CHAP. vii. NOTHING LOST ON AN INDIAN TRAIL. l|7 



rudely written with charcoal. They made the word 

 Bar-tel-ini ; on opening the roll I found in it eight narrow 

 plugs of tobacco. ' Ah ! I know,' said Pierre, when I 

 showed him the little cache ; ' it is some tobacco which 

 Indians have left for Bar-tel-mi ; he hunts on this river, 

 and on these lakes : they have brought it here from the 

 Moisie Bay, and he will find it when he conies back to 

 the portage.' 



The birch-bark roll was retied and suspended to the 

 branch where it was found. A thermometer was dis- 

 covered to have been left at the last camping place. No 

 doubt it will be found by Indians and taken back to 

 the Moisie next spring, if we do not get it as we return. 



It is remarkable that a delicate instrument like the 

 thermometer should survive the shocks to which they 

 are subjected in forest travelling. Mr. Gaudet left one 

 on Savanne Eiver, near Fort Pelly, in 1858 ; in 1859, it 

 was brought by Swampy Indians to Fort Garry at Eed 

 Eiver Settlement. In 1857, I left one hanging to a 

 branch on the Eoseau Eiver, west of the Lake of the 

 Woods ; in the following spring it was brought to Fort 

 Garry by the Ojibways, who hunt on that river. Nothing ' 

 which is not obviously useful, such as a knife or an 

 axe, is lost in the woods on an Indian trail. It is sure 

 to be found sooner or later by the lynx-eyed wanderers, 

 and "brought to the nearest fort or post in the fur 

 countries. 



At 4 A.M. we despatched the men with a load, instruct- 

 ing them to carry it as far as a beaver meadow on a high 

 valley between conical hills about half a mile from our 

 camp, and then return for breakfast. We fished, and 



