Billy Brass. A little later,
too, Chief Factor Thompson arrived from the North. Now in the fur loft
many hands were busily engaged in sorting, folding, and packing in
collapsible moulds--that determined the size and shape of the fur
packs--a great variety of skins. Also they were energetically
weighing, cording, and covering the fur packs with burlap--leaving two
ears of that material at each end to facilitate handling them, as each
pack weighed eighty pounds.

A fur pack of one hundred pounds--for the weight varies according to
the difficulty of transportation in certain regions--contains on an
average fourteen bear, sixty otter, seventy beaver, one hundred and ten
fox skins, or six hundred muskrat skins. A pack of assorted furs
contains about eighty skins and the most valuable ones are placed in
the centre.

During the next few days the great "North" or six-fathom canoes--made
of birch bark and capable of carrying from three to four tons of
freight in addition to their crews of from eight to twelve men--were
brought out of the canoe house, and together with the two new ones, had
their bows and sterns painted white in readiness for their finishing
touch of decoration in the way of some symbol of the fur trade.

As the principal Indian canoemen, who were to join the Fur Brigade,
were already familiar with my ability as an artist, they waited upon
the Factor and requested him to solicit my help in the final decorating
of those beautiful canoes. So it came to pass that on the bow of one a
leaping otter appeared and on the bows of others, a rearing bear, a
flying goose, a rampant caribou, a galloping fox, a leaping lynx, a
rampant moose, and on still another the coat-of-arms of the Hudson's
Bay Company. Each in turn had its admirers, but Oo-koo-hoo, who was to
have charge of all the voyageurs, sidled up to Factor Mackenzie and
whispered that if Hu-ge-mow--Master--would let him take his choice of
the canoes, he would not only give the Factor a dollar in return for
the privilege, but he would promise to keep that particular canoe at
the very head of the whole brigade, and never once allow another canoe
to pass it during the voyage.

The Factor was not only interested in the Indian's appreciation of art,
as well as amused over the idea that he would accept a bribe of a
dollar, but he was curious to know which canoe the Indian most
favoured. It was the one that displayed the Great Company's
coat-of-arms; so Oo-koo