92 CANADIAN WILDS. 



paddled slowly along sitting low down in his 

 canoe. The looking at his traps and resetting 

 of them would take him an hour or two, then 

 he would come back to his fire place, throw the 

 rats he had caught in a pile, replenish the fire 

 and stretch out for another smoke. About ten 

 o'clock he would make another visit and on his 

 return make a lasting fire, roll himself in his 

 Hudson's Bay blanket and sleep till morning. 



Often two visits were made in the morning, 

 one just at the screech of day, and the last one 

 after he had had his breakfast. Traps were 

 taken up at this first visit to be set in some 

 other locality that afternoon, and the hunter 

 would paddle away for his lodge, where he 

 would sleep all the forenoon while his wife and 

 children were skinning and stretching the pelts. 

 The next and every night would be spent in the 

 same way until the ice took, and then another 

 mode of sport I wish to describe would take 

 place. 



Ice in one night on these shallow waters was 

 sufficiently strong to support the weight of one 

 man. Armed with a long barbed spear a couple 

 of feet in length, lashed to a stout pole, a bag 

 on his back to put the rats in, and sometimes 

 followed by a boy at a distance, the Indian, with 

 his bright steel skates firmly buckled on, would 

 glide down and in and out these skate lanes 



