THL' PARALLEL TRAILS. 265 



through the coat-pulling operation, but his meaning 

 was still hidden, so Dyche took the red man's coat and 

 repeated the sign. Maypuck smiled at this, took an- 

 other smoke, and said : 



"Camp nickoshiii." 



Dycho nodded his head, after which the Indian 

 smoked awhile and said : 



"Moose nickoshin." 



Again Dyche nodded his head in approval and the 

 Indian smoked for a moment or so longer. Finally 

 the chief put up his pipe, got up from the log, say- 

 ing " Camp nickoshin," and started off in that direc- 

 tion. After a tramp of eight miles in an almost 

 straight line, they reached camp just at dark. The 

 naturalist now sought an explanation from Gib of 

 the strange actions of the chief, and found that May- 

 puck was trying to find out whether he wished to 

 follow the moose or return to camp. 



The other Indians reached camp before dark, Ka- 

 kagens being the last to come in. There was blood on 

 his hands and coat and he reported that he had killed 

 a cow moose. Next morning camp was moved to the 

 place where the cow was lying, and the day was spent 

 by Dyche and Brown in skinning the animal and 

 caring for the specimen. The moose had frozen solid, 

 and it was necessary to carry the legs to the fire and 

 thaw them out before they could be skinned. 



Dyche found that a small hole had been cut in the 

 neck of the cow and a piece of tobacco had been in- 

 serted therein. Gib said this was always done, but 

 when the naturalist asked for the reason and why a 

 piece of the moose was decorated with rags or stream- 



