The Savannah morning news., 1903-09-13

Ga much interest is there, and fasci-
uotion at every stage Of the journey
,nat it is difficult to decide what fea-
t,res to describe. The Hudson Bay
Coronany's trading posts and how they
developed into towns; the immense
oo+t,a ranches around Calgary; the
,n,andid fishing at Lake Timagaming,
che Algonquin's Paradise; the Indian
rassrvations and serpent dance; the
hig game in the wilds Of British Co.
mmbia; the picturesque scene of Hta-
vatha at the Georgian bay; the i'm
,oanse glaciers of the Selkirk range;
tho house boating on the beautiful
xootenay lakes and the gold mining;
the salmon canning at Vancouver, and
the English naval station at Esqui-
,nault to hold Uncle Sam in check; all
these are full of interest and make a
choice between them difficult
The HUDSON bay Company.
To-day we shall tell the story how
a Hudson Bay post developed into a
large city. Winnepeg the Juvenile
CITY" of Manitoba, the Infant Prodi-
gv' of the Peans. The Hudson Bay
Company. 1 have just happened to
realize, must have been the original
trust invested by the government with
enormous powers. 1t ruled with abso-
lute jurisdiction over the great West
from the boundary of the United States
IN the limits of the Arctic zone. All
the government, all the commerce, Of
that immense territory was in the
hands of officers of the company. All
the furs and skins that came out of
the wids, all the produce and provis-
ions that went in, were the property
of this gigantic monopoly. 1t erected
trading posts on the banks of every
navigable stream, and where was a
post, there a fort to protect it's bust
ness from the Indians. Even to-day
when circumstances have so greatly
changed, you see at almost every sta
ton where there is a river or lake,
g store with this legend: Hudson Bay
Company's Store" But in those days
that vast trackless, terrible wilderness
was trodden, besides the Red men, by
only two sets of feet, the feet of the
trader and the feet of the Jesuit mis-
siOnary.
There is something deeply sug
gestive, I think. as we think of
these two classes of men adventuring
life into unknown wilds amid savage
beasts and man more savage, on the
sea of tracklesS prairie and the sea of
wild turbulent mountains, watching by
day, by night for the groWl of the griz-
Fly and the whoop of the Indian, the
one to carry the treasures of the world,
the other the treasures of the Gospel.
The thought of them hangs about every
silent wood and over the bosoms of
every ripping stream, and lends hui
man interest to the scene. Human
feet have been here before us, we say.
How awfully lonesome, we think, must
have been the life of that solitary man
with his pack of furs, as he tramped
through the silent woods or rowed in
rude dugout down the ceaSeleSS
stream from station to station of the
Hudson Bay Company. Up at Edmon-
ton on the confines of AthabaSca is
one of these outlying posts-so near
the Arctic region that here men outfit
to-day for the Yukon gold region. But
the business in furs goes on just the
same as if the great woods to the
north were full of fur bearing animals
as they We're when the company es-
tablished its first post there many score
of years ago, and up and down the
street you read the signs: "Furs
Bought Here for Cash" You enter the
first store you meet and there on the
floor and over the counters are skins
Of beaver, grizzly, fox and marten,cari-
bou, the snow-white mountain goat,
the richest of ermines, enough to clothe
the Cars of all the Russias. On the
walls hang heads grand enough to
fire the manly breast of every true
sportsman who loves to stalk the
mighty game through the woods, and
over mountains and lakes, regardless of
the passage of the hours, for here are
such heads that man in the East never
looked upon, mountain sheep and pure
white goat, caribou, elk, deer, moose,
grizzly and mountain lion. That
beautiful silver fox you can have for
800, but those yellow fox skins are
only 81 or 81. The trader loves to tell
the tale of a famous silver fox skin
which he sold several years ago-none
like it in the world-for S1,740, so we
knew some American millionaire had
been wandering round the wildS of Ed
monitor.
Edmonton Bear Stories.
And at night while we are sitting on
the hotel piazza and the Chinook winds
have softened down the winter air, we
start the Oldest inhabitant on that sub
lect Of the grizzly bear, ever dear to the
stories run about like this: Bears are
TO be seen occasionally within a few
miles of the town, and it was not long
ago that a Galician farmer of the
helghborhood, seeing a cub roaming
near his stock, fetched his gun and
Hred at 1t. Thereupon it's mother APP
peared and ran at him viciously, open
mouthed and wishful to tear his vitals.
me man having powder and no more
Siugs felt that a Galician's house is
MS castle, and retiring therein barri-
caded himself as we'll as he could. Till
me day broke the she-bear clawed all
over the place in the endeavor to get at
XIih' But the daylight enabled the
1driner to find a couple more slugs,
mllh which he dispatched his assailant,
e- edwards coming up to Edmonton
Sale"
! would not like to live in a town
SSHere bears come calling at your front
SooF at such an unearthly hour in the
tnnoFnlng! And SO this vast country of
."e North, running up to the pole until
II III. rs damned in by the ice, is still thick
I'm those fur-bearing animals, and
~ many year will continue to be
lined OF its precious pelts to clothe
~ 7 thlu-blooded sons of men who live
~ 'her south. And when the Indians
s 'e surviving members of the hand
Inc Blackfeet tribe, come out Of the
leFnous forests with their packs OF
liis strongly tied with a diamond
and packed fur-side inward, the
~ enant holds his gun in the middle of
Ia, moor upright, and gives the poor
- hoo