THE MISHAPS OF RALSON. 273 



caused us considerable merriment, came about 

 in this way, and I expect he will remember it 

 as long as he lives, if yet alive. We were send- 

 ing an express canoe from the post to the near- 

 est point on the frontier to mail dispatches to 

 headquarters. The distance is about fifty miles 

 over lakes, rivers and portages. The usual time 

 for such a trip was three days for the round 

 trip. Ralson begged to accompany the men, 

 partly for an outing and partly to see the fron- 

 tier village of Luqueville. 



Their route lay thru a chain of small lakes 

 on which I had a couple of bear traps set. To 

 save me a trip to visit these traps I told Robert, 

 the guide, to kill any bear he found caught and 

 reset the traps, cache the meat and skin and 

 bring it with them on their return journey. 

 These instructions were simple enough and I 

 was not anxious about Ralson. Ralson, how- 

 ever, changed all these plans" for, when they 

 reached the first trap, in which they found a 

 bear caught and Robert had killed it, Ral- 

 son proposed he should stay behind, skin 

 and cut up the meat and visit the second trap 

 which was a short distance off the canoe route, 

 and then he was to come home on foot by skirt- 

 ing the lakes along a sometimes used trail, tak- 

 ing the skin with him. 



*18 



