194 



THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



But alas for the resemblance between ice and steel! 

 Ice turns to water under the warm tongue; steel turns 

 to fire that blisters and holds the foolish little stoat by 

 his inquisitive tongue a hopeless prisoner till the trapper 

 comes. And lest marauding wolverine or lynx should 

 come first and gobble up priceless ermine, the trapper 

 comes soon. And that is the end for the ermine. 



Before settlers invaded the valley of the Saskatche 

 wan the furs taken at a leading fort would amount to : 



Bear of all varieties . . . 400 



Ermine, medium 200 



Blue fox 4 



Red fox 91 



Silver fox 3 



Marten 2,000 



Musk-rat 200,000 



Mink 8,000 



Otter. . . 500 



Skunk 6 



Wolf 100 



Beaver 5,000 



Pekan (fisher) 50 



Cross fox 30 



White fox 400 



Lynx 400 



Wolverine . . 200 



The value of these furs in &quot; beaver &quot; currency varied 

 with the fashions of the civilized world, with the scarci 

 ty or plenty of the furs, with the locality of the fort. 

 Before beaver became so scarce, 100 beaver equalled 40 

 marten or 10 otter or 300 musk-rat; 25 beaver equalled 

 500 rabbit; 1 beaver equalled 2 white fox; and so on 

 down the scale. But no set table of values can be given 

 other than the prices realized at the annual sale of 

 Hudson s Bay furs, held publicly in London. 



To understand the values of these furs to the In 

 dian, &quot; beaver &quot; currency must be compared to merchan 

 dise, one beaver buying such a red handkerchief as 

 trappers wear around their brows to notify other hunt 

 ers not to shoot; one beaver buys a hunting-knife, two 

 an axe, from eight to twenty a gun or rifle, according 



