"Well," said Jack, "that's new to me. I never heard of anything like it. Did you, Hugh?"
"No," said Hugh, "it's one ahead of me."
"Well," said Mr. Hunter, "you will find quite a lot of customs of that kind along this coast. Certain tribes and certain families have the right to hunt or fish in certain localities and it's a right that is universally respected among the Indians. A man would no more think of interfering with another family's fishing stage or trespassing on his hunting ground than he would think of disturbing a cache of food that did not belong to him."
"That's another thing I had not heard of, Mr. Hunter," said Jack; "the fact that the Indians have separate special places where they have the right to hunt and where other people have not that right."
"Yes," said Hugh, "that's new to me, and would seem quite queer to anybody in our country."
"What is your country, if I may ask?" said Mr. Hunter, courteously.
"Why," said Hugh, "son and I have been for the last three or four years on the plains and in the mountains back in the States."
"Oh, in the Rocky Mountains?" said Mr. Hunter.
"Yes," said Hugh.
"There, of course, your game is chiefly buffalo, I suppose, and they wander a good deal, do they not?"