Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1911-01-26

y GOADtoAAS ~
and a half centuries. Last year, according 10
Canadian export figures, this treasure amount
ed to $2,719,S22, but. no credit was given Ior
the enormous home consumption OF raw pelts-
The actual catch was worth at least $o,oooS
900. The coming season will see $I,ooo'Vov
worth of furs caught in Canada, In spi0e :,
the fact that the actual number OF SKINS WIN
be at least a quarter less than q year aso'
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, wnen tne
writer first began his journeys into the noren-
land, one struck the great fur country as soon
as he crossed Lake Superior. From there II
ranged to the Arctic sea. Less man d ueoaUe
has brought about a tremendous cnanse' anu
now one travels a hundred miles farther hoi'n
before he enters the last great trapping
ground" From this great trapping ground
comes seventy per cent. Of the better class
~ f,rs worn nv 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 pox Oh
the ncrth-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 he
veillon Brothers. In most instances a post
consists Of nothing more than a 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
.-1- ~oskh md 0rth
With the first breath of winter the fur-gath-
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, a knife, a
belt-ax and a rife rs weapons, every hour ls
filed with excitement for the hunter OF rur.
On his snowshoes he speeds swiftly from trap
to trap, every mile of snowy forests and
swamns revealing the mysteries of the wild
things to him as plainly as a picture-book.
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 a huge snow-shoe rabbit, frozen stin as 1t
had died. And then, from through the tnlcK
and gloomy balsam ahead, he hears the faint
clinking of a chain. His blood leaps now, Tor
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 s~narling, leaping, thing
in the air before him, a 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, as fine as a woman's hair,
crumpled and lying richly upon the blood
stained snow as It waits for the man to come
within springing distance. But the hunter
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 loneliness of that thing to
her face, and-is it possible that a vision OF
this wilderness tragedy will come to her then7
No more than the dark-faced hunter sees a
vision Of that woman's 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 a Number One, Extra" lynx, and that
the Company vii pay him fifteen dollars for
it. His mental visions go no farther than
that. He makes no 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 f~urrier's shop, nor to the dainty
girl or the society matron in New York who
will pay $3.50 for that same ffteen-dollar lynx
lin 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 t~rapline, 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 a 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 a ten.
der roast porcupine or a venison stew waitina
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.