The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1911-01-27

and a half centuries. Last year, according to
Canadian export figures, this treasure amount
ed to $2,719,822, but no credit was given Tor
the enormous home consumption Of raw pelts
The actual catch was worth at least $780,
900. The coming season will see $I,Uoo'ooo
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 Mllaoy
of civilization might have her furs.
AS recently as eight years ago, when the
writer first began his journeys into the north
land, one struck the great fur country as soon
as he crossed Lake Superior. From there 1t
ranged to the Arctic sea- Less than decade
has brought about a tremendous change, ana
now one travels hundred 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 her
Canadian sister.
In vast desolation one-third as large as
the whole Of Europe there is no railroad, no
white mans village, and it's population is less
than that of the Sahara Desert. In it's CEN
ter is Hudson's Bay, the great "ice box" of
the north-nine times as large as the state of
Ohio Over this vast territory at distances
of from one to three hundred miles apart are
scattered the Hudson's Bay Companys posts
and those of it's French competitors, the Re-
veillon Brothers. In most instances post
consists of nothing more than q 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 a country that runs
two thousand miles east and west and from
two to eight hundred north and south.
kloo 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
thick blanket in his pack-sack, knife,
belt-ax and a 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 plainly as picture-bock
In one trap he finds a 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 stiff as it
had died. And then, from through the thick
and gloomy balsam ahead, he hears the faint
climbing 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 an
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 It crouches
at bay-a lynx. And a magnificent specimen.
it's six-inch fur, fine as womans hair,
crumpled and lying richly upon the blood
49,
within springing 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 loneliness 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 dark-faced hunter sees a
vision Of that womans loneliness as he skins
his catch and hurries on. To each is given
but 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 no effort to follow it 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
will pay $3.50 for that same f1fteen-dollar lynx
in an imported" mun. 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 trapline gets his supper, lights
his pipe, and reviews the happenings Of the
day until sumber closes his eyes,
It will take him three days to cover a forty
mile trapline and when he returns to his
cabin at the close Of the third he is welcomed
by the glad cries of his children and tho
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 sticks. Then, once
more, he shoulders his pack, and goes again
upon his round Of excitement, adventure and
profit.