CHAPTER XVII. 



With the Indians How Indians Hunt Big Game The Par- 

 allel Trails Indian Superstitions A Potent Beverage 

 Moose all " Nickoshin " Return to Civilisation. 



>T was a lonesome road which the hunters 

 travelled to War Road River. Ice cov- 

 ered the swamps, but it was not firm 

 enough to support the heavily laden 

 wagons, many of which were passed sticking fast 

 in the mud, their owners patiently waiting for a 

 hard freeze, so that they might get through the 

 swamps on the surface. Every camp was full of 

 moose-hunters who had strange tales to tell of their 

 adventures and prowess, but little to show. They 

 knew all about moose-hunting, and found such ready 

 listeners in Dyche and Brown that they were dis- 

 posed to " talk large " for the benefit of the strangers. 

 The naturalist and his companion pushed on and 

 finally reached Brown's little cabin, near the village 

 of the Chippewas. Dyche was still very sore from 

 the effects of his fall, and while Brown busied him- 

 self in cleaning the cabin and making it habitable, the 

 naturalist endeavoured, through the medium of an in- 

 terpreter, to make arrangements with the red men for 

 a hunt. The Indians flocked to the cabin to see the 

 new-comers, but they were suspicious of all white 



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