The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1911-02-04

a constant stream of treasure for nearly TWO
and half centuries. Last year, according TO
Canadian export figures this treasure amount
ed to $2719822, but no credit was given for
the enormous home consumption OF raw pelts
The actual catch was worth at least $5,50o
600 The coming season will see $7,O0O,OoO
worth of furs caught in Canada, In spite OF
the fact that the actual number OF SKINS VIII
be at least quarter less than year ago.
when the lives of between thirty and forty
million wild things were taken that Mliady
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 II
ranged to the Arctic sea- Less than a decade
has brought about a tremendous change. and
now one travels a 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 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 It's cen
ter is Hudson's Bay. the great ice box OF
the north-nine times as large as the state or
Ohio Over this vast territory at distances
of from one to three hundred miles apart are
scattered the Hudsons Bay Companys posts
and those Of its French competitors, the Re
yeillon Brothers In most instances post
consists of nothing more than a company
store" the factors house, and two or three
log cabins. Except during the months or the
trapping season these are practically the only
points of human life in country that runs
two thousand miles east and west and from
two to eight hundred north and south.
With the first breath of winter the fur-gath-
erers begin to bury themselves In the vast
desolation about them, travelling one ana
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 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 as plainly as picture-book
In one trap he finds great white owl. and
cuts off the beautiful wings for tho wife and
children back in the cabin. In the next there
is a huge snowshoe rabbit. frozen stih as 1t
had died. And then, from through the thick
and gloomy balsam ahead, he hears the faint
clinking OF a chain. His blood leaps now, for
this royal sport of the wilderness never grows
old to the furhunter. The chain clinks loud
er, and he draws in quick. excited breaths as
he lifts tie hammer of his rifle and stares
ahead He comes suddenly upon the next
house. and there is 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 a magnificent specimen.
its six-inch fur, as fine as woman's hair.
crumpled and lying richly upon the blood
stained snow as 1t waits for the man to come
dtata puf IA tar
knows better. He aims carefully for a spot
where he can sew up the bullet-hole, and fires.
Only a 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 1t possible that vision Of
this wilderness tragedy will come to her thenf
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 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 no effort to follow It In the
great ship that will carry II 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 $50 for that same afteen-dollar lynx
lin an imported" nun. 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 fofe him.
self along the trap-line gets his supper lights
his pipe, and reviews the happenings Of the
day until slumber closes his eyes.
It 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 L. welcomed
by the glad cries of his children and the
laughter and Joy Of his wife. who has ten
der roast. porcupine or a 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