60 ON THE GREAT CHURCHILL RIVER 



guisedly delighted to see us, and told us we were 

 the only whites he had seen since the Fall of the 

 previous year, when he had been out to Prince 

 Albert. He begged us to camp the night near 

 him, and this we did, sharing with him as real 

 a European meal as scant stores could furnish, 

 much to his satisfaction and gratitude. 



The boom in black fox farming was at its height 

 in 1913 and 1914, and every good fox that could 

 be trapped alive in the wilderness was being caged 

 and sent east to Prince Edward Island for breed- 

 ing purposes. Like every other white trapper 

 in the Dominion of Canada, Hans Madson was 

 " fox crazy " : smitten with the mad desire for 

 great riches, as men are swept off a sane balance 

 who join in a great gold rush. He was obsessed 

 with the thought of digging out dens of priceless 

 black and silver cubs, or the offspring of black or 

 cross parents. Now, however, the cub season was 

 over, and his chance of success, for the time, was 

 gone. He had had no great luck — a few reds and 

 cross foxes he had taken — but, undaunted, still 

 he talked of the rare animals he had seen on 

 frozen lakes and in snowed-up forest, and of 

 others his Indian friends had reported ; and he 

 dreamed with true optimistic sporting keenness 

 of the possibilities of success when the next early 

 spring should, approach. 



June 10. — In the early morning we bade a good- 

 bye to Hans Madson, who looked on with melan- 

 choly visage at our departure : God knew when 

 next he would see a white man ! Not likely 

 another to pass his way this summer, nor any 

 summer, for he had pitched bis camp off the route 



