THE INDIAN TRAPPER 211 



The rifle, which he got in trade from the fur post, is over his 

 shoulder, or swinging lightly in one hand. A hunter's knife and 

 short-handled woodman's axe hang through the beaded scarf, 

 belting in his loose, caribou capote. Powder-horn and heavy 

 muskrat gauntlets are attached to the cord about his neck; so with- 

 out losing either he can fight bare-handed, free and in motion, at 

 a moment's notice. And somewhere, in side pockets or hanging 

 down his back, is his skipertogan — a skin bag with amulet against 

 evil, matches, touchwood, and a scrap of pemmican. As he grows 

 hot, he throws back his hood, running bareheaded and loose about 

 the chest. 



Each breath clouds to frost against his face till hair and brows 

 and lashes are fringed with frozen moisture. The white man 

 would hugger his face up with scarf and collar the more for this ; 

 but the Indian knows better. Suddenly chilled breath would 

 soak scarf and collar wet to his skin ; and his face would be frozen 

 before he could go five paces. But with dry skin and quickened 

 blood, he can defy the keenest cold ; so he loosens his coat and 

 runs the faster. 



As the light grows, dim forms shape themselves in the gray 

 haze. Pine groves emerge from the dark, wreathed and festooned 

 in snow. Cones and domes and cornices of snow heap the under- 

 brush and spreading larch boughs. Evergreens are edged with 

 white. Naked trees stand like limned statuary with an antlered 

 crest etched against the white glare. The snow stretches away 

 in a sea of billowed, white drifts that seem to heave and fall to the 

 motions of the runner, mounting and coasting and skimming over 

 the unbroken waste like a bird winging the ocean. And against 

 this endless stretch of drifts billowing away to a boundless circle, 

 of which the man is the centre, his form is dwarfed out of all pro- 

 portion, till he looks no larger than a bird above the sea. 



When the sun rises, strange color effects are caused by the 

 frost haze. Every shrub takes fire ; for the ice drops are a prism, 

 and the result is the same as if there had been a star shower or 



