Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/273

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beaver, and the larger animals, such as buffalo, elk, deer, and bear, decreased in the immediate vicinity of Leech and Sandy Lakes, the hardy bands of Ojibways who had taken possession of these beautiful sheets of water, were obliged to search further into the surrounding country for the game which formed the staple of life. It became customary for these two pioneer bands to meet by appointment, every fall of the year, at Gull Lake, or at the confluence of the Crow Wing with the Mississippi; and from thence to move in one collected camp into the more plentifully supplied hunting grounds of the Dakotas.

The camp, consisting of between fifty and a hundred light birch bark wigwams, moved by short stages from spot to spot, according to the pleasure of the chiefs, or as game was found to abound in the greatest plenty. This mode of hunting was kept up from the first fall of snow at the commencement of winter, to the month of February, when the bands again separated, and moved back slowly to their respective village sites, to busy themselves with