r marks
upon the tree with his axe. His pack was then again shouldered, and we
proceeded on our way. I was very much interested in his proceedings,
and so when he had completed his work I asked him if that trap belonged
to his brother or some relative.

"`No,' he replied, `I do not yet know whose hunting ground this is, but
my duty is to do as you have seen me act. Perhaps when that hunter
comes along to-morrow or next day he will find another mink in that
trap. Then with two instead of one he will be the more pleased.'"

"Well done, honest Indian!" shouted the boys, when they heard this.
"There is a lesson for many a white man."

"And boys, too," added Sam.

Continuing, Mr Ross said: "This was the understood custom. It might
seem a little burdensome on the man who had the farthest to go, and
quite a tax on his supply of bait. But then he had the advantage when
he reached his hunting grounds, in that there were fewer human
footsteps, and, in all probability, correspondingly more game."

"Were there no exceptions--none who would take a mink or otter if they
had a chance from a neighbour's trap, if they thought they could escape
detection?" asked Alec.

"I only remember of one case occurring in many years," said Mr Ross,
"and there was soon a dead man at the end of it. It was the winter
after the great flood in Red River. A number of Indians who lived near
its mouth were driven out by the great flood. Some of them came into
this North country. The most of them were industrious and worked hard.
By fishing, shooting, and hunting where no persons specially claimed the
localities they did well, and got on as did the others. There were a
few among them who apparently did nothing, but lounged about and lived
on the industrious ones. No notice was taken of these. There was one
man, however, who soon began to be talked about. He was not known to
have any traps, nor was he ever seen to make any dead falls or other
things to catch the fur-bearing animals. Yet he often sauntered into
the trading post and brought out from under his coat a fine mink or
marten, and sometimes even a splendid otter. Soon some of the hunters
began to speak about strange tracks about their traps. One hunter told
of how he had visited one of his otter traps and had found a quantity of
hairs of an otter on the teeth, and yet the trap was set. He had also
observed where somebody who chewed tobacco had been spitting on the snow
near th