The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1911-02-09


and half centuries Last year. according 10
Canadian export figures, this treasure amount
ed to S2,719,S22, but no credit was given Tor
the enormous home consumption Of raw pelts
The actual catch was worth at least $5,oOO.-
600 The coming season will see $f'UVo'ooo
worth Of furs caught in Canada, IN spl'e y,
the fact that the actual number or sHlns VIII
be at least a quarter less than year aso'
when the lives of between thirty and forty
million wild things were taken that MAiauS
of civilization might have her rurS.
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 II
ranged TO the Arctic sea. Less than oecaue
has brought about tremendous chanse' anu
now ore travels hundred miles fartnef hoIhn
before he enters the "last great trapping
ground" From this great trapping sroun"
comes seventy per cent. OF the Detter CLASS
of surs worn by the American woman anu ner
Canadian sister
In q vast desolation one-third as large as
4ba whole of Europe there is 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 Dox OF
the north-nine times as large as tne sIaCe Va
Ohio Over this vast territory at distances
of from one to three hundred miles apart ar"
scattered the Hudson's Bay Companys posts
and those of it's French competitors the tie
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 ana Irom
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, q KnlIe,
belt-ax and a rife as weapons, every hour ~
filed with excitement for the hunter OF TUT.
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, ano
cuts off the beautiful wings for the wife and
children back in the cabin. In the next there
10 q huge snow-shoe rabbit frozen stiff as it
had died And then from through the thick
and gloomy baisam ahead, he hears the RANT
climbing of a chain. His blood leaps now, for
this royal sport Of the wilderness never grows
old To the fur-hunter The chain clinks loud
or. and he draws in quick, excited breatns 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, a great silver-gray
furred thing 1.-THE and beautiful as it crouches
at bay-a lynx And magnificent specimen,
it's six-inch fur, fine as Womans 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 spot
where he can sew up the bullethole, 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 1t possible that a vision of
this wilderness tragedy will come to her then?
No more than the dark-faced hunter sees
vision of that woman's loneliness 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 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 ffteendollar lynx
in 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 trapline, 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 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 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.