Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1899-09-21
FUR TRADE or TIKI NORTH.


kesuu o. Spring nunt venes-rorssxsux sne
Severest Work that Comes to the Hunter
-TrasedIes At the Outposts-A Suggestion
Of Caanlbsilsn.
The quantity and value of the furs
which an Indian may secure as the re-
suit of his spring hunt vary greatly,
of course, but In good year from 500
to $500 may be taken as fair average.
He may have eight or ten bears, doz-
en- beavers, four or five offers, num-
Der Of lynxes, musquash or muskrats.
When all the hunters have come In the
furs are pressed into packs Of hun
dred pounds and sent In New York
boats to the frontier trails, over which
they are Grated to London, England,
where they are carefully sorted and
afterward sold at the two great annual
sales of the company In January and
March, which are attended by buyers
from all parts Of the world.
In the hard life of the voyage there
are ever present the elements of dan
ger and excitement. With the first
glance of dawn the guide shouts his
warning: "Leve! Lever and the men
spring from their blankets, pack their
camp outfit into the boats and are off.
Six oars go to a boat, one to a man,
besides q sweep" in the hands Of
both bow and steersman. The oars
ire large and heavy. and the rowers
rise to their feet and sink back onto
their seats with each long stroke. At
O'Clock they put ashore for breakfasts
and about noon another halt Is made;
then they go on until night falls, when
they stop for the day, eat their supper
and throw themselves on the ground
for few hours rest. have been told
by voyageurs that they have been so
tired at night that they were unable
to eat, and have flung themselves
down on the nearest level spot without
so much as removing their coats or
snatching blanket, and slept the sleep
of dead WEAKNESS until reused at day
break by the cry of the guide.
Fifteen to twenty miles is perhaps
an average days journey; much de-
ponds upon the water. In some places
rapids and portages occur with exas-
perating frequency; in others the
stream is broad and deep and there Is
little current. Again, in crossing a
lake, with favorable wind, sail may
be made and the rowers have wei
come rest; while in breasting a rapid
around which it is unnecessary or i'm
possible to portage, 'tacking' is resort
ed to. A long line is attached to the
bow of the boat and the men disem-
bark, leaving only the steersman to
keep her nose off the shore or off rocks
In the stream, while the men, far ahead
on the bank, haul her up against the
torrent Accidents are common. a
block of overhanging ice four or five
feet thick, left by the spring food, may
fall upon man as he passes beneath
1t and crush out his life; sudden ac-
cess of force in the current as the boat
rounds bend may jerk the crackers
from their feet and into the river and
some may not get out again. Or the
boat may drift upon rock. smash to
atoms and the cargo and the men in
her be lost.
But portaging is the hardest work
which comes to the vOyageur, for
sometimes il Is necessary to drag the
heavy New York boat and carry her
load of four or five tons over rough,
rocky point a mile in width. A port
age strap is fastened to one ''piece" of
about one hundred pounds; another
piece perhaps two, are placed upon
this. and with the strap against his
forehead, with barred legs and shoeless
feet, man after man tolls across the
portage, until the narrow path be-
meath is soft and damp with human
sweat. They are glad when the last
piece is over. The clumsy oars seem
light when they pick them up again
Hunting is the main recreation of the
majority of the officers and clerks. The
staff at post 60 off and camp for n
week, and hundred or more geese
and double that number Of ducks load
the boats on the return. The ptarmi-
gan-brown in summer and white in
winter-is a good game bird, and In
some localities pnnated grouse or prai-
RE chickens are very numerous. Our
ubiquitous little friend. the partridge.
too, is nowhere more frequently lat
home" to the hunter than here. and he
Is often such stranger to the guile of
man that an Indian will walk up to
the tree upon which he is sitting and
slip the moose that he has fixed to the
end of a pole over his head. After the
first snow in the fall rabbit shooting is
good sport, and in seasons when they
are plentiful fifty or sixty to the credit
of single huntsman in an afternoon
is not an uncommon score. Then there
is the large game, such as moose and
deer. while now and then n stupid bear
pokes his nose in dangerous proximity
to the fort, the staff turns out and he
is shot for his fatal inquisitiveness.
At one of those posts where l was
stationed we kept moose for two
years. She was taken when very
young by an Indian, who killed her
mother, and brought the calf in his ca
noe to the fort. She became quite
tame, and in the second winter we
broke her to drive in harness. Her
chief amusements were soaring In
dams by racing up to them and stop
ping abruptly with loud snort and
planting her forefeet on the backs Of
tba train doUc A train dog will howl