TWO SHOTS.

The first half of September passed rapidly away. Had Fort Hope been situated

at the Pole itself, that is to say, twenty degrees farther north, the polar

night would have set in on the 21st of that month But under the seventieth

parallel the sun would be visible above the horizon for another month.

Nevertheless, the temperature was already decidedly colder, the thermometer fell

during the night to 31? Fahrenheit; and thin coatings of ice appeared here and

there, to be dissolved again in the day-time.

But the settlers were able to await the coming of winter without alarm; they

had a more than sufficient store of provisions, their supply of dried venison

had largely increased, another score of morses had been killed, the tame

rein-deer were warmly and comfortably housed, and a huge wooden shed behind the

house was filled with fuel. In short, everything was prepared for the Polar

night.

And now all the wants of the inhabitants of the fort being provided for, it

was time to think of the interests of the Company. The Arctic creatures had now

assumed their winter furs, and were therefore of the greatest value, and Hobson

organised shooting parties for the remainder of the fine weather, intending to

set traps when the snow should prevent further excursions.

They would have plenty to do to satisfy the requirements of the Company, for

so far north it was of no use to depend on the Indians, who are generally the

purveyors of the factories.

The first expedition was to the haunt of a family of beavers, long since

noted by the watchful Lieutenant, on a tributary of the stream already referred

to. It is true, the fur of the beaver is not now as valuable as when it was used

for hats, and fetched ?16 per kilogramme (rather more than 2 lb.); but it still

commands a high price as the animal is becoming very scarce, in consequence of

the reckless way in which it has been hunted.

When the party reached their destination, the Lieutenant called Mrs Barnett's

attention to the great ingenuity displayed by beavers in the construction of

their submarine city. There were some hundred animals in the little colony now

to be invaded, and they lived together in pairs in the "holes" or "vaults" they

had hollowed out near the stream. They had already commenced their preparations

for the winter, and were hard at work constructing their dams and laying up

their piles of wood. A dam of admirable structure had already been built across

the stream, which was deep and rapid enough not to freeze far below the surface,

even in the severest weather. This dam, which was convex towards the current,

consisted of a collection of upright stakes interlaced with branches and roots,

the whole being cemented together and rendered watertight with the clayey mud of

the river, previously pounded by the animals' feet. The beavers use their

tails-which are large and flat, with scales instead of hair at the root-for

plastering over their buildings and beating the clay into shape.

"The object of this dam," said the Lieutenant to Mrs Barnett, "is to secure

to the beavers a sufficient depth of water at all seasons of the year, and to

enable the engineers of the tribe to build the round huts called houses or

lodges, the tops of which you can just see. They are extremely solid structures,

and the walls made of stick, clay, roots, &c., are two feet thick., They can

only be entered from below the water, and their owners have therefore to dive

when they go home-an admirable arrangement for their protection. Each lodge

contains two stories; in the lower the winter stock of branches, bark, and

roots, is laid up, and the upper is the residence of the householder and his

family."

"There is, however, not a beaver in sight," said Mrs Barnett; "is this a

deserted village?"

"Oh no," replied the Lieutenant, "the inhabitants are now all asleep and

resting; they only work in the night, and we mean to surprise them in their

holes."

This was, in fact, easily done, and in an hour's time about a hundred of the

ill-fated rodents had been captured, twenty of which were of very great value,

their fur being black, and therefore especially esteemed. That of the others was

also long, glossy, and silky, but of a reddish hue mixed with chestnut brown.

Beneath the long fur, the beavers have a second coat of close short hair of a

greyish-white colour.

The hunters returned to the fort much delighted with the result of their

expedition. The beavers' skins were warehoused and labelled as "parchments" or

"young beavers," according to their value.

Excursions of a similar kind were carried on throughout the month of

September, and during the first half of October, with equally happy results.

A few badgers were taken, the skin being used as an ornament for the collars

of draught horses, and the hair for making brushes of every variety. These

carnivorous creatures belong to the bear family, and the specimens obtained by

Hobson were of the genus peculiar to North America, sometimes called the Taxel

badger.

Another animal of the rodent family, nearly as industrious as the beaver,

largely contributed to the stores of the Company. This was the musk-rat or

musquash. Its head and body are about a foot long and its tail ten inches. Its

fur is in considerable demand. These creatures, like the rest of their family,

multiply with extreme rapidity, and a great number were easily unearthed.

In the pursuit of lynxes and wolverines or gluttons, fire-arms had to be

used. The lynx has all the suppleness and agility of the feline tribe to which

it belongs, and is formidable even to the rein-deer; Marbre and Sabine were,

however, well up to their work, and succeeded in killing more than sixty of

them. A few wolverines or gluttons were also despatched, their fur is

reddish-brown, and that of the lynx, light-red with black spots; both are of

considerable value.

Very few ermines or stoats were seen, and Jaspar Hobson ordered his men to

spare any which happened to cross their path until the winter, when they should

have assumed their beautiful snow-white coats with the one black spot at the tip

of the tail. At present the upper fur was reddish-brown and the under yellowish

white, so that, as Sabine expressed it, it was desirable to let them " ripen,"

or, in other words,-to wait for the cold to bleach them.

Their cousins, the polecats, however, which emit so disagreeable an odour,

fell victims in great numbers to the hunters, who either tracked them to their

homes in hollow trees, or shot them as they glided through the branches.

Martens, properly so-called, were hunted with great zeal. Their fur is in

considerable demand, although not so valuable as that of the sable, which

becomes a dark lustrous brown in the winter. The latter did not, however, come

in the way of our hunters, as it only frequents the north of Europe and Asia as

far as Kamtchatka, and is chiefly hunted by the inhabitants of Siberia. They had

to be content with the polecats and pine-martens, called " Canada- martens,"

which frequent the shores of the Arctic Ocean.

All the weasels and martens are very difficult to catch; they wriggle their

long supple bodies through the smallest apertures with great ease, and thus

elude their pursuers. In the winter, however, they are easily taken in traps,

and Marbre and Sabine looked forward to make up for lost time then, when, said

they, "there shall be plenty of their furs in the Company's stores."

We have now only to mention the Arctic or blue and silver foxes, to complete

the list of animals which swelled the profits of the Hudson's Bay Company.

The furs of these foxes are esteemed in the Russian and English markets above

all others, and that of the blue fox is the most valuable of all. This pretty

creature has a black muzzle, and the fur is not as one would suppose blue, but

whitish-brown; its great price-six times that of any other kind-arises from its

superior softness, thickness, and length. A cloak belonging to the Emperor of

Russia, composed entirely of fur from the neck of the blue fox (the fur from the

neck is considered better than that from any other part), was shown at the

London Exhibition of 1851, and valued at ?3400 sterling.

Several of these foxes were sighted at Cape Bathurst, but all escaped the

hunters; whilst only about a dozen silver foxes fell into their hands. The fur

of the latter-of a lustrous black dotted with white-is much sought after in

England and Russia, although it does not command so high a price as that of the

foxes mentioned above.

One of the silver foxes captured was a splendid creature, with a coal-black

fur tipped with white at the extreme end of the tail, and with a dash of the

some on the forehead. The circumstances attending its death deserve relation in

detail, as they proved that Hobson was right in the precautions he had taken

On the morning of the 24th September, two sledges conveyed Mrs Barnett, the

Lieutenant, Sergeant Long. Marbre, and Sabine, to Walruses' Bay. Some traces of

foxes had been noticed the evening before, amongst some rocks clothed with

scanty herbage and the direction taken by the animals was very clearly

indicated. The hunters followed up the trail of a large animal, and were

rewarded by bringing down a very fine silver fox.

Several other animals of the same species were sighted, and the hunters

divided into two parties-Marbre and Sabine going after one foe, and Mrs Barnett,

Hobson, and the Sergeant, trying to cut off the retreat of another fine animal

hiding behind some rocks.

Great caution and some artifice was necessary to deal with this crafty

animal, which took care not to expose itself to a shot. The pursuit lasted for

half-an-hour without success; but at last the poor creature, with the sea on one

side and its three enemies on the other, had recourse in its desperation to a

flying leap, thinking thus to escape with its life. But Hobson was too quick for

it; and as it bounded by like a flash of lightning, it was struck by a shot, and

to every one's surprise, the report of the Lieutenant's gun was succeeded by

that of another, and a second ball entered the body of the fox, which fell to

the ground mortally wounded.

"Hurrah! hurrah !" cried Hobson, "it is mine!"

"And mine!" said another voice, and a stranger stept forward and placed his

foot upon the fox just as the Lieutenant was about to raise it.

Hobson drew back in astonishment. He thought the second ball had been fired

by the Sergeant, and found himself face to face with a stranger whose gun was

still smoking.

The rivals gazed at each other in silence.

The rest of the party now approached, and the stranger was quickly joined by

twelve comrades, four of whom were like himself " Canadian travellers," and

eight Chippeway Indians.

The leader was a tall man-a fine specimen of his class-those Canadian

trappers described in the romances of Washington Irving, whose competition

Hobson had dreaded with such good reason. He wore the traditional costume

ascribed to his fellow-hunters by the great American writer; a blanket loosely

arranged about his person, a striped cotton shirt, wide cloth trousers, leather

gaiters, deerskin mocassins, and a sash of checked woollen stuff round the

waist, from which were suspended his knife, tobacco-pouch, pipe, and a few

useful tools.

Hobson was right. The man before him was a Frenchman, or at least a

descendant of the French Canadians, perhaps an agent of the American Company

come to act as a spy on the settlers in the fort. The other four Canadians wore

a costume resembling that of their leader, but of coarser materials.

The Frenchman bowed politely to Mrs Barnett, and the Lieutenant was the first

to break the silence, during which he had not removed his eyes from his rival's

face.

"This fox is mine, sir," he said quietly.

"It is if you killed it !" replied the other in good English, but with a

slightly foreign accent.

"Excuse me, sir," replied Hobson rather sharply, "it is mine in any

case."

The stranger smiled. scornfully at this lofty reply, so exactly what be

expected from an agent of the Hudson's Bay Company, which claims supremacy over

all the northern districts, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

"Do you mean to say," he said at last, gracefully toying with his gun, "that

you consider the Hudson's Bay Company mistress of the whole of North

America?"

"Of course I do," said Hobson; "and if, as I imagine, you belong to an

American company-

"To the St Louis Fur Company," replied the stranger with a bow.

"I think," added the Lieutenant, "that you will find it difficult to show the

grants entitling you to any privileges here."

"Grants! privileges !" cried the Canadian scornfully, "old world terms which

are out of place in America !"

"You are not now on American but on English ground," replied the Lieutenant

proudly.

"This is no time for such a discussion," said the hunter rather warmly. "We

all know the old claims made by the English in general, and the Hudson's Bay

Company in particular, to these hunting grounds; but I expect coming events will

soon alter this state of things, and America will be America from the Straits of

Magellan to the North Pole !"

"I do not agree with you," replied Hobson dryly.

"Well, sir, however that may be," said the Canadian, "let us suffer this

international question to remain in abeyance for the present. Whatever rights

the Company may arrogate to itself, it is very clear that in the extreme north

of the continent, and especially on the coast, the territory belongs to whoever

occupies it. You have founded a factory on Cape Bathurst, therefore we will

respect your domain, and you on your side will avoid ours, when the St Louis

fur-traders have established their projected fort at another point on the

northern shore of America."

The Lieutenant frowned at this speech, for he well knew what complications

would arise in the future when the Hudson's Bay Company would be compelled to

struggle for supremacy with powerful rivals, and that quarrelling and even

bloodshed would ensue; he could not, however, but acknowledge that this was not

the time to begin the discussion, and he was not sorry when the hunter, whose

manners, to tell the truth, were very polite, placed the dispute on another

footing.

"As for this present matter," said the Canadian, "it is of minor importance,

and we must settle it according to the rules of the chase. Our guns are of

different calibre, and our balls can be easily distinguished; let the fox belong

to whichever of us really killed it."

The proposition was a fair one, and the body of the victim was examined

accordingly. One ball had entered at the side, the other at the heart; and the

latter was from the gun of the Canadian.

"The fox is your property, sir," said Jaspar Hobson, vainly endeavouring to

conceal his chagrin at seeing this valuable spoil fall into the enemy's

hands.

The Canadian took it, but instead of throwing it over his shoulder and

carrying it off, he turned to Mrs Barnett, and said " Ladies are fond of

beautiful furs, and although, perhaps, if they knew better what dangers and

difficulties have to be surmounted in order to obtain them, they might not care

so much about them, they are not likely to refuse to wear them on that account,

and I hope, madam, you will favour me by accepting this one in remembrance of

our meeting."

Mrs Barnett hesitated for a moment, but the gift was offered with so much

courtesy and kindliness of manner, that it would have seemed churlish to refuse,

and she therefore accepted it with many thanks.

This little ceremony over, the stranger again bowed politely, and, followed

by his comrades, quickly disappeared behind the rocks, whilst the Lieutenant and

his party returned to Fort Good Hope. Hobson was very silent and thoughtful all

the way; for he could not but feel that the existence of a rival company would

greatly compromise the success of his undertaking, and lead to many future

difficulties.