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TRAPPING ON KOOTENAY RIVER Tale of an All Year Liver in the Woods of North ¬ ern Canada Hunter jruidf miner and trapper but of late chiefly the latter Henry Watson Conover of Field 11 I yesterday trailed back to civilization with his wintirs catch of furs He had gone off into the readies of the Upper Kootenay River on the first of of last November and was only now back for the first time to dispose of his furs and to hear the latest and the hist about tJie worlds great war At a result of his winters wanderings ho brought back with him the pelts of thirtyone lynx eight marten one wolverine one red fox and thirty wcassls He had also been successful in bagging two jjoldon eagles and had killed one cou ar Late in the fall lie had packed his winters supplies into his shanty by pack horse following the route of the Banff Windermere auto ¬ mobile route lip Sinclair Pass over the divide and down the other side to the crossing of the Koo ¬ tenay River Here he has a preemption and here he has made his base for the next five months monthsFrom From his base shanty standing at the foot of what might be called a V route he daily toiled first iiy the Vermilion River to its junction with the Simpson River the forks of which union made the branches of the V This was a tramp of some thirty odd mites and took two days on snowshoes in the heavy snow falls of last winter The days would be spent in examining the traps and skinning the victims and the nights were put in in the solitariness of the wooded wilderness with no other companions about him than the large game that inhabits these parts A Small hovel at the end of the Y branch covered him and the same at tin junction of the V His food had all to be packed on his back save such game as might fall to his rifle Returning to the V junction the day following the tramp would be made up the Simpson River which would take about the same length of time as the former walk Then a return vould lx made to the basu shanty for u further sup ¬ ply to be varied on the following day by a trip to the southeast along the rippling waters of the Koo teuny River RiverCOLD COLD HARD PROFITABLE LIFE LIFETht Tht days were short and the nights and the days iverir both cold but hungry wf t and tired the time slipped by such being the doings of a trappers life His Inart was gladdened at the finish by his good bag which on reaching the outside IK was able to dispose of for a sum of money well over 1000 1000Conovor Conovor is rich in his lore about game life and the wild animals which especially delight in making the upper reaches of the Kootenay River in the fastnesses of the Rocky Mountain ranges their home He says without doubt that it is the part in which the largest variety of large game is to be found in southeastern British Columbia barring any preserves There are to be had elk moose blacktailed deer black bear mountain jroats the Big Horn and the farfamed grizzly The winter of course is not the time when these iiiiimals are to be shot nor arc many of them ob tainulilc but now after a short rest he is off again this tiniw with a pack on his back to the liauats of tin black bear which awakening from Jiis loug winters sleep is about to start off on a limit for some food to satisfy his loug felt want wantThe The territory when Mr Conovor has been hunt ¬ ing is tributary to the Banff Windermere automo ¬ bile road which is the still uncompleted link on the great national highway which in time will bind jigain the prairies with the wild innermost recesses of the mountains Part of this road has for many years been completed but there still remains a stretch of gluded forest and rolling hills of some forty miles in the valley of the Kootenay River still as yet untouched by the ax or spade of man Calgary Herald
