A TRAPPER'S WORK. 315 



near the limit of timber growth on the side of 

 the m.oiintain. 



Although a trapper is only actually engaged 

 in trapping from October to May, whilst the 

 fur-bearing animals are in prime coat, yet he 

 has plenty of work to occupy hiR time during 

 the rest of the year. Soon after the ice breaks 

 up in the early summer, the trappers go down 

 on the top of the flood to sell their pelts at 

 Selkirk or Dawson, and lay in a supply of pro- 

 visions and other necessaries for the coming 

 year. Then they start once more, either two 

 together or absolutely alone, on their long slow 

 journey against the stream to their far-away 

 trapping grounds on the upper Pelly or 

 Macmillan Rivers. 



During the summer and early autumn they 

 are kept busy chopping trails through the forest 

 along which they set their traps, and in building 

 and provisioning small log cabins at various 

 places in which they can take refuge during 

 the bitter cold of the winter's nights. 



An energetic trapper will have as much as 

 forty miles of trail, along which his traps are 



