Constant watching of the hunting parties and admonition as to their conduct were among the duties of the agent. "Sent my interpreter up the Mississippi among the Indians", he writes, "to see how they are progressing in their hunts and as to the present hunting grounds of the Chippeways." Eight days later record is made of the fact that "the Rum River Chippeways left for their camp this morning--Sent word to their people to hunt on their own Lands & not by any Means to intrude upon the Soil of the Sioux." When the interpreter returned he reported that everything was quiet between the two tribes.[340] The sending of "runners" to the camps was a frequent occurrence during the winter of 1831, the region covered being eighty miles to the east and two hundred miles to the north.[341] In the treaty of Prairie du Chien of 1825 a dividing line between the two tribes, beyond which neither should pass, was agreed upon.[342] But this provision was for many years a dead letter. As long as the line was unsurveyed the natives could urge indefiniteness of territory as an excuse for murder and depredations--claiming that the other party was the trespasser. When Schoolcraft met the chiefs of the Chippewas in council at Leech Lake in 1832, the latter complained that the provisions of the treaty had not been carried out. "The words of the Long-knives have passed through our forests as a rushing wind, but they have been words merely. They have only _shaken_ the trees, but have not stopped to break them down, nor even to make the rough places smooth."[343] As a result Mr. Schoolcraft urged upon the Secretary of War the necessity of marking the line.[344] Seven thousand dollars were appropriated by the act of June 26, 1834, for the purpose of running this line,[345] and the next spring Major J. L. Bean, accompanied by Duncan Campbell, the Sioux interpreter of the agency, commenced the survey.[346] Later an escort of troops from Fort Snelling was sent him under the command of Lieutenant William Storer, with the result that the reduced garrison was unable to enforce order.[347] When the survey had been completed from the Chippewa River to Otter Tail Lake the return of the military escort put an end to the work, but the agent was of the opinion that the most important part had been marked.[348]