44 ACCESSIBLE FIELD SPORTS. 



The fabulous value that a prime black- fox skin is 

 worth causes him to be universally sought after ; the 

 tawny redskin or the swarthy half-bred hunter when 

 he discovers the haunt of one of these beauties, never 

 ceases day or night to ponder over schemes for his 

 capture ; the martin and mink traps are for a time 

 neglected, and every artifice, every trick and ingenuity 

 that ever entered trapper's brain, is at once put into 

 practice. Nor is this fox less wary than his confreres, 

 but quite the reverse ; and I believe, not without truth, 

 there is no animal more difficult to circumvent. Often 

 of an evening I have listened to the broken English of 

 the snake- eyed aborigines, or the curious patois of the 

 Canadian habitant, recapitulating how they all but 

 succeeded on such an occasion, or were rewarded with 

 success upon another. By the bright glow of a log 

 fire, illuminating the unhewn log walls, rough chink- 

 ing and shingle roof of a frontier cabin, the cold and 

 bitter night being made doubly severe by the howling 

 blast that impetuously rushes with angry noise through 

 the disturbed trees, these narratives of perseverance 

 and hardship form a pleasant way of passing the 

 long wintry night. The cup goes round, the pipe is 

 smoked, and the company, although illiterate and 

 unpolished, possess one great quality sincerity. If 

 they quaff your health or shake your hand, it is not an 



