43 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. CHAP. iv. 



fifty-seven. I came too late in the fall, and the winter was 

 half over before my marten road was finished.' 



' What did you get for your skins ? ' 



' Five dollars apiece.' 



' Tell me how you set to work in the fall of the year, 

 when you have made up your mind to build a line of 

 marten traps, or marten road as you call it ? ' 



Pierre took out his pipe at this question, slowly filled 

 it, went to the fire and put an ember on the tobacco, and 

 after a few puffs he returned to where we were sitting 

 under an oil-cloth to shelter us from the rain, and, re- 

 clining on the ground, began his description as follows : 



' The winter before last I was hunting on the Manicoua- 

 gan, but so many Indians came on the river that I made 

 up my mind to try some other ground. In the fall I 

 brought my wife to the Moisie. I got together some flour 

 and pork, and took my canoe up the river, leaving my 

 wife in a little house I built on the Moisie Bay. I found 

 a spot which we shah 1 pass the day after to-morrow, put up 

 a lodge, made a strong cache for niy flour and pork, to 

 keep them from the carcajou,* and set to work to build 

 my traps. It was already late in the season too late, 

 for the snow was more than a foot deep and the river 

 had taken stroug.f I worked hard, but it was nearly 

 Christmas before all my traps on the line were finished. I set 

 out early in the morning to visit my traps for about eight 

 miles in one direction, and then returned to my lodge. 



* The Wolverine (Gulo Lmats), or Glutton, is styled the Carcajou by 

 the French Canadians. It is found in the northern parts of the Eastern 

 and Western Continents. 



f Frozen across. 



