148 ON THE FEONTIEE. 



without exception illiterate men, totally incapable of writ- 

 ing upon any subject ; and their extreme jealousy in regard 

 to everything connected with what they consider the mys- 

 teries of their vocation has nearly invariably prevented 

 them talking openly on the subject to an uninitiate. 



This I have myself often experienced. I have met 

 with but few trappers following their vocation, but with 

 a great many ex-trappers ; and knowing them, from 

 reliable information, to be such, have not scrupled to 

 broach the subject to them. In every instance, until they 

 had satisfied themselves by cunning examination I too 

 was really and truly a trapper, they would never talk 

 freely to me on the subject. 



It was the highest possible mark of personal regard for 

 our master in the art Captain John Connor to teach us 

 by precept and practice how to trap ; before doing which 

 he impressed upon us it was only for our own pleasure 

 and profit he did so, and that we were to keep our know- 

 ledge from anyone who would make use of it to his 

 people's disadvantage, or impart it to others who might. 

 As regarded the ingredients of the different " beaver medi- 

 cines/* we were to tell them to none. 



In all descripticns of the habits of the beaver that I 

 have met with, mention has been made of their houses, 

 and descriptions given of how they 'were built. Such 

 descriptions have, in the main, tallied with what I have 

 been told by northern trappers ; but although I have 

 trapped a range of wild country extending, in round num- 

 bers, eight hundred miles east and west by four hundred 

 north and south, I have never seen such houses. Differences 



