DOWN THE PORCUPINE RIVER 233 



tell that the water seldom got higher than it now was 

 except in spring freshets. 



At various points I had seen signs of old Indian camp- 

 ings. In some places there were merely the sites of 

 camp fires and the pegs driven in the mud to which the 

 Indians had fastened their nets when they were fishing. 

 In other places were the conical teepee frames over 

 which they had spread their tents. Occasionally there 

 was a platform cache. 



Shortly after passing the juncture of the Bell and 

 Porcupine I came to a village site which in addition to 

 the teepee frames had a platform cache with something 

 on it. I went ashore to investigate and found some 

 bundles of Indian property and a good deal of dried 

 moose meat covered up by a large piece of moose skin. 

 My provisions were beginning to run low and I am fond 

 of dried moose meat, so I took several pounds of it and 

 left in payment a silk handkerchief. Had I had nothing 

 to pay with I should have been entitled by the custom 

 of the country to take what food I thought I needed to 

 ( arry me to the next settlement. But I had been provided 

 by Harvey with silk handkerchiefs for just such pay- 

 ments. 



Day by day my raft was getting lower in the water. 

 Some of the logs had been partly decayed and were 

 rapidly getting watersoaked. I had to throw away my 

 stone fireplace to lighten the raft. A day later the water 

 was washing over whenever I came into a slight ripple, so 

 I went ashore and got an armful of dry willows out of 

 which I made a kind of nest on the middle of the raft 

 and sat or slept on that. The day after I built this the 

 water-logging process had gone so much farther that there 

 did not show above the water anything but my nest and 



