CHAPTER XXXII. 



A PARD NECESSARY. 



I say for safety, successful hunting, and di- 

 vision of the many necessary labors, when the 

 hunting or trapping day is over, a proper part- 

 ner is necessary. I aui aware many old hunt- 

 ers have passed years quite alone in the solitude 

 of the trackless forests and the valleys of the 

 mountain ranges, but what a life! What risks 

 they have run! Some may have led this life 

 from choice or from greed to possess the whole 

 proceeds of the trapping season ; still it is a life 

 no man should lead. 



Sickness rarely overtakes a trapper; the 

 outdoor life they practice is conducing to good 

 health; continual exercise and fresh air engen- 

 der a good appetite, but there is always the risk 

 of accident, accident in many ways. The guns, 

 the axe, the canoe, breaking through the ice, or 

 even getting caught in one of his own traps ; ir 

 fact by the last mentioned source of danger I 

 have known two men to lose their lives in a 

 most horrible way of torture and agony, and 

 these men were not novices at the business ; one 



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