00-KOO-HOO'S EL DORADO 103 



facing east; that course we followed for a day, then on the 

 morrow we worked round toward the north, and fmally to 

 the west again, as we neared home. Thus the trapping path 

 was laid in an elliptic form, somewhat suggesting the letter C, 

 with the home camp between the two ends of the letter. Many 

 times during the winter circumstances proved the wisdom 

 of Oo-koo-hoo's plan, especially when the sled became over- 

 loaded with game, and a short cut to camp became desirable. 

 Though no part of his fur path lay more than five miles from 

 the lodges, yet to make the full circuit on showshoes, to examine 

 the traps, and to set some of them, it required a long day, as the 

 path must have covered in a zig-zagging way more than twenty 

 miles. Later on he and Amik laid out two more such trapping 

 paths: one to the north and the other to the east of Bear Lake. 

 The one to the northward was to be especially for bears and 

 wolves as it was a good region for both those animals. At sup- 

 per time a snow flurry overtook us and whitened the forest. 

 As we sat around the fire that evening, the last evening of 

 our trip, Oo-koo-hoo again began worrying about the presence 

 of wolverines, recaUing many of his experiences with those 

 destructive animals. But none of his stories equalled the 

 following, told once by Chief Factor Thompson. 



MEGUIR AND THE WOLVERINE 



It happened years ago when an old Dog-rib Indian, called 

 Meguir, was hving and hunting in the vicinity of Fort Rae on 

 Great Slave Lake. The Dog-rib and his family of five had been 

 hunting Barren Ground Caribou, and after killing, skinning, and 

 cutting up a number of deer, had built a stage upon which they 

 placed the venison. Moving on and encountering another 

 herd of caribou, they killed again, and cutting up the game, 

 stored it this time in a log cache. Again setting out on the 

 hun-t — ^for they were laying in their supply of deer meat for the 



