The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1911-01-27

q constant stream of treasure for nearly two
and a half centuries Last year, according to
Canadian export figures, this treasure amount
ed to $2,719,S22, but no credit was given for
the enormous home consumption OF raw pelts
The actual catch was worth at least $780,
600. The coming season will see 100000
worth of furs caught in Canada, in spite OF
the fact that the actual number Of skins Will
be at least a quarter less than year ago,
when the lives of between thirty and forty
million wild things were taken that Mllady
of civilization might have her furs.
AS recently as eight years ago, when the
writer first began his journeys into the nortn-
land one struck the great fur country as soon
as he crossed Lake Superior. From there 1t
ranged to the Arctic sea- Less than decaue
has brought about a tremendous change and
now one travels a bundled miles farther north
before he enters the last great trapping
ground" From this great trapping ground
comes seventy per cent. Of the better class
of furs worn by the American woman and ner
Canadian sister.
In a vast desolation one-third as large as
the whole of Europe there is no railroad no
white mans village, and its population is less
than that Of the Sahara Desert. In its CEN
ter is Hudson's Bay, Uo great ice box OF
the north-nine times as Asgge as the state OF
Ohio. Over this vast terFss@ry at distances
u
scattered the Hudsons Bay Cgmpany's posts
and those of it's French competitors, the Re
yeillon Brothers. In most instances post
consists of nothing more than company
"store" the factors house, and two or three
log cabins. Except during the months OF the
trapping season these are practically the only
points of human life in country tGat runs
two thousand miles. east and west anG from
two to eight hundred north and south.
%I1o Pew Saf h
erers begin to bury themselves in the vast
desolation about them, travelling one and
sometimes two hundred miles away from the
post to their old trapping grounds.
From the moment he leaves his door to go
over his line three days supply of food and
a thick blanket in his pack-sack, knife,
belt-ax and rifle as weapons, every hour Is
filled with excitement for the hunter of fur
On his snowshoes he speeds swiftly from trap
to trap, every mile of snowy forests and
swamps revealing the mysteries OF the wild
things to him as plainly as a picture-book.
In one trap he finds great white owl, and
cuts off the beautiful wings for the wife and
children back in the cabin. In the next there
is huge snow-shoe rabbit, frozen stiR as it
had died And then, from through the thick
and gloomy balsam ahead, he hears the faint
clinking of chain. His blood leaps now, for
this royal sport of the wilderness never grows
old to the fur-hunter. The chain clinks loud
er, and he draws in quick, excited breaths as
he lifts the hammer of his rifle and stares
ahead He comes suddenly upon the next
house, and there is a snarling, leaping, thing
in the air before him, great silver-gray
furred thing, 1.-THE and beautiful as 1t crouches
at bay-a lynx And magnificent specimen.
it's six-inch fur, as fine as womans hair,
ccumpled and lying richly upon the blood
sta1nes >gNaw as it waits for the man to come
within springi2g distance. But the hunter
knows better. He aims carefully for spot
where he can sew up the bullet-hole, and fires.
Only short time from now some gently nur-
tured beauty of civilization will press the
warmth and regal loveliness of that thing to
her face, and-is it possible that vision Of
this wilderness tragedy will come to her then?
No more than the darkfaced hunter sees a
vision of that woman's loveliness as he skins
his catch and hurries on. To each is given
but a part of the picture.
The forest man knows only that he has
caught Number One, Extra" lynx, and that
the Company will pay him fifteen dollars for
it. His mental visions go no farther than
that He makes nc effort to follow 1t In the
great ship that will carry it to Paris or Lon
don, where it will be sold at great profit;
nor to the furrier's shop, nor to the dainty
girl or the society matron in New York who
in an imported" muff. He goes on, keyed
to higher excitement, until the end of the day
comes. and in the first gray gloom of early
night he stops at one of the three or four
small log shelters which he has built for him.
self along the trap-line, gets his supper, lights
his pipe, and reviews the happenings of the
day until slumber closes his eyes.
1t will take him three days to cover forty
mile trap-line, and when he returns to his
cabin at the close of the third he is welcomed
by the glad cries of his children and the
laughter and Joy Of his wife, who has ten
der roast porcupine or venison stew waiting
for him. For two days after that he rests,
smokes his pipe, and tells of his adventures,
while his wife scrapes the fat from his pelts
and stretches them on sticks. Then, once
more, he shoulders his pack and goes again
upon his round Of excitement adventure and
profit.