It not unfrequently happens that travelers are compelled, for want of transportation, to abandon a portion of their luggage, and if it is exposed to the keen scrutiny of the thieving savages who often follow the trail of a party, and hunt over old camps for such things as may be left, it will be likely to be appropriated by them. Such contingencies have given rise to a method of secreting articles called by the old French Canadian voyagers “caching.”
The proper places for making cachés are in loose sandy soils, where the earth is dry and easily excavated. Near the bank of a river is the most convenient for this purpose, as the earth taken out can be thrown into the water, leaving no trace behind.
When the spot has been chosen, the turf is carefully cut and laid aside, after which a hole is dug the shape of an egg, and of sufficient dimensions contain the articles to be secreted, and the earth, as it is taken out, thrown upon a cloth or blanket, and carried to a stream or ravine, where it can be disposed of, being careful not to scatter any upon the ground near the caché. The hole is then lined with bushes or dry grass, the articles placed within, covered with grass, the hole filled up with earth, and the sods carefully placed back in their original position, and every thing that would be likely to attract an Indian’s attention removed from the locality. If an India-rubber or gutta-percha cloth is disposable it should be used to envelop the articles in the caché.
Another plan of making a caché is to dig the hole inside a tent, and occupy the tent for some days after the goods are deposited. This effaces the marks of excavation.
The mountain traders were formerly in the habit of building fires over their cachés, but the Indians have become so familiar with this practice that I should think it no longer safe.
Another method of caching which is sometime resorted to is to place the articles in the top of a evergreen tree, such as the pine, hemlock, or spruce. The thick boughs are so arranged around the packages that they can not be seen from beneath, and they are tied to a limb to prevent them from being blown out by the wind. This will only answer for such articles as will not become injured by the weather.
Caves or holes in the rocks that are protected from the rains are also secure deposits for caching goods, but in every case care must be taken to obliterate all tracks or other indications of men having been near them. These cachés will be more secure when made at some distance from roads or trails, and in places where Indians would not be likely to pass.
To find a caché again, the bearing and distance from the centre of it to some prominent object, such as a mound, rock, or tree, should be carefully determined and recorded, so that any one, on returning to the spot, would have no difficulty in ascertaining its position.
