them
to the drying action of the sun and wind. Fish they split open, and removed
the back and head bones, and smoked them slightly, or dried them in the
sun.
Their success in killing the doe greatly raised their spirits; in their joy
they embraced each other, and bestowed the most affectionate caresses on
Wolfe for his good conduct.
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