THINGS TO AVOID. 131 



Your camp should be half a mile away and 

 to the leaward of the beaver lake. 



In the spring of the year beaver begin to 

 swim early in the afternoon and take to their 

 lodge late in the morning. In the autumn when 

 the nights are long they break water late and 

 are not to be seen after sunrise next morning. 



If you see two beaver at one time swimming 

 and shoot one, leave it floating on the water. 

 The chances are the second one will make a 

 short dive, and you want to be ready with your 

 gun when he comes up. I have often got one 

 with each barrel this way. 



By shooting in the evening and leaving three 

 traps set I have cleaned out a lodge of seven 

 beaver in an evening and a night, from 4 P. M. 

 to 7 A. M. next morning, and this with only a 

 boy of ten years old for a companion. 



The hardest part was in packing them and 

 my canoe out ojer five carrying places. But, 

 oh ! when the bunch was at the post what recom- 

 pense, all those fine, rich furs and the luscious 

 and sustaining meat, with a roasted tail now 

 and again as a side bite. 



Now penning these lines in my last camp in 

 a town of ten thousand inhabitants, how my 

 mind longs for one more season in the bush, but, 

 alas ! I fear it may never be. 



