[Illustration: THE BIG ROLLERS, FROM 15 TO 20 FEET FROM HOLLOW TO CREST, AT HEAD OF DEATH RAPIDS (_below_)]
We ran the next eighteen miles in less than two hours, tying up for the night at a well-built Government cabin three miles below Big Mouth Creek. It was occupied for the winter by a Swede trapper named Johnston. He was out running his trap-lines when we arrived, but came back in time to be our guest for dinner. He made one rather important contribution to the menu--a "mulligan," the _pièce de résistance_ of which, so he claimed, was a mud-hen he had winged with his revolver that morning. There were six or seven ingredients in that confounded Irish stew already, and--much to the disgust of Roos and myself, who didn't fancy eating mud-hen--Andy dumped into it just about everything he had been cooking except the prunes. That's the proper caper with "mulligans," and they are very good, too, unless some one of the makings chances to be out of your line. And such most decidedly was mud-hen--fish-eating mud-hen! As we were sort of company, Roos and I put on the best faces we could and filled up on prunes and marmalade. It was only after the other three had cleaned out the "mulligan" can that Andy chanced to mention that "mud-hen" was the popularly accepted euphemism for grouse shot out of season!
Andy and Blackmore and Johnston talked "trapper stuff" all evening--tricks for tempting marten, how to prevent the pesky wolverine from robbing traps, "stink-baits," prices, and the prospects for beaver when it again became lawful to take them. Johnston was a typical Swede, with little apparent regard for his physical strength if money could be made by drawing upon it. The previous season he had had to sleep out in his blankets many nights while covering his lines, and he counted himself lucky that this year he had two or three rough cabins for shelter. He was a terrific worker and ate sparingly of the grub that cost him twenty cents a pound to bring in. He was already looking a bit drawn, and Blackmore said the next morning that he would be more or less of a physical wreck by spring, just as he had been the previous season. The hardships these trappers endure is something quite beyond the comprehension of any one who has not been with them. A city man, a farmer, even a sailor, knows nothing to compare with it.