﻿224 CASE OF PEMICAN BURIED. July, 



be useful to the boat party of the " Plover," should 

 they reach this river. The lower branches of the 

 tree were lopped off, a part of its trunk denuded 

 of bark, and a broad arrow painted thereon with red 

 paint. A stake was also erected on the beach, and a 

 paper attached thereto, directing attention to the 

 tree. We considered it likely that the stake might 

 be taken down by Indians or Eskimos ; but as the 

 latter people lop trees in the same manner, we did 

 not think the circumstance of one being so cut here 

 would induce people of either nation to dig in the 

 vicinity. To conceal as effectually as we could 

 that the earth had been moved, the soil was placed 

 on a tarpaulin, and all that was not required to fill 

 the hole was carried to a distance. The place then 

 being smoothed down, a fire of drift timber was 

 made over it, that the burnt wood might indicate 

 the exact spot to the " Plover's " party, who were 

 furnished with a memorandum mentioning that 

 these precautions would be used. Along with the 

 pemican, a letter for the purser of the " Herald," 

 which his friends had committed to my care, was 

 placed in the pit.* 



* Commander PuUen, with two boats from the " Plover," in 

 Sept. 1849, visited this depot, and found it safe. The lopped 

 tree had previously, in autumn 1848, been examined by a party 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company's servants going to Peel River, 

 but they did not discover the pit, having no key to enable them 

 to find it. 



