Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1911-02-10

constant stream OF treasure for nearly tw'
and half centuries. Last year. according Il
Canadian export figures. this treasure amount
ed to $2,719,S22. but no credit was given fo
the enormous home consumption of raw pelts
The actual catch was worth at least $500.
600. The coming season will see s7,000,00t
worth of furs caught in Canada. in spite Of
the fact that the actual number of skins viii
be at least a quarter less than a year ago
when the lives of between thirty and forty
million wild things were taken that Milady
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 II
ranged to the Arctic sea. Less than decade
has brought about tremendous change. anc
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 its 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
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 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
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 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 a rife as weapons, every hour 10
filed 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 ricture-book.
in one trap he finds great white owl. and
cuts OF the beautiful wings for the wife and
children back in the cabin. In the next there
is a huge snow-shoe rabbit, frozen stif 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
old to the fur-hunter. The chain clinks loud
er. and he draws in quick. excited breaths as
he lifts the hammer of his rife and stares
ahead. He comes suddenly upon the next
house, and there is snarling. leaping, thing
in the air before him. great silvergray
furred thing 1.-THE and beautiful as It crouches
at bay-a lynx. And a magnificent specimen.
its sixinch fur as fine as a woman's hair.
crumpled and lying richly upon the blood
stained snow as 1t waits for the man to come
within springing distance. But the hunter
knows better He aims carefully for spot
where be can sew up the bullet-hole, and fires
Only short time from now some gently nur-
tured beauty of civilization viii press the
warmth and regal loneliness of that thing to
her face, and-is 1t possible that a vision of
this wilderness tragedy will come to her them
No more than the dark-faced hunter sees |
vision Of that woman's 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 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 1t to Paris or Lon
don. where 1t viii 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 ifteen-dollar lynx
In an imported" muf He goes on keyed
70 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.
'eh along the trap-line. gets bis supper, lights
his pipe. and reviews the happenings of the
lay until slumber closes his eyes.
It VIII take him three days to cover forty
nile tra2-line. and when he returns to his
'abin at the close of the third he is welcomed
~ the glad cries Of his children and the
aughter and Joy Of his wife, who has ten
Ter roast porcupine or veEison stew waiting
or him. For two days after that he rests.
mokes his pipe, and tells Of his adventures.
While his wife scrapes the fat from his peits
ND stretches them on sticks Then. once
more, he shoulders his pack. and goes again
pom his round of excitement, adventure and
'rofit.