INDIAN CAMPS 37

of the game laws, and the quantities of game, mostly
moose, annually slaughtered by them were enormous,
but fortunately for the game there were not so many
Indians left.

Apart from man, the greatest enemy of the larger
game animals are the grey wolves (canis occidentalis),
which kill a lot of caribou and, during the winter when
the snow is deep, a great number of moose also.

From Chesley Post on we had to climb a rather
steep ascent until we had reached the top of a large,
flat plateau called Level Mountain, which stretched all
the way to Nahlin. We were travelling through thin
forest, more or less charred in places by forest fires,
over large muskegs or swamps, and past many fine
lakes, which, according to Dennis, held great quantities
of fish, probably whitefish (coregonus nelsonz), like most
of these northern lakes. We saw quantities of duck,
and now and then we came across the tracks of moose,
but none of them were fresh.

Here and there old Indian camping grounds were
passed, and I was particularly interested in the remains
of their sweat baths. They consist of a framework of
bent willows stuck in the earth forming a kind ofskeleton
over which are laid blankets to make an enclosed tent.
Inside are placed red-hot stones upon which water is
poured to form steam, after the age-old principle of our
Norwegian ‘“‘badstue.”’ Such a thorough cleansing is
usually indulged in before some important occasion,
such as a hunting expedition or a religious ceremony.

These Indians are extremely superstitious and
dreams play a very important part in their life. I
often noticed that Dennis was greatly interested when
I told him I had had a dream during the night, and if