A BRUSH WITH A CARIBOU 139 



strayed a coarse mass of black matted hair. A mongrel cur kept 

 behind his heels. 



This man is the type of a class that is now dropping out of exist- 

 ence in Eastern Canada. In the next generation his kind will be 

 known no more for ever ; there will be none to replace him. He 

 emerges from the forest at long intervals for a brief visit to the 

 log cabin where his ' squaw ' rears his dusky brood : stays until his 

 cash and credit are both exhausted at the village bar-room. His 

 hard-won peltry bartered away for Jamaica rum, groceries and car- 

 tridges, he again buries himself in the solitude of the wilderness. 

 At one season he will be found trapping beavers, otters, bears, and 



TYPICAL MICMAC INDIAN TRAPPER AND HUNTER IN BIRCH HARK CANOES- 

 HOLIDAY ATTIRE. 



the smaller fur-bearing animals ; at another he will be shooting 

 caribou and moose for the sake of their hides. 



In the village this man is a restless creature quite out of his 

 element. He is not to be judged as one sees him there ; but follow 

 him, as I have done, on the trail of a wounded caribou ; go with 

 him up the rugged hills to surprise an unwary bear ; mark his 

 diluting nostrils and flashing eye when with birch-bark horn he 

 has called up within the reach of your rifle the monarch of the 

 forest the stag moose ; watch the energy, patience and skill that 

 he displays in the construction of his traps and deadfalls ; see the 

 masterful manner in which he guides his frail birch-bark canoe 

 among the seething rnnids of the rivpr note his knowledge of 



