IN QUEST OF TREASURE 39 



expected soon to overtake and kill it, and if he wanted help to 

 carry back the meat, he would blaze a tree and upon that 

 smooth surface would make a sketch, either with knife or char- 

 coal, of the animal he was pursuing. If a full day had elapsed 

 since the placing of crossed sticks over the trail, the follower 

 would abandon all caution and follow at top speed, as he would 

 realize that some misfortune had befallen the hunter. The 

 second man, or follower, however, never blazes trees as he 

 trails the first hunter, but simply breaks off twigs or bends 

 branches in the direction in which he is going, so that should it 

 be necessary that a third man should also follow, he could 

 readily distinguish the difference between the two trails. If a 

 hunter wishes to leave a good trail over a treeless district, he, as 

 far as possible, chooses soft ground and treads upon his 

 heels. 



When a hunter is trailing an animal, he avoids stepping 

 upon the animal's trail, so that should it be necessary for him 

 to go back and re-trail his quarry, the animal's tracks shall not 

 be obliterated. If, in circling about his quarry, the hunter 

 should happen to cut his own trail, he takes great care to cut it 

 at right angles, so that, should he have to circle several times, 

 he may never be at a loss to know which was his original trail. 

 If the hunter should wish to leave a danger signal behind him, 

 he will take two saplings, one from either side of the trail, and 

 twist them together in such a way that they shall block the 

 passage of the follower, requiring him to pause in order to dis- 

 entangle them or to pass around them ; and if the hunter were 

 to repeat such a signal two or three times, it would signify that 

 the follower should use great caution and circle down wind in 

 order to still-hunt the hunter's trail in exactly the same way 

 he would still-hunt a moose. Then, again, if the hunter should 

 wish to let the follower know the exact time of day he had 

 passed a certain spot, he would draw on the earth or snow a 

 bow with an arrow placed at right angles to the bow, but point- 



