THE BE AVER. 367 



bundle on his back, and containing a small tin kettle, 

 20 Ibs. or 30 Ibs. of flour, 1 Ib. of powder, half-a-dozen 

 pounds of shot, a few bullets, a tin pint, a pair of socks, two 

 steel traps, 1 Ib. of tea, and a beaver castor, he made tracks 

 for the woods with the prospect of a great hunt before 

 him. His small stores had been procured on " tick " 

 from the trader of his district, with the understanding that 

 this worthy was to have first refusal of the furs he might 

 bring back. Sometimes two men go beaver hunting f 

 together, taking their traps, &c., in their canoe. When 

 the trapper comes to a stream, he follows it up or 

 down, as the case may be, and in the course of a few yards, 

 or a few hundred yards at most, he has read it like a book. 

 A stick half submerged in the water has told him what he 

 wanted to know. He has seen a hundred other boughs 

 and branches of all sizes and shapes, but his practised eye 

 has detected on this particular one the "sign" he delights 

 in. It is, perchance, an alder branch, cut as if with a 

 knife ; he can tell at a glance the month, if not the day, it 

 was cut, and the age of the beaver that cut it, i. e. whether 

 full grown, year old, or baby. As he goes on the " sign " 

 increases felled trees, logs, stumps, roads, old dams, and 

 camps ; these he passes by with but little notice. Hard 

 work as it is carrying a pack through the woods, it is 

 doubly so fighting one's way through the thicket that in- 

 variably lines the banks of a stream. But if the angler 

 will flog the waters all day long without getting a rise, 

 because he thinks there ought to be a fresh fish in the 

 river, how much more fatigue will the trapper undergo 

 who knows there are beaver on the brook ! By-and-by our 

 friend is rewarded by seeing " fresh sign," i. e. a stick or 



