AMONG THE MOOSE, CARIBOU, BEAR AND BEAVER. 
By J. Mowar. 
Two young men, Fred and Joe, born and 
brought up in our northern woods in the prime 
of life and knowing as much of the nature and 
habits of the game roaming in them as any of 
the best of our Indian hunters, not finding 
berths to suit them in the lumber woods, deter- 
mined on a fall hunt on a branch of the Resti- 
gouche River called the Patapedia. One night 
last month I got hold of Fred and drew from 
him the incidents of their hunt. I may pre- 
mise that Fred has hunted from boyhood by 
spells and with his repeating Winchester is 
sure on the bull’s eye nine times out of ten at 
a couple of hundred yards. Joe is not so good 
a marksman, but has also killed both bear and 
moose. 
About the latter end of September the boys 
procured a couple of dugouts (a canoe made of 
a single pine tree), also an old horse, which his 
owner did not care to winter, for a $20 bill. 
They loaded up with a couple of barrels of 
flour, a barrel of steel traps and other neces- 
sary etceteras, one riding the horse, the other 
steering the canoes fora point some sixty miles 
above the settlements. They got up safely on 
the 5th of October, and their first move was to 
lead the old horse who had done them so much 
service five hundred yards from their intended 
camp, and as Fred said he “felt sore to do it,” 
shot him. Next in order was to get up a 
home camp or hut and make it secure against 
invasion in their absence. The next two days 
were spent above and below their camp in one 
of the dugouts setting steel traps for water fur, 
but water fur signs were not equal to expecta- 
tion and the ice was commencing to form on 
the still places and old beaver ponds. On 
passing the poor old horse on their way home 
signs were visible that some animal had been 
. paying it attention, and closer examination 
showed that Mr. Bruin had been around. Joe 
at once wanted a steel set but Fred said : 
‘No; the longer we let him live so much 
the better will be the skin. We are sure of him 
if we want him.” 
That night a few Johnny-cakes were cooked 
(flour, cold water and soda baked hard) in 
preparation for a four days’ tramp to set up a 
martin line. In early fall these traps, made of 
wood on the dead fall principle, are set on the 
ground ; later when snow commences they are 
in a hollow stub, or a tree is felled and the trap 
set on the stump. From sixteen to twenty 
traps is a fair day’s work for a hunter, particu- 
larly if he has to clear the line or even to spot 
or blaze the trees along it. As the boys ex- 
pected snow every day, and, as they intended to 
hunt in March and April, they set up their 
traps on stumps, cutting a proper sized tree 
down tor the purpose. It was necessary for 
Joe to go to the dead horse in the morning to 
fill the bait bag and also to get sufficient for a 
“drag.” The latter is a piece of meat or game 
of some sort which the hunter drags behind 
him on the line of traps to attract the attention 
of game crossing the line, and it, of course, in- 
duces them to follow until they come to the 
first trap. Should the fisher (wild or black cat 
as he is sometimes called) strike a marten line, 
and he is always on the cruise, he makes short 
work of the wooden marten traps. Generally 
every tenth trap is set purposely for him, but 
he will seldom get caught, and if so constructed 
that he cannot tear it to pieces he will shy off 
from it. A steel trap is the only remedy, and 
even then it must be so set with a heavy spring 
pole as to lift the fisher clear of the ground ; if 
not you will get his foot for your pains, and I 
have known instances of their cutting the end 
of a birch spring pole four inches in diameter 
and getting away with the trap. Instances are 
also known of their being caught with only one 
foot remaining. In size they vary, butare gen- 
erally from three to four times the size of the 
marten, of which they seem to be fond and no 
doubt catch them. Every marten they come 
to which may be trapped on a line they tear to 
shreds and will follow the line from end to end, 
and if the hunter cannot trap him he has to 
quit that part of the forest. 
Let us follow Joe. When he sighted the old 
horse he also sighted Master Bruin at his 
