Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-27

gets trimmed out of it. The other is the fur
trapper. If prospector is ruined outside in
duences usually do it. The trapper as a rule.
can blame only himself.
I've been buying fuTs in the North Tor
quarter of a century. I've seen the time in
Alaska when could have my pick of boat
load of skins-blue foxes white ones, reds and
Silvers-and pay top price of five or six dol
lars for the most perfect of them, all prime
and in season. I've seen the cabins of trappers
so stacked with bales of ermine beavers, marten,~
mink and fox that person scarcely had room
to move about. month or SO later I've lent
those same trappers enough money to buy grub
and 60 back to the bush again, their efforts OF
a year diSsipated.
The widest sort of a get-rch-quck prospec-
tor can learn tricks he never heard of from a
trapper straight from the bush with a big
Winters catch. It's in his blood to be i'm
provident; waster in spending, he also Is a
Waster in taking That's why each year, the
trap lines must be moved farther North, farther
from civilization, to reach areas that have not
been Quilted of fur supply which otherwise
might have lasted indefinitely.
This, of course, applies to the trapper as
a class. I know conservative men who have
worked the same district for years, protected
it rigidy, assisted in the enforcement OF law
against prisoners and poachers rotated their
catches made good living and retired upon
their earnings. But these have been very few.
have met hundreds however, VINO nave
;mined" the fur of district until that fur was
gone and then moved on to clean out some
other place-and kept moving. 1t is significant
that the big companies within the last few
wears have established more fur posts in the
Arctic Circle than in all their previous history.
1t also is significant that while there are trap
pers scattered here and there who may make
a few thousand dollars for their years work,
the general average does not clear more than
four or five hundred dollars for a. life of priva-
fion hard work and danger. It's largely their
fault
or course, in this regard 1 speak of the
white trapper the half or quarter breed,
in which the Caucasian instincts are stronger
than those of the native. The true Indian, as
a general rule, doesn't run true to the story
book ideals at all, especially regarding con-
servation, protection of wild life and sometimes
even woodcraft. In fact one of the big jobs
of the provincial and mounted police of the
North is that of continually telling Indians
about the dangers of fire. The usual white
man extinguishes his campfire thoroughly.
The Indian sometimes leaves burning ember
that eats down through the dried muskeg,
works underground long after camp has been
abandoned and starts forest fire. thus Great
ing another area denuded for fur.
For fire is everything horrible for the forest
denizen which one can imagine. 1t kills OF
trapping for at least two years. The bad fires
usually come in the Spring and early Sum-
mer, thus destroying the young. The older,
stronger animals are driven into congestion in
other areas. cutting down the food supply and
making trapping easier.
However, as an integal factor in the destruc-
ton of the fur supply, the Indian counts for
comparatively little. 1t is the white man who
is the real menace, in spite of the fact that he
furnishes less than half Of the personnel Of
Canadian trappers.
The Indian is a conservationist largely be-
cause he is too lazy to be anything else. If
there is any way to get food without work he
will not trap at all. If trapping is necessary,
and he catches an animal, he'll neglect all the
rest of his trapline and travel from 20 to so
miles TO trade the skin for food or cheap
jewelry. It's unfortunate If other animals have
been caught little farther on. BY the time
the Indian returns their carcasses are either
ruined by decay or devoured by wolves or
coyotes.
AS to beaver, the gradual disappearance of
this animal can be marked up almost entirely
TO the Indian. A beaver to an Indian bears
the same relationship as whisky TO drunkard.
Beaver meat is an Indian delicacy, and an
Indian doesn't stop TO think about protection,
the primenesS OF the fur or anything except his
appetite when he crosses the trail of one.
An Indian, however. can be excused to a GER
tain extent on the grounds of ignorance. A
white trapper cannot: and, as / have said
before it is the white man who mines" the
1ur. In 1918, Ior instance, spent Two weeks
in certain district of the North. In that two
weeks bought from small stores and trading
posts 500 beaver, 1870 otter, $50 mink, $50 lynx,
$50 red fox. $50 cross fox and 200 marten pelts.
Contrast this with the report last year of
Manitoba provincial policeman after dog team
trip of S82 miles over practically the same
territory in which. l6 years before, had done
my buying.
Throughout the whole patrol was struck
with the absence of fur tracks. am safe in
saying that from Nelson to Indian Lake-102
iriles-I did not more than six tracks, fox