A BRUSH WITH A CARIBOU 



139 



strayed a coarse mass of black matted hair. A mongrel cur kept 

 close behind his heels. 



This man is the type of a class that is now dropping out of exist- 

 ence in Eastern Canada. In the next generation his kind will be 

 known no more for ever ; there will be none to replace him. He 

 emerges from the forest at long intervals for a brief visit to the 

 log cabin where his ' squaw ' rears his dusky brood : stays until his 

 cash and credit are both exhausted at the village bar-room. His 

 hard-won peltry bartered away for Jamaica rum, groceries and car- 

 tridges, he again buries himself in the solitude of the wilderness. 

 At one season he will be found trapping beavers, otters, bears, and 



TYPICAL MICMAC INDIAN TRAPPER AND HUNTER IN BIRCH-BARK CANOES 



HOLIDAY ATTIRE. 



the smaller fur-bearing animals ; at another he will be shooting 

 caribou and moose for the sake of their hides. 



In the village this man is a restless creature quite out of his 

 element. He is not to be judged as one sees him there ; but follow 

 him, as I have done, on the trail of a wounded caribou ; go with 

 him up the rugged hills to surprise an unwary bear ; mark his 

 dilating nostrils and flashing eye when with birch-bark horn he 

 has called up within the reach of your rifle the monarch of the 

 forest the stag moose ; watch the energy, patience and skill that 

 he displays in the construction of his traps and deadfalls ; see the 

 masterful manner in which he guides his frail birch-bark canoe 

 among the seething rapids of the river ; note his knowledge of 



