THE GREATEST FUR COMPANY OP THE WORLD 191 



a dozen silver. Few wolf-skins are in the trapper s 

 pack unless particularly fine specimens of brown arctic 

 and white arctic, bought as a curiosity and not for 

 value as skins. Against the wolf\ the trapper wages 

 war as against a pest that destroys other game, and not 

 for its skin. Next to musk-rat the most plentiful fur 

 taken by the Indian, though not highly esteemed by the 

 trader, will be that of the rabbit or varying hare. Buf 

 falo was once the staple of the hunter. What the buf 

 falo was the white rabbit is to-day. From it the In 

 dian gets clothing, tepee covers, blankets, thongs, food. 

 From it the white man who is a manufacturer of furs 

 gets gray fox and chinchilla and seal in imitation. Ex 

 cept one year in seven, when a rabbit plague spares the 

 land by cutting down their prolific numbers, the vary 

 ing hare is plentiful enough to sustain the Indian. 



Having received so many bits of lead for his furs, 

 the Indian goes to the store counter where begins inter 

 minable dickering. Montagnais s squaw has only fifty 

 &quot; beaver &quot; coin, and her desires are a hundredfold what 

 those will buy. Besides, the copper-skinned lady enjoys 

 beating down prices and driving a bargain so well that 

 she would think the clerk a cheat if he asked a 

 fixed price from the first. She expects him to have a 

 sliding scale of prices for his goods as she has for her 

 furs. At the termination of each bargain, so many 

 coins pass across the counter. Frequently an Indian 

 presents himself at the counter without beaver enough 

 to buy necessaries. What then? I doubt if in all the 

 years of Hudson s Bay Company rule one needy In 

 dian has ever been turned away. The trader advances 

 what the Indian needs and chalks up so many &quot; beaver &quot; 

 against the trapper s next hunt. 



