Evening had arrived, and the bees had collected in a dense mass on a branch of the felled tree. We held an open sack under them, shook them in, and then rode back to the first tree, whose colony we also took. We returned home with our sweet stores, emptied our sacks into two hollow trees, and placed them on a scaffolding near the fort. The honey was conveyed to the storeroom, and the wax melted and laid by when cold in plates. The Indians keep their honey and bear lard in fresh deer hides, which they slit as little as possible in skinning; they cut off the neck and legs, sew the openings up very tightly with sinews, fill the skin, and close the last opening in the same way, into which they thrust a reed and squeeze the honey as they want it through the latter. The honey keeps in this way very well, and is easier to carry on horseback than in hand vessels. We employed the honey in every way sugar is used in the civilized world. We sweetened our coffee and tea with, it, employed it in cooking various dishes, in preserving fruit, such as grapes, plums, mulberries, &c. In a word, it fully took the place of that expensive and hardly procurable product of civilization, and could always be obtained in such quantities that we never ran short of it. When hunting in the neighbourhood we very often found bee trees, which we marked in order to plunder them as we wanted. Our table was now enriched by a fresh delicacy which we enjoyed during the winter months: it consisted of wild ducks and geese. These birds visited our river at this season in great numbers, and spread in flocks over the water. The very lofty banks, the numerous sharp turns, and the insignificant breadth of the stream rendered it extraordinarily easy to kill heaps of these birds in a short time. I usually took with me two guns and a man with a pack horse, who followed at some distance and placed the dead birds on the saddle. I followed the steep river bank, every now and then creeping down to the incline, and could then see from one bend to the other where the birds were resting on the water. I generally contrived to creep through the wood exactly over this spot, without the birds perceiving me. I then whistled, while holding the muzzle of my very large gun over the bank, and the birds in their fright drew closer together. Then I sent a charge of shot among them, and fired the other right among the rising flock. Then I took the other gun and sent the contents of both barrels after the flying ducks or geese. I frequently shot in this way twenty in one flock. The remainder generally joined the next flock farther down the stream. Trusty and some spaniels accompanied me on this chase and fetched the shot birds.