104 THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



different enough from the fellows of its kind to be a 

 species by itself. Each day was a fresh page in the book 

 of forest-lore. 



It is in the month of May-goosey-geezee, the jib- 

 ways trout month, corresponding to the late October 

 and early November of the white man, that the trapper 

 sets out through the illimitable stretches of the forest 

 land and waste prairie south of Hudson Bay, between 

 Labrador and the Upper Missouri. 



His birch canoe has been made during the summer. 

 Now, splits and seams, where the bark crinkles at the 

 gunwale, must be filled with rosin and pitch. A light 

 sled, with only runners and cross frame, is made to 

 haul the canoe over still water, where the ice first 

 forms. Sled, provisions, blanket, and fish-net are put 

 in the canoe, not forgetting the most important part 

 of his kit the trapper s tools. Whether he hunts from 

 point to point all winter, travelling light and taking 

 nothing but absolute necessaries, or builds a central 

 lodge, where he leaves full store and radiates out to the 

 hunting-grounds, at least four things must be in his 

 tool-bag : a woodman s axe ; a gimlet to bore holes in 

 his snow-shoe frame ; a crooked knife not the sheathed 

 dagger of fiction, but a blade crooked hook-shape, 

 somewhat like a farrier s knife, at one end to smooth 

 without splintering, as a carpenter s plane ; and a small 

 chisel to use on the snow-shoe frames and wooden con 

 trivances that stretch the pelts. 



If accompanied by a boy, who carries half the pack, 

 the hunter may take more tools; but the old trapper 

 prefers to travel light. Fire-arms, ammunition, a com 

 mon hunting-knife, steel-traps, a cotton-factory tepee, 

 a large sheet of canvas, locally known as tibuckwan, for 



