Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-19
Hard Life of the Hudson Bay Com,
pany's Voyageurs.
RESULT OF SPRING HUNT VARIES
Portaging the Hardest Work That
Comes to the Hunter.
Z AGEDIES AT OUTPOSTS

|
| in a good year from sst0 to $500 may be
| taken as fair aver ge. He may have
| eight or ten bears. dozen beavers, four
| or five offers, a number of lynxes, martens
| and minks. and several hundred musqutrsh
| or muskrats. When all the hunters have
| come in the furs are pressed into packs of Il
| hundred pounds each and sent in York
| boats to the frontier trails, over which
| they are carted to the nearest railway sta
| ton to be shipped to London. England.
| where they carefully sorted and after
ward sold at the two great annual sales
| of the company in January and March,
| which attended by buyers from all
| parts of the world.
| In the hard life of the voyageur there
| are ever present the elements of danger
| and excitement. With the first glance of
| Dawn the guide shouts his warning: Level
| Level! and the men spring from their
blankets, pack their camp outfit into tho
| boats and of. Six oars go to a boat,
| one to a man. besides a Sweep in the
| hands of both bow and steersman. The
| oars are large and heavy. and the rowers
! rise to their feet and sink back onto their
| seats with each long stroke. At s o'clock
| they put ashore for breakfast 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 them
| selves on the ground for few hours rest.
| | have been told by voyageurs that they
|
| unable to eat. and have flung themselves
down on the nearest level spot without so
| much as removing their coats snatching
| a blanket, and slept the sleep of dead
| WEAKNESS until reused at daybreak by. the
! cry of the guide.
| Average Days Journey.
| Fifteen to twenty miles is perhaps an
| average days journey; much depends upon
! the water. In some places rapids and port
| ages occur with exasperating frequency; in
| others the stream is broad and deep and
| there is little current. Again, in crossing
| a lake. with a favorable wind, sail may be
| made and the rowers have a welcome rest:
| while in breasting a rapid around which it
| is unnecessary impossible to portage,
| tracking is resorted to. A long line Is
| attached to the bow of the boat and the
| men dsembark, leaving only the steers
| man to keep her rose off the shore off
| rocks in the stream while the men, far
| ahead on the bank, haul her up against the
| torrent Accidents common. A block
| of overhanging ice four or five feet thick
| left by the spring flood, may fall upon a
| man he passes beneath ii and crush
| out his life; sudden access of force in the
| current the boat rounds a 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 it is
| necessary to drag the heavy York boat and
| to carry her load of four or five tons over
| a rough. rocky point n mile in width. A
| portage 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
| beneath 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.
| Good Hunting.
Hunting is the main recreation of the
majority of the officers and clerks. The
| staff at post often go off and camp for a
| week. and a hundred more geese and
| double that number of ducks load the boats
! on the return. The ptarmigan-brown in
| summer and white in winter-is a good
game bird, and in some localities pinnated
| grouse or prairie chickens are very numer-
| Gus. Our ubiquitous little friend, the part
| ridge, too, is nowhere more frequently lat
home to the hunter than here. and he is
| often such a 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 pole over
| his head. After the first snow in the fall
| rabbit shooting is good sport, and in
| sons when they are plentiful fifty or sixty
| to the credit of a single huntsman in af-
| ternoon is not uncommon score. Then
| there is the large game, such moose and
| deer, while now and then a 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 the posts where l was stationed
we kept a moose for two years. She
taken when very young by an Indian, who
killed her mother, and brought the calf in
his canoe to the fort. She became quite
tame and in the second winter We broke
her to drive in harness. Her chief amuse-
| ments We're soaring Indians by racing up to
| them and stopping abruptly with a loud
snort. and planting her forefeet on the
backs of the train dogs. A train dog will
howl upon the slightest excuse and the
pathetic outbursts which greeted the
cessfu performance of this latter feat ap-
peared to cause Maud unStnted enjoyment
and certain mild wonder which it was
lu6icrous to behold.
The clerks often set traps adjacent to the
fort and in this way find another means
of passing time and of adding to their in
comes. Snowshoeng is also popular exer-
else on the short days, and at posts where
they are kept horses are in much requisi-
ton.
At an Outpost.
At al outpost where a clerk Is alone with
his Indian servant, however. the life is
wearisome to a degree, and privation not
infrequently adds to the hardship of it.
Supplies may short, and in any case he
is expected to stock himself with fish taken
in nets from the lake, near which his post
is situated. for his table and his dogs,
and diigent use of his gun. Rare instances
have occurred where, through accident,
supplies had not reached the far outposts
for which they were intended, and the men
had literally died of starvation. Out of a
York boats crew which was taking up the
annual supplies for post far up among
the Rocky mountains, on branch of the
Mackenzie river. two or three were
drowned, and the ice beginning to take
the boat was obliged to put back to the dis
trict headquarters. The three men at the
outpost were left for some weeks without
the supplies and when, after winter had
set in, and it became possible to reach them
with dog trains, provisions were at length
sent them, two were found dead in the post,
while the third man living my himself
in small hut some distance from the fort
buildings. The explanation he gave was
that he had removed to where there was a
chance of keeping himself alive by sharing
rabbits, which were more plentiful than at
the post; but suggestion of cannbalism
surrounded the affair. for only the bones
of his companions were found, and they
We're in the open chimney place. Nothing
was DONE however. and 1 myself saw the
survivor many times in after years, though
1 never spoke to him of that winter. One