54 THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



French trapper appears: the beaded toque for festive 

 occasions, the gay moccasins, the buckskin suit fringed 

 with horse-hair and leather in lieu of the Indian scalp- 

 locks, the white caribou capote with horned head-gear 

 to deceive game on the hunter s approach, the powder- 

 case made of a buffalo-horn, the bullet bag of a young 

 otter-skin, the musk-rat or musquash cap, and great 

 gantlets coming to the elbow. 



None of these things does the English trader do. 

 If he falls a victim to the temptations awaiting the 

 man from the wilderness in the dram-shop of the trad 

 ing-post, he takes good care not to spend his all on 

 the spree. He does not affect the hunter s decoy dress, 

 for the simple reason that he prefers to let the Indians 

 do the hunting of the difficult game, while he attends 

 to the trapping that is gain rather than game. For 

 clothes, he is satisfied with cheap material from the 

 shops. And if, like Pierre, the Englishman marries 

 an Indian wife, he either promptly deserts her when he 

 leaves the fur country for the trading-post or sends 

 her to a convent to be educated up to .his own level. 

 With Pierre the marriage means that he has cast off 

 the last vestige of civilization and henceforth identi 

 fies himself with the life of the savage. 



After the British conquest of Canada and the Amer 

 ican Declaration of Independence came a change in the 

 status of the French trapper. Before, he had been 

 lord of the wilderness without a rival. Now, powerful 

 English companies poured their agents into his hunt 

 ing-grounds. Before, he had been a partner in the 

 fur trade. Now, he must either be pushed out or en 

 list as servant to the newcomer. He who had once 

 come to Montreal and St. Louis with a fortune of pel- 



