THE LIFE OF THE TRAPPER 303 



anywhere from fifty dollars to two hundred dollars 

 (and sells at the fur sales as high as two thousand two 

 hundred), but then, few of them are caught. An 

 average trip along the line of traps would bring 

 in from thirty to forty dollars, and most of these 

 would be in mink skins. No trap would be used 

 except during the trapping season, which lasts from 

 September or October till March or April, when 

 Joe returns to the settlement to dispose of his supply 

 of pelts and buy provisions. The pelts are either 

 sold or exchanged at the general store, or they are 

 sold to the travelling fur-buyers, who visit all parts 

 of the country, even in the most remote settle- 

 ments, where they can pick up odd skins at low 

 prices. The season ended, he goes to his farm if 

 he has one, or perhaps he remains in the woods act- 

 ing as guide to the stray sportsmen who happen to 

 visit the district. A good trapper is usually a 

 good guide, for he is thoroughly at home in the 

 woods and knows much about the habits of animals. 

 Owing to the increased demand for furs and the 

 absurd demands of fashion which require that fur 

 garments be of different shape and style each year, 

 the fur-bearing animals in their wild state are yearly 

 becoming scarcer. So it is safe to conjecture 

 that fur farms will in the future supply the markets 

 and the trapper will be a man of the past, and 

 those who come after us will then read of his life, 

 and it will read like a fairy tale. As the large birch- 

 bark canoe, laden to the gunwale with furs, is pass- 

 ing down the quick-flowing river of time and 

 civilisation, so, too, will the picturesque trapper 

 slowly glide out of existence. 



