WILD LIFE IN CANADA 



CHAPTER I 



IN A FRONTIER SETTLEMENT 



THE railroad terminates at the crest of a stiff 

 incline a mile short of the head-waters of Crooked 

 Lake. The rural train, which travels the roughly- 

 laid single line on alternate days, completes the 

 monotonous, uneven journey with a final struggle 

 up-grade, between lines of coniferous forest, and 

 comes to a cautious standstill, emitting deep- 

 throated blasts of rebellious protest, in a narrow 

 clearing at the lower edge of the small frontier 

 town of Big River. 



Straggling, train-tired passengers are told 

 gruffly that this is the End of the Line. 



One enters the settlement that is, one des- 

 cends from the train and traverses the total 

 two hundred yards of main thoroughfare and at 

 once, and thereafter is struck by the conflicting 

 types of men and habitations. 



Here civilisation ends and the wilds begin. 

 So far has engineering and enterprise progressed ; 

 thenceforward lie the untouched lands of the 

 limitless North. Here commingle the old spirit 

 of the untamed wild and the new spirit of civil- 

 isation. There are grim men from the woods 



i 



