150 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. CHAP. ix. 



minutes the wood smoked, but the arrival of the rest of 

 the party, and the necessity for hurrying on, arrested the 

 Nasquapee's attempt to produce ' fire.' Some days after- 

 wards I was walking before the rest of the party with 

 Michel, being perhaps an hour in advance. We sat down 

 to rest on a boulder lying close to the portage-path, 

 when the Indian, who was always doing something, cut a 

 stick about two feet long, and selecting a sandy spot in 

 the path, fixed it upright, and drew a line in the sand 

 where the shadow of the stick fell. His object was to 

 communicate to Louis, who was following us, the time of 

 the day when we passed the spot where he had placed the 

 stick. The position of the sun would of course be 

 indicated by the shadow of the stick, and by referring to 

 the line in the sand Louis could form a tolerably correct 

 notion of the distance we were ahead. When I mentioned 

 this incident to Mr. Gaudet, he said that he once sent an 

 Indian belonging to the Lake of the Woods in the winter 



c cu 



to a camp some fifty miles distant, intending to follow 

 him the next day. Three times he observed on the track 

 which the Indian had pursued two sticks stuck in the 

 snow ; so that by drawing a line between them, and 

 looking in the direction to which it pointed, it would 

 show the position of the sun in the heavens at the time 

 the Indian placed them there, and thus indicate the hour 

 at which he had reached the spot. 



We returned together towards our camp, and found 

 that the men had already brought all the things but the 

 canoes and tents to the middle of the portage, a good 

 clay's work, considering the ascent, which, by careful 

 comparison, was found to be 818 feet, the Nasquapee 



