214 QTJN, ROD, AND SADDLE. 



this moose, shot that caribou, or at length trapped 

 the most troublesome of bears. 



For some days my fly-rod had been indefatigably 

 most successfully at work, furnishing not only my own 

 table, but many of the neighboring families with 

 trout, so that a change of programme was far from 

 unacceptable. One morning as I was deliberating in 

 which direction I would go, my host asked me if I 

 should have any objection to accompany him to lift 

 some traps he had not visited since spring. The trip 

 promised an acquaintance with a new beat, and an 

 insight into what I "was not as yet conversant with 

 in this section of the American continent, viz., the 

 method followed of trapping martens. As the sun 

 was rising over the eastern hills for these primitive 

 people are early risers -we found ourselves about to 

 leave the surveyed road. My friend bore on his back 

 a sack in which to place his long-neglected traps, while 

 I carried my trusty ten-bore double gun, loaded by 

 request with ball in one barrel, and buck-shot in the 

 other. Our route at first was through a dense cedar 

 swamp, exceedingly irregular on the surface, w r hile the 

 undergrowth was so close that it was with difficulty 

 parted ; a thick coating of moss was under foot, so 

 spongy and full of water that if we remained station- 



