The Drama of the Forests | Page 4

where the half-breeds lived. With the exception of the
Factor's house, all the buildings were of rough-hewn logs plastered
with clay. Around the sweeping bend of the bay was a village of tepees
in which the Indian fur hunters and their families spend their
midsummer. Crowning a knoll in the rear stood a quaint little church
with a small tin spire glistening in the sun, and capped by a cross that
spread its tiny arms to heaven. On the hill in the background the
time-worn pines swayed their shaggy heads and softly whispered to
that, the first gentle touch of civilization in the wilderness.
Presently, at irregular intervals, guns were discharged along the shore,
beginning at the point nearest the canoe and running round the curve of

the bay to the Indian camp, where a brisk fusillade took place. A
moment later the Hudson's Bay Company's flag fluttered over Fort
Consolation. Plainly, the arrival of our canoe was causing excitement at
the Post. Trader Spear laughed aloud:
"That's one on old Mackenzie. He's taking my canoe for that of the
Hudson's Bay Inspector. He's generally due about this time."
From all directions men, women, and children were swarming toward
the landing, and when our canoe arrived there must have been fully
four hundred Indians present. The first to greet us was Factor
Mackenzie--a gruff, bearded Scotsman with a clean-shaven upper lip,
gray hair, and piercing gray eyes. When we entered the Factor's house
we found it to be a typical wilderness home of an officer of the
Hudson's Bay Company; and, therefore, as far unlike the interiors of
furtraders' houses as shown upon the stage, movie screen, or in
magazine illustration, as it is possible to imagine. Upon the walls we
saw neither mounted heads nor skins of wild animals; nor were fur
robes spread upon the floors, as one would expect to find after reading
the average story of Hudson's Bay life. On the contrary, the
well-scrubbed floors were perfectly bare, and the walls were papered
from top to bottom with countless illustrations cut from the London
Graphic and the Illustrated London News. The pictures not only took
the place of wall paper, making the house more nearly wind-proof, but
also afforded endless amusement to those who had to spend therein the
long winter months. The house was furnished sparingly with simple,
home-made furniture that had more the appearance of utility than of
beauty.
At supper time we sat down with Mrs. Mackenzie, the Factor's
half-breed wife, who took the head of the table. After the meal we
gathered in the living room before an open fire, over the mantelpiece of
which there were no guns, no powder horns, nor even a pair of
snowshoes; for a fur trader would no more think of hanging his
snowshoes there than a city dweller would think of hanging his
overshoes over his drawing-room mantel. Upon the mantel shelf,
however, stood a few unframed family photographs and some books,

while above hung a rustic picture frame, the only frame to be seen in
the room; it contained the motto, worked in coloured yarns: "God Bless
Our Home." When pipes were lighted and we had drawn closer to the
fire, the Factor occupied a quaint, home-made, rough-hewn affair
known as the "Factor's chair." On the under side of the seat were
inscribed the signatures and dates of accession to that throne of all the
factors who had reigned at the Post during the past eighty-seven years.
A MIGHTY HUNTER
After the two traders had finished "talking musquash"--fur-trade
business--they began reminiscing on the more picturesque side of their
work, and as I had come to spend the winter with the fur hunters on
their hunting grounds, the subject naturally turned to that well-worn
topic, the famous Nimrods of the North. It brought forth many an
interesting tale, for both my companions were well versed in such lore,
and in order to keep up my end I quoted from Warren's book on the
Ojibways: "As an illustration of the kind and abundance of animals
which then covered the country, it is stated that an Ojibway hunter
named No-Ka, the grandfather of Chief White Fisher, killed in one
day's hunt, starting from the mouth of Crow Wing River, sixteen elk,
four buffalo, five deer, three bear, one lynx, and one porcupine. There
was a trader wintering at the time at Crow Wing, and for his winter's
supply of meat, No-Ka presented him with the fruits of his day's hunt."
My host granted that that was the biggest day's bag he had ever heard
of, and Trader Spear, withdrawing his pipe from his mouth, remarked:
"No-Ka must have been a great hunter. I would like to have had his
trade. But, nevertheless, I have heard of an Indian who