Trail and Camp-Fire 



VI 



pleased beyond measure by our day's experi- 

 ence and trophies. On the morrow we sent 

 three of the men to chop a trail up to the bar- 

 rens, and ever after that, when we paid the 

 plains a visit, we had a good road to ascend 

 by. 



One Sunday my father went on an explore 

 ing expedition to the head of the lake, and 

 returned at night with a strange tale. He 

 had followed a creek, as he said, " way up into 

 Hall's Bay country," and had determined to 

 his satisfaction that, contrary to his belief, 

 the deer did not use that end of the lake as a 

 pass to cross southward. But he made a dis- 

 covery that explained a good many things 

 mystifying to us. Where the creek he fol- 

 lowed entered the lake were erected three 

 huge scaffolds, one of which was as large as 

 the floor of a big house. These structures 

 were of considerable age, but in good repair, 

 and were the drying scaffolds of the Mic-Mac 

 Indians. Here they prepared their annual 

 stock of winter meat, killing it around the 

 shores of the lake, and floating it down. It 

 was a certainty from the signs in evidence 

 about these scaffolds that thousands of cari- 

 bou were annually dried there. That this lake 



304 



