The fallen tree by the brook side showing the marks of large chisel-like teeth told the woodcrafter that beaver had cut and felled the tree. The bark gnawed from another sapling by smaller chisel-like teeth told him that porcupines had been there. The torn bark of a black spruce, commencing at a point as high as a man can reach, exposing the fleshy part of the tree, from which sticky sap is exuding, proclaims a large bear has been there ; it is the habit of these animals to rear up and scratch the trees with their claws. It also gives an accurate measure of the size of the bear. The bleeding tree indicates recent wounds.
A maple stripped and displaying marks of horse-like teeth shows the work of moose ; whereas another tree which has been scarred, and from which the splinters of the wood are protrud ing from the lower edge of the scar, is evidence that the lynx, or wild cat, has, like the bear, "sharpened his claws." The freshly dismantled and broken rotten log is, to the expert, a note from Bruin saying, "Here I lately dined on ants' eggs." To know how to build shelters; how to make and mend snow shoes, moccasins and wearing apparel from the material found in the woods; what to do in time of flood and storm; what to do when overtaken by a blizzard ; how to avoid danger of avalanches and the knowledge that the danger from them is greater when the sun is high than in cool evenings and mornings, is essential.
It was the settlement of the United States which produced a renaissance of woodcraft or rather a new and more vigorous art. The tide rift of adventuresome pioneers preceding the advance of civilization were compelled to learn when and how to cut logs for their cabins; what wood was best for rails for their fences, how to substitute the semi-transparent skins of animals for glass in their windows. From the Indians, frontiersmen learned how. to grind corn with stone, to parch corn for trail rations, to make cakes, to make maple syrup and sugar, to jerk meat or to make pemmican for emergencies.
It was the free trappers and the employees of the fur companies who learned how to trail like blood hounds and hide their own trails with skill surpassing that of the fox, by walking on stony places and wading the beds of streams. They developed their five senses to a superlative degree. (D. C. B.)