32 MY RETURN FROM SCHOOL 



fishing stations which he had leased. At that 

 date there was nothing else to be done on the 

 coast, as it was called (which meant all the North 

 Shore of the St. Lawrence from Tadousac to 

 Belle Isle), but trading, hunting and fishing. Of 

 the first the H. B. Co. had tne monopoly, and no 

 one had ever succeeded in offering them any se- 

 rious opposition, the attempt generally ending 

 in loss to all who made it. Hunting and fishing 

 paid well in some years, but there was a great 

 deal of uncertainty about it. Shortly after my 

 return home I was given to understand all this by 

 my father. He advised me that he could not 

 afford to send me back to school, that if I chose 

 to work I could stay at home and help in the fish- 

 ing and in the winter go out trapping. If not I 

 had better return to Quebec or Three Rivers and 

 try to find some work there that would suit me. 

 It was a serious proposition for a boy of thir- 

 teen, who knew little or nothing of city life, be- 

 yond what I had seen while at school. I elected 

 to stay and try trapping, which I followed after- 

 wards for fifteen years as a professional. Pre- 

 vious to this I had never worked, more than for 

 my amusement, or sometimes helping in the store 

 at Mingan during trading times, and that was 

 an easy job, my principal work being to measure 

 out Jamaica rum, huge puncheons of which were 

 sold to the crews of sealing schooners when they 

 returned from their trips. For a couple of years 



