THE INDIAN TRAPPER 213 



Columbus opened the doors of the New World to the hordes of 

 the Old ; and here Indian trappers will hunt as long as the race 

 lasts. When there is no more game, the Indian's doom is sealed ; 

 but that day is never for the Hudson Bay region. 



The Indian trapper has set few large traps. It is midwinter; 

 and by December there is a curious lull in the hunting. All the 

 streams are frozen like rock ; but the otter and pekan and mink 

 and marten have not yet begun to forage at random across open 

 field. Some foolish fish always dilly-dally upstream till the ice 

 shuts them in. Then a strange thing is seen — a kettle of living 

 fish ; fish gasping and panting in ice-hemmed water that is gradually 

 lessening as each day's frost freezes another layer to the ice walls 

 of their prison. The banks of such a pond hole are haunted by 

 the otter and his fisher friends. By-and-bye, when the pond is 

 exhausted, these lazy fishers must leave their safe bank and forage 

 across country. Meanwhile, they are quiet. 



The bear, too, is still. After much wandering and fastidious 

 choosing — for in trapper vernacular the bear takes a long time 

 to please himself — bruin found an upturned stump. Into the 

 hollow below he clawed grasses. Then he curled up with his nose 

 on his toes and went to sleep under a snow blanket of gathering 

 depth. Deer, moose, and caribou, too, have gone off" to their 

 feeding-grounds. Unless they are scattered by a wolf-pack or a 

 hunter's gun, they will not be likely to move till this ground is 

 eaten over. Nor are many beaver seen now. They have long 

 since snuggled into their warm houses, where they will stay till 

 their winter store is all used ; and their houses are now hidden 

 under great depths of deepening snow. But the fox and the hare 

 and the ermine are at run ; and as long as they are astir, so are 

 their rampant enemies, the lynx and the wolverine and the wolf- 

 pack, all ravenous from the scarcity of other game and greedy as 

 spring crows. 



That thought gives wings to the Indian trapper's heels. The 



