NO LUCK 211 



with excellent bread, pork, and tea sweetened with scrapings 

 from a brick of maple sugar, the only sugar used in these 

 districts. The sap is collected from the maple-trees in the 

 spring in birch-bark pans, afterwards evaporated and the result- 

 ing sugar placed into moulds, in which it becomes hard and 

 brick-like in shape. It is very sweet and cheap, ten cents a 

 pound, and 3,000 cuts into the trees produce 400 pounds of 

 sugar. Monsieur Brissou, the best hunter, it was said, in the 

 district, having agreed to follow my fortunes, we left in our 

 sleighs long before daybreak for the shanty owned by a fishing 

 club some miles distant, and well within the bush. French 

 was now the language spoken, but somehow the Gallic tongue 

 has not the true ring of sport about it. The men talked about 

 "gibier," and the word "gibier" reminded so strongly of the 

 thrushes and small song-birds stalked by the gunner on the 

 vineyards and was so suggestive of blasts from some cor-de- 

 chasse encircling the green-coated and hunting- capped chasseur 

 of la belle France. The men were anxious to bring a consider- 

 able quantity of rope, and when asked who this was intended 

 for, replied that here it was the custom to catch cariboo in 

 nooses arranged in the forest paths and to shoot the poor beasts 

 when struggling half-choked in those ghastly snares ! Needless 

 to say we did not take the rope, but dozens of deer-catching 

 contrivances did we find only wanting a noose to be complete. 



After a very rough drive over bush-roads, with insufficient 

 snow, we arrived at the picturesquely situated shanty built close 

 to a small lake, surrounded by dense fir and cedar woods. 

 Occupied every season by the members of a fishing trout 

 club, our future home was in excellent repair and proved very 

 comfortable indeed. In it we found four bunks and a useful 

 cooking stove; we borrowed, without asking the owner's per- 

 mission, various cooking, drinking and eating utensils, and with 

 bedding unpacked and placed in the cots, fire lit and bacon 

 frizzling in the pan, felt very soon thoroughly at home. As in 

 all such shanties, a bag of tea, another of flour, a box of 

 matches, and in this case a pack of cards also, hung from a 

 beam. Should a supplyless wanderer belated or lost in the 

 woods strike the hut, he would at once be able to make a fire, 

 tea and bread, and, if not alone, to finish up with a game of 

 cards. 



