KOOT AND THE BOB-CAT 209 



provisions at the fur post, crossed the white wastes of 

 prairie to lonely swamp ground where dwarf alder and 

 willow and cottonwood and poplar and pine grew in a 

 tangle. A few old logs dovetailed into a square made 

 the wall of a cabin. Over these he stretched the can 

 vas of his tepee for a roof at a sharp enough angle 

 to let the heavy snow-fall slide off from its own weight. 

 Moss chinked up the logs. Snow banked out the wind. 

 Pine boughs made the floor, two logs with pine boughs, 

 a bed. An odd-shaped stump served as chair or table ; 

 and on the logs of the inner walls hung wedge-shaped 

 slabs of cedar to stretch the skins. A caribou curtain 

 or bear-skin across the entrance completed Koot s 

 winter quarters for the rabbit-hunt. 



Koot s genealogy was as vague as that of all old 

 trappers hanging round fur posts. Part of him that 

 part which served best when he was on the hunting- 

 field was Ojibway. The other part, which made him 

 improvise logs into chair and table and bed, was white 

 man; and that served him best when he came to bar 

 gain with the chief factor over the pelts. At the fur 

 post he attended the Catholic mission. On the hunt 

 ing-field, when suddenly menaced by some great dan 

 ger, he would cry out in the Indian tongue words that 

 meant &quot; Great Spirit ! &quot; And it is altogether prob 

 able that at the mission and on the hunting-field, Koot 

 was worshipping the same Being. When he swore 

 strange commentary on civilization he always used 

 white man s oaths, French patois or straight English. 



Though old hermits may be found hunting alone 

 through the Rockies, Idaho, Washington, and Minne 

 sota, trappers do not usually go to the wilds alone; but 

 there was so little danger in rabbit-snaring, that Koot 

 15 



