INDIAN FOREST PATHS. 213 



even more than their brethren of the plains, they were 

 adepts in all the arts of Indian surprise and other 

 war crafts. When a party of Indians on the war path 

 passed through the forest it was generally by a regular 

 beaten trail, such as existed here and there throughout 

 almost every considerable district of the American 

 backwoods from times of unknown antiquity. These 

 trails were generally made use of by all travelling 

 parties of Indians, whether out as a hunting or a 

 war party, at all events until the neighbourhood of 

 enemies was known to be not far distant. They were 

 exceedingly narrow paths, as a rule not more than nine 

 inches or a foot in width at the ground, and these 

 forest warriors always marched in single, or Indian 

 file, one behind the other, carefully stepping as much 

 as possible in each other's footsteps. In this way the 

 number of the party was more or less concealed; to 

 ascertain the strength of a party, it was necessary to 

 find where they had camped, it was then possible to 

 compute to a considerable nicety of how many persons 

 it was composed, and whether they were merely a 

 hunting party, or out upon the war path. 



In marching the Indians (so far as our experience 

 of modern specimens of the race may go), generally 

 walked differently to a white man, the toe being turned 

 inwards, instead of outwards, as in the latter case. 

 This gave a peculiar character to a man's trail, and 

 though both the red man and the white often wore 

 moccassins, this difference still generally gave a clue 

 as to the colour of the traveller's skin. 



These forest paths made by the Indians were always 

 travelled over sufficiently to keep them open, and were 

 distinctly traceable along the ground; they led from 



