IN QUEST OF TREASURE 37 



while travelling without a compass, but how, without the aid of 

 writing, they continued to leave various messages for their 

 companions. When I asked Oo-koo-hoo how he would signal, 

 in case he went ashore to trail game — when the other canoes 

 were out of sight behind him — and he should want someone to 

 follow him to help carry back the meat, he replied that he would 

 cut a small bushy-topped sapling and plant it upright in the 

 river near his landing place on the shore. That, he said, would 

 signify that he wished his party to go ashore and camp on the 

 first good camping ground ; while, at the same time, it would 

 warn them not to kindle a fire until they had first examined the 

 tracks to make sure whether the smoke would frighten the 

 game. Then someone would follow his trail to render him 

 assistance, providing they saw that he had blazed a tree. If 

 he did not want them to follow him, he would shove two sticks 

 into the ground so that they would slant across the trail in the 

 form of an X, but if he wanted them to follow he would blaze 

 a tree. If he wanted them to hurry, he would blaze the same 

 tree twice. If he wanted them to follow as fast as they could 

 with caution, he would blaze the same tree three times, but if 

 he desired them to abandon all caution and to follow with all 

 speed, he would cut a long blaze and tear it off. 



Then, again, if he were leaving the game trail to circle his 

 quarry, and if he wished them to follow his tracks instead of 

 those of the game, he would cut a long blaze on one tree and a 

 small one on another tree, which would signify that he had 

 left the game trail at a point between the two trees and that 

 they were to follow his tracks instead of those of the game. 

 But if he wished them to stop and come no farther, he would 

 drop some article of his clothing on the trail. Should, however, 

 the game trail happen to cross a muskeg where there were no 

 trees to blaze, he would place moss upon the bushes to answer 

 instead of blazes, and in case the ground was hard and left an 

 invisible trail, he would cut a stick and shoving the small end 



