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 



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