308 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



or jumper. A jumper is a low, short, strong sleigh set upon 

 heavy wooden runners and hauled by ox, horse, men, or dogs. 

 The freight load per dog — as you know — is a hundred pounds; 

 per man, one to two hundred pounds; per horse, four to six hun- 

 dred pounds; and per ox, five to seven hundred pounds. In 

 summer there were the canoe, York boat, sturgeon-head scow, 

 and Red River cart brigades. A six-fathom canoe carries from 

 twenty to thirty packages ; a York boat, seventy-five packages ; 

 a Sturgeon-head scow, one hundred packages ; and a Red River 

 cart, six hundred pounds. The carts were made entirely of 

 wood and leather and were hauled by horse or ox. With every 

 brigade went the wife of one of the voyageurs to attend to the 

 mending of the voyageurs' clothing and to look after the com- 

 fort of the officer in charge. But the voyageurs always had to 

 do their own cooking and washing. 



" In the old days, too, much of their food had to be procured 

 from the country through which they travelled and therefore 

 they relied upon buffalo, moose, wapiti, deer, bear, beaver, 

 rabbit, fish, and water-fowl to keep them in plenty." 



Then for a while the Factors sat smoking in silence. The 

 moon had mounted higher and was now out of sight behind the 

 tops of the neighbouring trees, but its reflection was brilliantly 

 rippled upon the water. At one of the fires a French half- 

 breed was singing in a rich barytone one of the old chansons that 

 were so much in vogue among the voyageurs of by-gone days — 

 A la Claire Fontaine. After an encore, silence again held 

 sway, imtil around another fire hearty laughter began to play. 



"The boys over there must be yarning again," remarked, the 

 Chief Factor, as he pointed with his pipe, " let's go over, and listen 

 awhile." 



BILLY BRASS TELLS ANOTHER STORY 



It was Oo-koo-hoo's fire and among his men was seated that 

 ever-welcome member of another crew — Old Billy Brass. 



