3-052-656 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Fur trappers in the backwoods of Canada, 1880. 'Fur trappers' cabin, exterior; driving deer; fur trappers' cabin, interior...among the agricultural settlers, are to be met not a few men of the white race, who prefer to gain a living by the capture of beavers, otters, musk, mink, and sable, the skins of which are readily sold...Our Illustrations...show...two or three of those hardy men...employing themselves in useful tasks. The first has been splitting logs for fuel, in a leisurely mood, not taking the pipe out of his mouth...He has good store of haunches of deer, with an antlered head or two, hanging upon the pole laid across a row of upright props. The indoor scene, by evening firelight, shows one quiet fellow engaged in skinning a beast he has killed; the other shaping a piece of light wood into a snow-shoe; while a savoury roast, and a pot of soup or broth, are preparing over the fire...The smoke-dried fish, suspended on the walls, or in the funnel-shaped chimney of planks..., promise likewise abundant winter food...A summer hunting scene, in a canoe on the lake or river, where the swimming deer must be driven to land before shooting him, lest his carcase be lost in the flood, forms the subject of the remaining Illustration'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.