228 THE UPPER YUKON 



ready waiting for the tell-tale tracks in the 

 snow, which shall point out to him each coign 

 of vantage for the placing of a cunning lure. 



"With blanket, bait and bacon on a hand- 

 sled, silently he trudges forward. The north- 

 ern lights come down o' nights and it is cold, 

 but cold makes finer fur. Down far trails in 

 gloomy forests, across the breast of silenced 

 streams, he trudges from trap to trap. If he 

 finds $50 worth of fur along the whole line of 

 traps he is content. It is not this lonely man 

 who gets the high price, madame, for your 

 opera cloak of ermine. 



"When Pierre is not 'making fur' or making 

 love, he is eating. On the trail he may go 

 hungry for two days with no word of com- 

 plaint, just a tightening of the lips and of 

 L'Assumption belt, and a firm set to the jaw 

 but while the moose lasts, life is one long 

 supper. 



"Meat (pronounced throughout the north 

 'mit') is the great staple in the land of fur. 

 On the trail one finds one's self assimilating 

 helpings of 'deer mit,' and greedily gulping 

 chunks of fat; the rations of the trapper would 

 be the despair of Dickens' Miss Todgers, who 

 could never bring the supply of gravy up to 

 the demand. In the old days the H. B. Com- 



