[* The method pursued by the trappers and Indians is to blaze a line through the bush for several miles.  Along this line is set, at intervals of one or two hundred yards, a kind of trap, called a dead fall, which is constructed thus:—­Two rows of short sticks are driven into the ground about one foot apart, open only at one end, the top being covered with brush-wood at the entrance.  A piece of wood two or three feet long is bedded into the ground, or snow, as the case may be.  The falling pole is supported immediately over this by three pieces of stick notched together in the form of a figure of four.  The centre-piece is made long and sharp at the point, to which the bait is attached, and projects well into the miniature house.  The marten or fisher, allured by the bait, reaches in to snatch it, which springs the trap, and causes the pole to fall across the neck of the animal, which is instantly killed by the blow.]

One morning, the less-experienced trapper of the two, this being his first season, went along the line to look at the traps, as usual.  He had his gun with him, but only two or three charges of powder.  After proceeding to the extreme end of the line, he thought he would go on and look for some partridges, which he heard “drumming"* some little distance a-head.

[* This sound is made by the Canadian partridge (a species of the grouse) during its season of courtship.  The cock-bird perches himself on the top of a large hollow log, or fallen tree, and with his wings produces a vibratory sound, like the distant roll of a drum, which, in still weather, can easily be heard at the distance of a mile in the woods.]

In the pursuit of his game, he was induced to go further than he had at first intended.  He never doubted that he should easily find his way back to the line.  In this, however, he was woefully deceived, for the day was cloudy, and the face of the country was very rough.  It formed, indeed, a part of the great granite range, which is said to cross the St. Lawrence, at the Lake of the Thousand Islands, traversing the rear of the Midland District and the counties of Hastings and Peterborough, through the unsurveyed lands north of Lake Simcoe, to the shores of Lake Huron.  This granite formation is supposed to have an average breadth of ten or twelve miles, being intersected with small lakes, deep ravines and precipitous rocks.  The woods of this region being composed principally of pine, hemlock, and cedar, are of a peculiarly gloomy character.  In such a difficult country as this, it was no wonder that our inexperienced trapper went astray.

After an hour’s fruitless search for the line, he came to the conclusion that he was lost, and that his only chance was to fire off his gun, in the hope that his companion would hear and return it.  As no answering sound greeted his ear, he durst not fire his only remaining charge of powder, for it was all he had to defend himself from wolves, or to obtain some animal or bird whereupon to sustain his life.