164 CAMP-FIRES OF A NATURALIST. 



it was not until they reached a small settlement on 

 Rock Creek that the mystery was cleared. They had 

 seen the dividing line between the dominions of Eng- 

 land and the United States. 



That night they were compelled to camp in the 

 dark, with neither water nor grass, and they chris- 

 tened the place Camp Necessity. When morning 

 came they found that they were near an old Indian 

 camp. On all sides bones of deer were found, and a 

 stack of antlers twenty feet high had been piled up 

 between two trees. They travelled until nine o'clock 

 before they found water and grass. All day long 

 their way lay through a dense forest. No life was 

 to be seen except vegetable life, and not a sound was 

 to be heard except the wind in the tree- tops. After 

 a hard struggle through the fallen timber an open 

 spot was reached on the river-bank late in the even- 

 ing. A beaver dam showed its top just above the 

 water, and the trees on the bank gave evidences of 

 the work of the industrious animals. One tree which 

 had been cut had a diameter of over four feet, and 

 from this the camp received the name of Camp 

 Beaver Tree. 



A light rain, the first of the season, fell during the 

 night, and next morning they started early, trying to 

 follow the old trail of the trappers. About the mid- 

 dle of the afternoon the cabin, on the banks of a little 

 stream which emptied into Kettle River, was reached, 

 but no stop was made. About four miles farther up 

 the river an opening was found where there was 

 grass and water, and here camp was made for the 

 night. The stillness of the dense woods was simply 



