The Thibodaux sentinel. (Thibodaux, La.) 1905-1912, 1911-01-28


a constant stream of treasure for nearly two
and half centuries. Last year, according to
Canadian export figures, this treasure amount
ed to s2,719,S22, but no credit was given for
the enormous home consumption of raw pelts.
The actual catch was worth at least s5,ooo,-
600. The coming season will see si,ooo,ooo
worth of furs caught in Canada In spite OF
the fact that the actual number OF skins Will
be at least quarter less than a year ago,
when the lives of between thirty and forty
million wild things were taken that M1lady
of civilization might have her furs
AS recently as eight years ago. Wnen 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 it
ranged to the Arctic sea. Less than decade
has brought about tremendous change and
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 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
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 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 furgath
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, a knife, a
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 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 huge snow-shoe rabbit, frozen stiff 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 cnks 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, leapng, thing
in the air before him, a great silver-gray
furred thing 1.-THE and beautiful as it crouches
at bayAa lynx. And magnificent specimen,
its six-inch fur, as fine as a woman's hair,
crumpled and lying richly upon the blood
stained as it waits for the man to come
within springing distance. But the hunter
knows better. He aims carefully for a spot
where he up the bullet-hole, and fires.
Only short time from 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 then?
No more than the dark-faced hunter sees
vision of that womans loneliness he skins
his catch and hurries 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 viii pay him fifteen dollars for
it. His mental visions go farther than
that. He makes effort to follow it in the
great ship that will carry 1t to Paris or Lon
don, where it will be sold at great profit; ,
nor to the furrier's shop, nor to the dainty =
will pay $3.50 for that same ffteendollar lynx :
in imported" muff. He goes on, keyed A
to higher excitement, until the end Of the day n
comes. and in the first gray gloom of early
night he stops at of the three four h
small log shelters which he has built for him a
self along the trapLne, gets his supper lights 8
his pipe. and reviews the happenings of the
lay until slumber closes his eyes.
1t will take him three days to cover forty
nile 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 :
aughter and joy of his wife, who has ten -
Ter roast porcupine or a venison stew waiting =
or 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
md stretches them on sticks. Then, once
more, he shoulders his pack, and goes again
lpon his round of excitement, adventure and
profit