Canadian Wilds Tells About the Hudson's Bay Company, Northern Indians and Their Modes of Hunting, Trapping, Etc.   By: Martin Hunter

Tells About the Hudson's Bay Company, Northern Indians and Their Modes of Hunting, Trapping, Etc.

BY MARTIN HUNTER

PUBLISHED BY A. R. HARDING PUBLISHING CO. COLUMBUS, OHIO

Copyright 1907 By A. R. Harding Publishing Co.

CONTENTS.

I. The Hudson's Bay Company II. The Free Trader III. Outfitting Indians IV. Trackers of the North V. Provisions for the Wilderness VI. Forts and Posts VII. About Indians VIII. Wholesome Foods IX. Officers' Allowance X. Inland Packs XI. Indian Mode of Hunting Beaver XII. Indian Mode of Hunting Lynx and Marten XIII. Indian Mode of Hunting Foxes XIV. Indian Mode of Hunting Otter and Musquash XV. Remarkable Success XVI. Things to Avoid XVII. Anticosti and Its Furs XVIII. Chiselling and Shooting Beaver XIX. The "Indian Devil" XX. A Tame Seal XXI. The Care of Blistered Feet XXII. Deer Sickness XXIII. A Case of Nerve XXIV. Amphibious Combats XXV. Art of Pulling Hearts XXVI. Dark Furs XXVII. Indians Are Poor Shots XXVIII. A Bear in the Water XXIX. Voracious Pike XXX. The Brass Eyed Duck XXXI. Good Wages Trapping XXXII. A Pard Necessary XXXIII. An Heroic Adventure XXXIV. Wild Oxen XXXV. Long Lake Indians XXXVI. Den Bears XXXVII. The Mishaps of Ralson

[Illustration: Martin Hunter]

INTRODUCTION.

By the courtesy of Forest and Stream and Hunter Trader Trapper these articles are republished in book form by the author.

I have been induced to bring them out a second time under one cover by the frequent requests of my fellow bushmen who were kind enough to criticise them favorably when they first appeared in the magazine.

In this preamble I think it proper and possibly interesting to the reader to have a short synopsis of my career.

I entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1863 as a clerk and retired in 1903 a commissioned officer of twenty years' standing.

The modes of Trapping and Hunting were learned directly by personal participation in the chase with the Indians and the other stories heard first hand from the red man.

My service in the employ of the Great Fur Company extended from Labrador in the East to Fort William on Lake Superior in the West and from the valley of the St. Lawrence in the South to the headwaters of its feeders in the North.

By canoes and snowshoes I have traveled on the principal large rivers flowing south from the height of land, among them I may mention the Moisee, Bersimis, St. Maurice, Ottawa, Michipocoten, Pic and Nepigon.

I have hunted, trapped and traded with the Montagnais, Algonquins and Ojibways, the three largest tribes that inhabit the country mentioned in the foregoing boundaries and therefore the reader can place implicit reliance in what is herein set forth. Giving a synopsis of the history of The Hudson's Bay Company, its Forts and Posts and the Indians they traded with as well as other incidents of the Canadian wilds.

Respectfully, MARTIN HUNTER.

CANADIAN WILDS.

CHAPTER I.

THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY.

The Hudson's Bay Company was incorporated in the year 1670 and received its charter from Charles the Second, making it today the longest united company that ever existed in the world.

In 1867 when the different provinces of old Canada were brought under the Dominion Confederation, the Company ceded its exclusive rights, as per its charter, to the government of Canada, making this vast territory over which the Company had held sway for nearly two hundred years, free for hunters, trappers and traders.

Prince Rupert, of England, was associated with the first body of "Adventurers Trading into Hudson's Bay," for such were they designated in the charter and the charter gave them the right to trade on all rivers and their tributaries flowing into Hudson's Bay.