31 



worked out our position by latitude and departure, till at a cer tain 

 point I was about to turn off to the north of the line previously fol- 

 lowed with the confident anticipation of finding Dunvegan. Just here, 

 very fortunately, we fell in with some Indians, and though our means 

 of communicating with them were very imperfect, we gathered enough 

 to lead us to accept the guidance of one of them, who promised to lead 

 us to the fort, but took an entirely different direction from that I had 

 proposed taking. He was right, but Dunvegan proved to be, as shown 

 on the maps, nearly forty miles west of its real position. Fortunately 

 no very great importance attached to our reaching Dunvegan on a o-iven 

 day, but none the less, this practical experience proved to me very 

 conclusively the desirability of showing features in broken lines, or 

 otherwise indicating their uncertainty when they have not been 

 properly fixed. 



It must be confessed, however, that most of the travellers ordi- 

 narily to be found in these unexplored regions, being Indians or 

 hunters, traders and others travelling under the guidance of Indians 

 do not depend on the latitudes or longitudes of places, cr on the respec- 

 tive bearings of one place from another. The Indians follow routes with 

 which they have been familiar since childhood, or when beyond 

 the boundaries of their own particular region of country, go by land- 

 marks, such as mountains, lakes and rivers which have been described to 

 them by their neighbours. Their memory in this respect is i-emarkable 

 but it must be remembered that among their principal subjects of con- 

 versation when sitting about the camp-fire are the distances in day's 

 journeys from place to place, the routes which they have followed or 

 have known others to follow, the difficulties to be encountered on these 

 the points at which food of different kinds may be obtained, and the 

 features which strike them as being remarkable in the countiy 

 traversed. Returning, however, from this digression, which be^an 

 with the statement that accurate maps of such regions as are at present 

 merely traversed by traders and Indians, are not imperative from the- 

 poh;t of view of such travellers, it may with confidence be affirmed that 

 such maps and the explorations upon which they are based, are 

 absolutely essential to civilized society, to show in the first place what 

 the natural resources of these regions are and how they may be 



