50 



RECREATION 



as they no longer require a dam when 

 they can go out and feed at will. They 

 sleep all day in summer, and in winter 

 they practically pass their whole time n 

 sleep, all the beavers in the lodge nest- 

 ling together for warmth. When they 

 feel hungry they bring some of their 

 food into the lodge, peeling the stick 

 from end to end, and then pushing it 

 out into the deep water. 



In each beaver clan that has not been 

 interfered with, there are in summer 

 three generations of beavers ; the par- 

 ents, the young ones of the previous 

 spring, known to the Hudson Bay trad- 

 ers as "middling beaver," and the fam- 

 ily lodge kittens of the present year. 

 Each autumn the middling beavers 

 leave to set up an establishment of their 

 own. 



The worst foe of the beaver is, of 

 course, the trapper. After him comes 

 the wolverine, and then the otter. Left 

 to themselves, they increase rapidly, but 

 unfortunately, their fur is so valuable 

 that, excepting far from civilization, 

 they have but little chance to multiply 

 and increase. 



The Indian is the best game protector 

 of us all. He realizes fully the import- 



ance, to himself, of a good game sup- 

 ply, and his custom has always been to 

 partition the land controlled by his tribe 

 among the members thereof. In some 

 northwestern tribes the hunting rights 

 belong to the women, and a man only 

 acquires his territory through mar- 

 riage. 



He takes toll of the animals that pro- 

 duce meat and fur, but he is careful not 

 to exterminate them^ unless some white 

 rival appear on the scene. When so 

 minded, the Indian can clean out a ter- 

 ritory very effectively. All that the 

 white men know of trapping they have 

 learned from the Indian, and it is safe 

 to say that the best white man that has 

 ever set a trap is a fool at the work by 

 comparison with the Ojibway, or other 

 northern Indian". I know that many 

 western men will be inclined to question 

 this statement. The Indians they are 

 accustomed to meet are a very degraded 

 set, not by any means good hunters or 

 trappers, but some of the northern tribes 

 (the Iroquois, Ojibways and Stoneys) 

 are perfect masters of the art of hunt- 

 ing and trapping, and are often very in- 

 telligent men, even from our point of 

 view. 



MIGRATION OF CURLEW, PLOVER AND 



SNIPE 



By FRANK FORD 



NTERESTING as 

 are the migrations 

 of all birds, none 

 compare with those 

 of curlew, plover, 

 snipe and shor e 

 birds. Some of the 

 smaller species actu- 

 ally make the surprising journey from 

 the Arctic regions to Patagonia and 



back each year, and yet they are tiny 

 creatures weighing but a few ounces. 

 During the latter part of August and 

 the first two weeks in September, the 

 Labrador coast is alive with migratory 

 species. About the 20th of August the 

 curlew are found in wonderful abund- 

 ance in the neighborhood of Belle Isle 

 straits. Owing to the abundance of 

 cranberries and blueberries just back of 



