WITH THE VOYAGEURS 



17 



ally held by tall and prominent spruce trees that had 

 been cut into peculiar forms as below. These were 

 known as "lob-sticks," or "lop-sticks," and are usu- 

 ally the monuments of some distinguished visitor in 

 the country or records of some heroic achievement. 

 Thus, one would be pointed out as Commissioner 

 Wrigley's lob-stick, another as John MacDonald's the 

 tune he saved the scow. 



The inauguration of a lob-stick is quite a ceremony. 

 Some person in camp has impressed all with his im- 

 portance or other claim to 

 notice. The men, having 

 talked it over, announce 

 that they have decided on 

 giving him a lob-stick. 

 "Will he make choice of 

 some prominent tree in 

 view?" The visitor usually selects one back from the 

 water's edge, often on some far hilltop, the more 

 prominent the better; then an active young fellow is 

 sent up with an axe to trim the tree. The more 

 embellishment the higher the honor. On the trunk 

 they then inscribe the name of the stranger, and he is 

 supposed to give each of the men a plug of tobacco 

 and a drink of whiskey. Thus they celebrate the man 

 and his monument, and ever afterwards it is pointed 

 out as "So-and-so's lob-stick." 



It was two months before my men judged that I was 

 entitled to a lob-stick. We were then on Great Slave 

 Lake where the timber was small, but the best they 

 could get on a small island was chosen and trimmed 



Lob-sticks, or trees trimmed as 

 monuments, along the river 



