a foot in width, a flat network is interposed. This forms the bat. It
is with this that the player picks up and throws the ball used in the
game, which should be about eight or nine inches in circumference. The
ball is placed in the centre of the field by the umpire, and when the
game is called, the opposing players strive to get possession of it
with their rackets. The play consists in running with it and throwing
it, with the design of driving it between the adversary's goal posts;
and in defensive action, the purpose of which is to prevent the
opponents from accomplishing similar designs on their part. As the wind
or the sunlight may favor one side or the other on any field, provision
is generally made for a change of goals during the match. The stations
of the players and the minor rules of the game are unimportant in this
connection.

The oldest attempt at a detailed description of the game is given by
Nicolas Perrot who from 1662 to 1699 spent the greater part of his time
as _coureur de bois_, trader, or government agent, among the Indians of
the far West. It is of him that Abbe Ferland says, "Courageous man,
honest writer and good observer, Perrot lived for a long time among the
Indians of the West who were very much attached to him." His accounts of
the manners and customs of the North American Indians have been
liberally used by subsequent writers and as the part treating of games
is not only very full but also covers a very early period of history, it
is doubly interesting for purposes of comparison with games of a later
day. He [Footnote: Memoire sur les Moeurs, Coustumes et Relligion des
Sauvages de l'Amerique Septentrionale, par Nicolas Perrot, Leipzig et
Paris, 1864, p. 43, _et seq._] says, "The savages have many kinds of
games in which they delight. Their natural fondness for them is so great
that they will neglect food and drink, not only to join in a game but
even to look at one. There is among them a certain game of cross which