tree three times, but if he
desired them to abandon all caution and to follow with all speed, he
would cut a long blaze and tear it off.

Then, again, if he were leaving the game trail to circle his quarry,
and if he wished them to follow his tracks instead of those of the
game, he would cut a long blaze on one tree and a small one on another
tree, which would signify that he had left the game trail at a point
between the two trees and that they were to follow his tracks instead
of those of the game. But if he wished them to stop and come no
farther, he would drop some article of his clothing on the trail.
Should, however, the game trail happen to cross a muskeg where there
were no trees to blaze, he would place moss upon the bushes to answer
instead of blazes, and in case the ground was hard and left an
invisible trail, he would cut a stick and shoving the small end into
the trail, would slant the butt in the direction he had gone.

If traversing water where there were no saplings at hand, and he wished
to let his followers know where he had left the water to cross a
muskeg, he would try to secure a pole, which he would leave standing in
the water, with grass protruding from the split upper end, and the pole
slanting to show in which direction he had gone. If, on the arrival at
the fork of a river, he wished to let his followers know up which fork
he had paddled--say, for instance, if it were the right one--he would
shove a long stick into either bank of the left fork in such a way that
it would point straight across the channel of the left fork, to
signify, as it were, that the channel was blocked. Then, a little
farther up the right fork, he would plant a sapling or pole in the
water, slanting in the direction he had gone--to prove to the follower
that he was now on the right trail. Oo-koo-hoo further explained that
if he were about to cross a lake and he wished to let his follower know
the exact point upon which he intended to land, he would cut two poles,
placing the larger nearest the woods and the smaller nearest the water,
both in an upright position and in an exact line with the point to
which he was going to head, so that the follower by taking sight from
one pole to the other would learn the exact spot on the other shore
where he should land--even though it were several miles away. But if
he were not sure just where he intended to land, he would cut a willow
branch and twist it into the form of a hoop