The Young Fur Traders

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True, it could only hold two men (it _might_ have taken three at a
pinch), because men, and women too, are awkward, unyielding baggage,
very difficult to stow compactly; but it is otherwise with tractable
goods. The canoe is exceedingly thin, so that no space is taken up or
rendered useless by its own structure, and there is no end to the
amount of blankets, and furs, and coats, and paddles, and tent-
covers, and dogs, and babies, that can be stowed away in its
capacious interior. The canoe of which we are now writing contained
two persons, whose active figures were thrown alternately into every
graceful attitude of manly vigour, as with poles in hand they
struggled to force their light craft against the boiling stream. One
was a man apparently of about forty-five years of age. He was a
square-shouldered, muscular man, and from the ruggedness of his
general appearance, the soiled hunting-shirt that was strapped round
his waist with a party-coloured worsted belt, the leather leggings, a
good deal the worse for wear, together with the quiet, self-possessed
glance of his gray eye, the compressed lip and the sunburned brow, it
was evident that he was a hunter, and one who had seen rough work in
his day. The expression of his face was pleasing, despite a look of
habitual severity which sat upon it, and a deep scar which traversed
his brow from the right temple to the top of his nose. It was
difficult to tell to what country he belonged. His father was a
Canadian, his mother a Scotchwoman. He was born in Canada, brought up
in one of the Yankee settlements on the Missouri, and had, from a
mere youth, spent his life as a hunter in the wilderness. He could
speak English, French, or Indian with equal ease and fluency, but it
would have been hard for anyone to say which of the three was his
native tongue. The younger man, who occupied the stern of the canoe,
acting the part of steersman, was quite a youth, apparently about
seventeen, but tall and stout beyond his years, and deeply sunburned.
Indeed, were it not for this fact, the unusual quantity of hair that
hung in massive curls down his neck, and the voyageur costume, we
should have recognised our young friend Charley Kennedy again more
easily. Had any doubts remained in our mind, the shout of his merry
voice would have scattered them at once.

"Hold hard, Jacques," he cried, as the canoe trembled in the current,
"one moment, till I get my pole fixed behind this rock. Now, then,
shove ahead. Ah!" he exclaimed with chagrin, as the pole slipped on
the treacherous bottom and the canoe whirled round.

"Mind the rock," cried the bowsman, giving an energetic thrust with
his pole, that sent the light bark into an eddy formed by a large
rock which rose above the turbulent waters. Here it rested while
Jacques and Charley raised themselves on their knees (travellers in
small canoes always sit in a kneeling position) to survey the rapid.

"It's too much for us, I fear, Mr. Charles," said Jacques, shading
his brow with his horny hand. "I've paddled up it many a time alone,
but never saw the water so big as now."

"Humph! we shall have to make a portage then, I presume. Could we not
give it one trial more? I think we might make a dash for the tail of
that eddy, and then the stream above seems not quite so strong. Do
you think so, Jacques?"

Jacques was not the man to check a daring young spirit. His motto
through life had ever been, "Never venture, never win"--a sentiment
which his intercourse among fur-traders had taught him to embody in
the pithy expression, "Never say die;" so that, although quite
satisfied that the thing was impossible, he merely replied to his
companion's speech by an assenting "Ho," and pushed out again into
the stream. An energetic effort enabled them to gain the tail of the
eddy spoken of, when Charley's pole snapped across, and, falling
heavily on the gunwale, he would have upset the little craft had not
Jacques, whose wits were habitually on the _qui vive_, thrown his own
weight at the same moment on the opposite side, and counterbalanced
Charley's slip. The action saved them a ducking; but the canoe, being
left to its own devices for an instant, whirled off again into the
stream, and before Charley could seize a paddle to prevent it, they
were floating in the still water at the foot of the rapids.

"Now isn't that a bore?" said Charley, with a comical look of
disappointment at his companion.

Jacques laughed.

"It was well to _try_, master. I mind a young clerk who came into
these parts the same year as I did, and _he_ seldom _tried_ anything.
He couldn't abide canoes. He didn't want for courage neither; but he
had a nat'ral dislike to them, I suppose, that he couldn't help, and
never entered one except when he was obliged to do so. Well, one day
he wounded a grizzly bear on the banks o' the Saskatchewan (mind the
tail o' that rapid, Mr. Charles; we'll land t'other side o' yon
rock). Well, the bear made after him, and he cut stick right away for
the river, where there was a canoe hauled up on the bank. He didn't
take time to put his rifle aboard, but dropped it on the gravel,
crammed the canoe into the water and jumped in, almost driving his
feet through its bottom as he did so, and then plumped down so
suddenly, to prevent its capsizing, that he split it right across. By
this time the bear was at his heels, and took the water like a duck.
The poor clerk, in his hurry, swayed from side to side tryin' to
prevent the canoe goin' over. But when he went to one side, he was so
unused to it that he went too far, and had to jerk over to the other
pretty sharp; and so he got worse and worse, until he heard the bear
give a great snort beside him. Then he grabbed the paddle in
desperation, but at the first dash he missed his stroke, and over he
went. The current was pretty strong at the place, which was lucky for
him, for it kept him down a bit, so that the bear didn't observe him
for a little; and while it was pokin' away at the canoe, he was
carried down stream like a log and stranded on a shallow. Jumping up
he made tracks for the wood, and the bear (which had found out its
mistake), after him; so he was obliged at last to take to a tree,
where the beast watched him for a day and a night, till his friends,
thinking that something must be wrong, sent out to look for him.
(Steady, now, Mr. Charles; a little more to the right. That's it.)
Now, if that young man had only ventured boldly into small canoes
when he got the chance, he might have laughed at the grizzly and
killed him too."

As Jacques finished, the canoe glided into a quiet bay formed by an
eddy of the rapid, where the still water was overhung with dense
foliage.

"Is the portage a long one?" asked Charley, as he stepped out on the
bank, and helped to unload the canoe.

"About half-a-mile," replied his companion. "We might make it shorter
by poling up the last rapid; but it's stiff work, Mr. Charles, and
we'll do the thing quicker and easier at one lift."

The two travellers now proceeded to make a portage. They prepared to
carry their canoe and baggage overland, so as to avoid a succession
of rapids and waterfalls which intercepted their further progress.

"Now, Jacques, up with it," said Charley, after the loading had been
taken out and placed on the grassy bank.

The hunter stooped, and seizing the canoe by its centre bar, lifted
it out of the water, placed it on his shoulders, and walked off with
it into the woods. This was not accomplished by the man's superior
strength. Charley could have done it quite as well; and, indeed, the
strong hunter could have carried a canoe twice the size with perfect
ease. Immediately afterwards Charley followed with as much of the
lading as he could carry, leaving enough on the bank to form another
load.

The banks of the river were steep--in some places so much so that
Jacques found it a matter of no small difficulty to climb over the
broken rocks with the unwieldy canoe on his back; the more so that
the branches interlaced overhead so thickly as to present a strong
barrier, through which the canoe had to be forced, at the risk of
damaging its delicate bark covering. On reaching the comparatively
level land above, however, there was more open space, and the hunter
threaded his way among the tree stems more rapidly, making a detour
occasionally to avoid a swamp or piece of broken ground; sometimes
descending a deep gorge formed by a small tributary of the stream
they were ascending, and which to an unpractised eye would have
appeared almost impassable, even without the encumbrance of a canoe.
But the said canoe never bore Jacques more gallantly or safely over
the surges of lake or stream than did he bear _it_ through the
intricate mazes of the forest; now diving down and disappearing
altogether in the umbrageous foliage of a dell; anon reappearing on
the other side and scrambling up the bank on all-fours, he and the
canoe together looking like some frightful yellow reptile of
antediluvian proportions; and then speeding rapidly forward over a
level plain until he reached a sheet of still water above the rapids.
Here he deposited his burden on the grass, and halting only for a few
seconds to carry a few drops of the clear water to his lips, retraced
his steps to bring over the remainder of the baggage. Soon afterwards
Charley made his appearance on the spot where the canoe was left, and
throwing down his load, seated himself on it and surveyed the
prospect. Before him lay a reach of the stream which spread out so
widely as to resemble a small lake, in whose clear, still bosom were
reflected the overhanging foliage of graceful willows, and here and
there the bright stem of a silver birch, whose light-green leaves
contrasted well with scattered groups and solitary specimens of the
spruce fir. Reeds and sedges grew in the water along the banks,
rendering the junction of the land and the stream uncertain and
confused. All this and a great deal more Charley noted at a glance;
for the hundreds of beautiful and interesting objects in nature which
take so long to describe even partially, and are feebly set forth
after all even by the most graphic language, flash upon the eye in
all their force and beauty, and are drunk in at once in a single
glance.

But Charley noted several objects floating on the water which we have
not yet mentioned. These were five gray geese feeding among the rocks
at a considerable distance off, and all unconscious of the presence
of a human foe in their remote domains. The travellers had trusted
very much to their guns and nets for food, having only a small
quantity of pemmican in reserve, lest these should fail--an event
which was not at all likely, as the country through which they passed
was teeming with wild-fowl of all kinds, besides deer. These latter,
however, were only shot when they came inadvertently within rifle
range, as our voyageurs had a definite object in view, and could not
afford to devote much of their time to the chase.

During the day previous to that on which we have introduced them to
our readers, Charley and his companion had been so much occupied in
navigating their frail bark among a succession of rapids, that they
had not attended to the replenishing of their larder, so that the
geese which now showed themselves were looked upon by Charley with a
longing eye. Unfortunately they were feeding on the opposite side of
the river, and out of shot. But Charley was a hunter now, and knew
how to overcome slight difficulties. He first cut down a pretty large
and leafy branch of a tree, and placed it in the bow of the canoe in
such a way as to hang down before it and form a perfect screen,
through the interstices of which he could see the geese, while they
could only see, what was to them no novelty, the branch of a tree
floating down the stream. Having gently launched the canoe, Charley
was soon close to the unsuspecting birds, from among which he
selected one that appeared to be unusually complacent and self-
satisfied, concluding at once, with an amount of wisdom that bespoke
him a true philosopher, that such _must_ as a matter of course be the
fattest.

"Bang" went the gun, and immediately the sleek goose turned round
upon its back and stretched out its feet towards the sky, waving them
once or twice as if bidding adieu to its friends. The others
thereupon took to flight, with such a deal of sputter and noise as
made it quite apparent that their astonishment was unfeigned. Bang
went the gun again, and down fell a second goose.

"Ha!" exclaimed Jacques, throwing down the remainder of the cargo as
Charley landed with his booty, "that's well. I was just thinking as I
comed across that we should have to take to pemmican to-night."

"Well, Jacques, and if we had, I'm sure an old hunter like you, who
have roughed it so often, need not complain," said Charley, smiling.

"As to that, master," replied Jacques, "I've roughed it often enough;
and when it does come to a clear fix, I can eat my shoes without
grumblin' as well as any man. But, you see, fresh meat is better than
dried meat when it's to be had; and so I'm glad to see that you've
been lucky, Mr. Charles."

"To say truth, so am I; and these fellows are delightfully plump. But
you spoke of eating your shoes, Jacques. When were you reduced to
that direful extremity?"

Jacques finished reloading the canoe while they conversed, and the
two were seated in their places, and quietly but swiftly ascending
the stream again, ere the hunter replied.

"You've heerd of Sir John Franklin, I s'pose?" he inquired, after a
minute's consideration.

"Yes, often."

"An' p'r'aps you've heerd tell of his first trip of discovery along
the shores of the Polar Sea?"

"Do you refer to the time when he was nearly starved to death, and
when poor Hood was shot by the Indian?"

"The same," said Jacques.

"Oh, yes; I know all about that. Were you with them?" inquired
Charley, in great surprise.

"Why, no--not exactly _on_ the trip; but I was sent in winter with
provisions to them--and much need they had of them, poor fellows! I
found them tearing away at some old parchment skins that had lain
under the snow all winter, and that an Injin's dog would ha' turned
up his nose at--and they don't turn up their snouts at many things, I
can tell ye. Well, after we had left all our provisions with them, we
started for the fort again, just keepin' as much as would drive off
starvation; for, you see, we thought that surely we would git
something on the road. But neither hoof nor feather did we see all
the way (I was travellin' with an Injin), and our grub was soon done,
though we saved it up, and only took a mouthful or two the last three
days. At last it was done, and we was pretty well used up, and the
fort two days ahead of us. So says I to my comrade--who had been
looking at me for some time as if he thought that a cut off my
shoulder wouldn't be a bad thing--says I, 'Nipitabo, I'm afeard the
shoes must go for it now;' so with that I pulls out a pair o'
deerskin moccasins. 'They looks tender,' said I, trying to be
cheerful. 'Wah!' said the Injin; and then I held them over the fire
till they was done black, and Nipitabo ate one, and I ate the tother,
with a lump o' snow to wash it down!"

"It must have been rather dry eating," said Charley, laughing.

"Rayther; but it was better than the Injin's leather breeches, which
we took in hand next day. They was _uncommon_ tough, and very dirty,
havin' been worn about a year and a half. Hows'ever, they kept us up;
an' as we only ate the legs, he had the benefit o' the stump to
arrive with at the fort next day."

"What's yon ahead?" exclaimed Charley, pausing as he spoke, and
shading his eyes with his hand.

"It's uncommon like trees," said Jacques. "It's likely a tree that's
been tumbled across the river; and from its appearance, I think we'll
have to cut through it."

"Cut through it!" exclaimed Charley; "if my sight is worth a gun-
flint, we'll have to cut through a dozen trees."

Charley was right. The river ahead of them became rapidly narrower;
and either from the looseness of the surrounding soil, or the passing
of a whirlwind, dozens of trees had been upset, and lay right across
the narrow stream in terrible confusion. What made the thing worse
was that the banks on either side, which were low and flat, were
covered with such a dense thicket down to the water's edge, that the
idea of making a portage to overcome the barrier seemed altogether
hopeless.

"Here's a pretty business, to be sure!" cried Charley, in great
disgust.

"Never say die, Mister Charles," replied Jacques, taking up the axe
from the bottom of the canoe; "it's quite clear that cuttin' through
the trees is easier than cuttin' through the bushes, so here goes."

For fully three hours the travellers were engaged in cutting their
way up the encumbered stream, during which time they did not advance
three miles; and it was evening ere they broke down the last barrier
and paddled out into a sheet of clear water again.

"That'll prepare us for the geese, Jacques," said Charley, as he
wiped the perspiration from his brow; "there's nothing like warm work
for whetting the appetite, and making one sleep soundly."

"That's true," replied the hunter, resuming his paddle. "I often
wonder how them white-faced fellows in the settlements manage to keep
body and soul together--a-sittin', as they do, all day in the house,
and a-lyin' all night in a feather bed. For my part, rather than live
as they do, I would cut my way up streams like them we've just passed
every day and all day, and sleep on top of a flat rock o' nights,
under the blue sky, all my life through."

With this decided expression of his sentiments, the stout hunter
steered the canoe up alongside of a huge flat rock, as if he were
bent on giving a practical illustration of the latter part of his
speech then and there.

"We'd better camp now, Mister Charles; there's a portage o' two miles
here, and it'll take us till sundown to get the canoe and things
over."

"Be it so," said Charley, landing. "Is there a good place at the
other end to camp on?"

"First-rate. It's smooth as a blanket on the turf, and a clear spring
bubbling at the root of a wide tree that would keep off the rain if
it was to come down like water-spouts."

The spot on which the travellers encamped that evening overlooked one
of those scenes in which vast extent, and rich, soft variety of
natural objects, were united with much that was grand and savage. It
filled the mind with the calm satisfaction that is experienced when
one gazes on the wide lawns studded with noble trees; the spreading
fields of waving grain that mingle with stream and copse, rock and
dell, vineyard and garden, of the cultivated lands of civilized men;
while it produced that exulting throb of freedom which stirs man's
heart to its centre, when he casts a first glance over miles and
miles of broad lands that are yet unowned, unclaimed; that yet lie in
the unmutilated beauty with which the beneficent Creator originally
clothed them--far away from the well-known scenes of man's checkered
history; entirely devoid of those ancient monuments of man's power
and skill that carry the mind back with feelings of awe to bygone
ages, yet stamped with evidences of an antiquity more ancient still
in the wild primeval forests, and the noble trees that have sprouted,
and spread, and towered in their strength for centuries--trees that
have fallen at their posts, while others took their place, and rose
and fell as they did, like long-lived sentinels whose duty it was to
keep perpetual guard over the vast solitudes of the great American
Wilderness.

The fire was lighted, and the canoe turned bottom up in front of it,
under the branches of a spreading tree which stood on an eminence,
whence was obtained a bird's-eye view of the noble scene. It was a
flat valley, on either side of which rose two ranges of hills, which
were clothed to the top with trees of various kinds, the plain of the
valley itself being dotted with clumps of wood, among which the fresh
green foliage of the plane tree and the silver-stemmed birch were
conspicuous, giving an airy lightness to the scene and enhancing the
picturesque effect of the dark pines. A small stream could be traced
winding out and in among clumps of willows, reflecting their drooping
boughs and the more sombre branches of the spruce fir and the
straight larch, with which in many places its banks were shaded. Here
and there were stretches of clearer ground where the green herbage of
spring gave to it a lawn-like appearance, and the whole magnificent
scene was bounded by blue hills that became fainter as they receded
from the eye and mingled at last with the horizon. The sun had just
set, and a rich glow of red bathed the whole scene, which was further
enlivened by flocks of wild-fowls and herds of reindeer.

These last soon drew Charley's attention from the contemplation of
the scenery, and observing a deer feeding in an open space, towards
which he could approach without coming between it and the wind, he
ran for his gun and hurried into the woods while Jacques busied
himself in arranging their blankets under the upturned canoe, and in
preparing supper.

Charley discovered soon after starting, what all hunters discover
sooner or later--namely, that appearances are deceitful; for he no
sooner reached the foot of the hill than he found, between him and
the lawn-like country, an almost impenetrable thicket of underwood.
Our young hero, however, was of that disposition which sticks at
nothing, and instead of taking time to search for an opening, he took
a race and sprang into the middle of it, in hopes of forcing his way
through. His hopes were not disappointed. He got through--quite
through--and alighted up to the armpits in a swamp, to the infinite
consternation of a flock of teal ducks that were slumbering
peacefully there with their heads under their wings, and had
evidently gone to bed for the night. Fortunately he held his gun
above the water and kept his balance, so that he was able to proceed
with a dry charge, though with an uncommonly wet skin. Half-an-hour
brought Charley within range, and watching patiently until the animal
presented his side towards the place of his concealment, he fired and
shot it through the heart.

"Well done, Mister Charles," exclaimed Jacques, as the former
staggered into camp with the reindeer on his shoulders. "A fat doe,
too."

"Ay," said Charley; "but she has cost me a wet skin. So pray,
Jacques, rouse up the fire, and let's have supper as soon as you
can."

Jacques speedily skinned the deer, cut a couple of steaks from its
flank, and placing them on wooden spikes, stuck them up to roast,
while his young friend put on a dry shirt, and hung his coat before
the blaze. The goose which had been shot earlier in the day was also
plucked, split open, impaled in the same manner as the steaks, and
set up to roast. By this time the shadows of night had deepened, and
ere long all was shrouded in gloom, except the circle of ruddy light
around the camp fire, in the centre of which Jacques and Charley sat,
with the canoe at their backs, knives in their hands, and the two
spits, on the top of which smoked their ample supper, planted in the
ground before them.

One by one the stars went out, until none were visible except the
bright, beautiful morning star, as it rose higher and higher in the
eastern sky. One by one the owls and the wolves, ill-omened birds and
beasts of night, retired to rest in the dark recesses of the forest.
Little by little, the gray dawn overspread the sky, and paled the
lustre of the morning star, until it faded away altogether; and then
Jacques awoke with a start, and throwing out his arm, brought it
accidentally into violent contact with Charley's nose.

This caused Charley to awake, not only with a start, but also with a
roar, which brought them both suddenly into a sitting posture, in
which they continued for some time in a state between sleeping and
waking, their faces meanwhile expressive of mingled imbecility and
extreme surprise. Bursting into a simultaneous laugh, which
degenerated into a loud yawn, they sprang up, launched and reloaded
their canoe, and resumed their journey.

CHAPTER XIV.

The Indian camp--The new outpost--Charley sent on a mission to the
Indians.

In the councils of the fur-traders, on the spring previous to that
about which we are now writing, it had been decided to extend their
operations a little in the lands that lie in central America, to the
north of the Saskatchewan River; and in furtherance of that object,
it had been intimated to the chief trader in charge of the district
that an expedition should be set on foot, having for its object the
examination of a territory into which they had not yet penetrated,
and the establishment of an outpost therein. It was, furthermore,
ordered that operations should be commenced at once, and that the
choice of men to carry out the end in view was graciously left to the
chief trader's well-known sagacity.

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