290 WITH GUN AND GUIDE 



and sevens, until they are needed again. So, while the 

 fire was burning up in the morning, the first thing in 

 order or shall we say " disorder " ? was to heat water 

 with which to wash up and clean the cabin outfit. 



Trappers tell me that the prime necessity in their 

 business is to skin and stretch the hides of the animals 

 taken in the daily catch along the trapping lines. 

 Everything has to give place to this necessary, but 

 disagreeable, portion of the trapper's trade. In Kib- 

 bee's words, he puts it this way : " You see, when 

 I get to cabin at night it may have been a-rainin' all 

 day, or snowin', and my catch would seem to weigh 

 a ton on my back, or in the boat. I gets into the cabin 

 with, say, a half dozen marten, a couple of lynx and 

 maybe three or four beavers. That, of course, would 

 be when the law was a-lettin' of us catch beaver. 



" The longer the catch laid without bein' skinned the 

 harder it would be to get the hides off. So we have no 

 time for washin' dishes or pans or kettles. While the 

 water's a-bilin' I'm a-skinnin' of the pelts as hard as I 

 can." 



So now you will please imagine that in this cabin, 

 ten by twelve in size, you see a bunk large enough for 

 one man, a sheet-iron stove, kettles, pots, pans, tin cups, 

 a few plates, knives and forks, stretchers for skins, a 

 bottle of patent medicine as a " cure-all," scraps of rope, 

 twine, pieces of bags and bagging, a heavy gray blan- 

 ket to lie on, and a piece of sail-cloth to act as a cover 



