Part 9 (1/2)

His birch canoe has beenthe suunwale, ht sled, with only runners and cross frame, is made to haul the canoe over still water, where the ice first forms Sled, provisions, blanket, and fish-net are put in the canoe, not forgetting the most important part of his kit--the trapper's tools Whether he hunts fro nothing but absolute necessaries, or builds a central lodge, where he leaves full store and radiates out to the hunting-grounds, at least four things imlet to bore holes in his snow-shoe fraer of fiction, but a blade crooked hook-shape, somewhat like a farrier's knife, at one end--to s, as a carpenter's plane; and a small chisel to use on the snow-shoe frames and wooden contrivances that stretch the pelts

If accompanied by a boy, who carries half the pack, the hunter ht Fire-ar-knife, steel-traps, a cotton-factory tepee, a large sheet of canvas, locally known as _abuckwan_, for a shed tent, co is not part of the equipment: it is fellow-hunter and co for the snow-shoes; but the snow-shoes will not be needed for aan unfoundto be trapped With the dog showing his wisdo motionless as an Indian bowman, the trapper steps into his canoe and pushes out

Eye and ear alert for sign of ga-place, where traps would be effective, the htfall, the chances are his craft will steal unawares close to a black head above a swi the canoe, no suspicion of his presence catches the scent of the sharp-nosed swimmer Otter or beaver, it is shot from the canoe With a leap over bow or stern--over his master's shoulder if necessary, but never sideways, lest the rebound cause an upset--the dog brings back his quarry But this is only an aside, the hap-hazard shot of an a that fills the co the forest the fore birch-tree, free of knots and underbranching, with the full girth to ussets and seams But birch-bark does not peel well in winter The trapper scratched the trunk with a mark of ”first-finder-first-owner,” honoured by all hunters; and came back in the su the bark from this tree that he first noticed the traces of beaver Channels, broader than runnels, hardly as wide as a ditch, have been cut connecting pool with pool, rass, where beaver have dragged young saplings five tith to a winter storehouse near the dam Trees lie felled miles away from any chopper Chips are scattered about marked by teeth which the trapper knows--knows, perhaps, fro's tail taken off at a nip, or his own finger amputated almost before he felt it If the bark of a tree has been nibbled around, like the line a chopper uesses whether his co has not interrupted a beaver in the very act

All these are signs which spell out the presence of a beaver-da distance; for the tio so far away that forage cannot be brought in before daylight In which of the hundred water-ways in the labyrinth of pond and stream where beavers roa that his own life depends on the life of the game, no true trapper will destroy wild creatures when theBesides, furs are not at their prime when birch-bark is peeled, and the trapper notes the place, so that he ins Beaver kittens stay under the parental roof for three years, but at the end of the first summer are amply able to look after their own skins Free froenuity and craft which nature gave them for self-protection When cold weather coainst wit To be sure, thecalled a trap But his eyes are not equal to the beaver's nose And he hasn't that familiarity with the woods to enable him to pursue, which the beaver has to enable it to escape And he can't swih under water to throw enemies off the scent, the way the beaver does

Now, as he paddles along the network of streams which interlace Northern forests, he will hardly be likely to stumble on the beaver-dam of last summer Beavers do not build their houses, where passers-by will stumble upon them But all the streams have been swollen by fall rains; and the trapper notices thedown the full current A chip swirls past white and fresh cut He knows that the rains have floated it over the beaver-dam Beavers never cut below their houses, but always above, so that the current will carry the poles down-strea his canoe-load behind, the trapper guardedly advances within sight of the da about, he quickly scents theblow of his trowel tail on the water, which heliographs danger to the whole community He sith his webbed hind feet, the little fore paws being used as carriers or hanging li the faintest bit in the world like a rudder; but that is a mooted question

The only definitely ascertained function of that bat-shaped appendage is to telegraph danger to cos on his tail, nor plasters houses with it; for the simple reason that the joints of his caudal appurtenance ads and a forward sweep between his hind legs, as if heupfound the wattled homes of the beaver, the trapper may proceed in different ways He may, after the fashi+on of the Indian hunter, stake the strea the water, break the conical crowns of the houses on the south side, which is thinnest, and slaughter the beavers indiscrioose that lays the golden egg; and explains why it was necessary to prohibit the killing of beaver for some years In the confusion of a wild scra of heads there was bootless destruction Old and young, poor and in prime, suffered the same fate The house had been destroyed; and if one beaver chanced to escape into some of the bank-holes under water or up the side channels, he could be depended upon to warn all beaver froenerate white

The skilled hunter has other s be yet about the bank of the strea up their winter stores in adjacent pools The trapper gets one of his steel-traps Attaching the ring of this to a loose trunk heavy enough to hold the beaver down and drown him, he places the trap a few inches under water at the end of a runway or in one of the channels He then takes out a bottle of castoreulands of a beaver which destroys all traces of the man-s everything touched by it, and said, by soed into a crazy stupidity by the very smell The hunter daubs this on his own foot-tracks

Or, if he finds tracks of the beaver in the grass back from the bank, he may build an old-fashi+oned deadfall, hich the beaver is still taken in Labrador This is the small lean-to, with a roof of branches and bark--usually covered with snow--slanting to the ground on one side, the ends either posts or logs, and the front an opening between two logs wide enough to adular stick, one part of which bolsters up the front log, is the bait All traces of the hunter are s at the bait usually brings the front log crashi+ng down across the ani it instantly

But neither the steel-trap nor the deadfall is wholly satisfactory When the poor beaver co the castoreum trail to the steel-trap and on the first splash into the water feels a pair of iron jaws close on his feet, he dives below to try and gain the shelter of his house The log plunges after hi him down and back till he drowns; and his whereabouts are revealed by the upend of the tree

But several chances are in the beaver's favour With the castoreu for a mate or lost cub, they may become so exhilarated as to ju doith the trap, they may retreat back up the bank and a only a mutilated paw for the hunter With the deadfall a sone entirely inside the snare before the front log falls; and an anihteen inches in diameter in less than half an hour can easily eat a way of escape froainst the hunter A wolverine may arrive on the scene before the trapper and eat the finest beaver ever taken; or the trapper may discover that his victied fur, who should have been left to forage for three or four years

All these risks can be avoided by waiting till the ice is thick enough for the trapper to cut trenches Then he returns with a wood the ice, he can usually find where holes have been hollowed out of the banks Here he drives stakes to prevent the beaver taking refuge in the shore vaults The runways and channels, where the beaver have dragged trees,will presently find theh not to be frozen solid, and shallow enough for it to make a mud foundation for the house without too much work Besides, in a deep, swift stream, rains would carry away any house the beaver could build A trench across the upper streah the ice prevent escape that way

The trapper then cuts a hole in the da water warns the terrified colony that an enereatest foe, the wolverine, whose claill rip through the frost-hard wall as easily as a bear delves for gophers; but their land enemies cannot pursue them into water; so the panic-stricken fa three-year-olds, ere to go out and rear fa; the two-year-old cubbies, big enough to be saucy, young enough to be silly; and the baby kittens, just able to forage for theh old bark unpalatable as h platfor

They will presently be high and dry No use trying to escape up-stream

They see that in the first h the shallows

Besides, what's this across the creek? Stakes, not put there by any beaver; for there is no bark on If they only had tih; but no--this wretched enemy, whatever it is, has ditched the ice across

They sniff and listen A terrible sound co The uard above the da, timid fellows--tumble over each other in a panic of fear to escape by way of the floater below the dam But there a new terror assails theure of a

Where to go now? They can't find their bank shelters, for the man has staked them up The little fellows lose their presence of e, and with a blind scra open runway It is a _cul-de-sac_ But what does that matter? They run aloes away Exactly That is what theon He will come to them afterward

The old beaverstrick with an ene them to the blind end, and have escaped only because some other beaver was eaten

The old ones know that water alone is safety