lad. So to this last
question his answer was:

"No Indian who wished to preserve anything of value for future use would
think of putting it up in such a place. They all know the thievish,
destructive habits of the wolverines, and other animals of that kind,
that quickly detect and destroy everything destructible if placed in a
tree, in the manner in which this was done. The wonder was that this
was not found out much sooner and completely destroyed."

"Tell us, please," said Sam, "how the hunters act toward each other in
regard to their hunting grounds and furs. Have they any titles to the
different places where they hunt year after year?"

"They have no written titles," said Mr Ross, "but for generations the
same families have hunted in the same localities. Then some Indians,
generation after generation, are noted as famous hunters of certain
animals. For example, Big Tom is noted as a successful moose hunter,
and so were his immediate ancestors. Others made a speciality of the
beavers, others of the otter, and thus it went. These Indian families
naturally had localities where these different animals abounded,
although there were seasons when other varieties of fur-bearing animals
swarmed through these regions, and for a time were really more numerous
than the ones there generally hunted. As might have been expected, the
hunters of the moose, reindeer, black bears, and other large animals
that wander over immense districts had the right of following them in
any direction. The hunters and trappers of the rich fur-bearing
animals, however, generally kept in certain regions year after year.
Sometimes a hunter, in order to reach his own grounds, had to pass
through, what we might call the preserves of three or four different
families. I once accompanied a hunter to his grounds, and we saw no
less than seventy traps of other Indians on the trail as we passed along
mile after mile. In one of them was a beautiful mink. My Indian
companion at once stopped, and, putting his pack off his back, opened it
and cut off some of his bait. Then he took the mink out of the trap and
reset it, supplying it with his own bait. The mink he tied to the top
of a young sapling, which he bent down for the purpose. When he let go
of the young tree it sprang up so that the mink hung in the air, about
fifteen feet from the ground. Here it was safe from the prowling
wolverines and other animals. Then the Indian made some peculia