292 The King of the Thundering Herd 



Hudson's Bay Company. With diabolical 

 cunning he will spring their traps and eat 

 the bait, or will raid their camps and des- 

 troy all that he cannot cache where he can 

 find it again. 



Only to the Hudson's Bay Company is 

 this land of the barren and the muskeg 

 valuable. To them it is an Eldorado, for 

 it is the home of the fur folk. 



If you were to find it upon the map, 

 your finger would have to follow a long 

 chain of lakes and rivers far to the north 

 and there you would discover the name 

 Athabasca. This then is the Land of the 

 Muskeg. 



It is a warm spring twilight in the Atha- 

 basca, for spring does come at last even in 

 that far north country. The breath of the 

 wind is sweet with spring odors, most pun- 

 gent of which is the water willow. Marsh- 

 birds are shrilling in the tamaracks, while 

 an occasional seed-eater is balancing upon 



