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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper, by 
+Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper
+       Autobiography, experiences and observations of Eldred
+       Nathaniel Woodcock during his fifty years of hunting and
+       trapping.
+
+Author: Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock
+
+Release Date: October 12, 2010 [EBook #34063]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Linda M. Everhart, Blairstown, Missouri
+
+
+
+
+FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER
+
+  [Frontispiece: E. N. WOODCOCK AND BEAR TRAPS--HIS OWN MAKE.]
+
+FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER
+
+Experiences and Observations of E. N. Woodcock
+the noted Hunter and Trapper, as written
+by Himself and Published in
+H-T-T from 1903 to 1913
+
+EDITED BY
+A. R. HARDING
+
+Published by
+A. R. HARDING, Publisher
+St. Louis, Mo.
+
+Copyright 1913,
+By
+A. R. HARDING.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+  I--Autobiography of E. N. Woodcock
+  II--Early Experiences
+  III--My First Real Trapping Experience
+  IV--Some Early Experiences
+  V--Some Early Experiences (Concluded)
+  VI--A Hunt on the Kinzua
+  VII--My Last Hunt on the Kinzua
+  VIII--Fred and the Old Trapper
+  IX--Bears in 1870, Today--Other Notes
+  X--Incidents Connected with Bear Trapping
+  XI--Pacific Coast Trip
+  XII--Some Michigan Trips
+  XIII--Hunting and Trapping in Cameron Co., Pa., in 1869
+  XIV--Hunting and Trapping in Cameron Co.
+  XV--Trapping and Bee Hunting
+  XVI--Hits and Misses on the Trail
+  XVII--Lost in the Woods
+  XVIII--Traps and Other Hints for Trappers
+  XIX--Camps and Camping
+  XX--Deer Hunt Turned Into a Bear Hunt
+  XXI--Dog on the Trap Line
+  XXII--Two Cases of Buck Fever
+  XXIII--Partner a Necessity
+  XXIV--A Few Words on Deadfalls
+  XXV--Advice from a Veteran
+  XXVI--The Screech of the Panther
+  XXVII--Handling Raw Furs and Other Notes
+  XXVIII--The Passing of the Fur bearer
+  XXIX--Destruction of Game and Game Birds
+  XXX--Southern Experiences on the Trap Line
+  XXXI--On the Trap and Trot Line in the South
+  XXXII--Trapping in Alabama
+  XXXIII--Some Early Experiences
+  XXXIV--The White Deer
+  XXXV--A Day of Luck
+  XXXVI--A Mixed Bag
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+  E. N. Woodcock and Bear Traps--His own make
+  E. N. Woodcock's Residence
+  Setting a Large Steel Trap for Bear
+  Woodcock and Some of His Catch
+  Woodcock on the Trap Line
+  Log Set for Fox
+  Woodcock and His Catch, Fall, 1904
+  Building a Bear "Lowdown"
+  Results of a Few Weeks' Trapping
+  Woodcock Fishing on the Sinnamahoning
+  Woodcock and Some of His Catch
+  Woodcock and His Steel Traps
+  Woodcock Fishing on Pine Creek
+  Woodcock and His Old Trapping Dog, Prince
+  Good Small Animal Deadfall
+  Spring Set for Fox
+  Woodcock on the Trap Line, 1912
+  Visitors at Woodcock's Camp in Georgia
+  E. N. Woodcock and His Catch of Alabama Furs
+  E. N. Woodcock and Some of His Alabama Furs
+  Foot of Tree Set
+  Woodcock and His Old Trapping Dog
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+Sometime early in the spring of 1903, a letter was received from a
+man in Pennsylvania and published in H-T-T, which a few weeks later
+brought to light one of the truest and best sportsmen that ever
+shouldered a gun, strung a snare or set a trap--E. N. Woodcock.
+
+Some of the happenings are repeated and all dates may not be correct,
+for be it remembered that Mr. Woodcock has written all from memory.
+It is doubtful if he kept all copies of H-T-T, therefore was not sure
+if such and such incidents had been written before. In most cases
+these are somewhat different and as they all "fit in" we have used
+them as written and published from time to time.
+
+Much information is also contained in the writings of Mr. Woodcock
+and whether you use gun, steel traps, deadfalls or snares, you will
+find something of value. The articles are also written in a style
+that impresses all of their truthfulness, but, so written that they
+are very interesting.
+
+Those of our readers who have read his articles will be glad of this
+opportunity to get his writings in book form, while those that have
+only read a few of his more recent articles will be pleased to secure
+all.
+
+Perhaps the following editorial which appeared in H-T-T will be in
+place here:
+
+"Although crippled with rheumatism, there is an old hunter and
+trapper living in Potter County, Pa., whose enthusiasm is high and
+his greatest desire is still to get out over the trap lines a few
+seasons before the end of the "trail" of life's journey is reached.
+May that desire be fulfilled is the earnest wish of the H-T-T as well
+as thousands of our readers, who have read the writings of this
+kind-hearted and wide experienced hunter and trapper, as they have been
+penned from his home near the Allegheny Mountains.
+
+It is with pleasure that we publish in this issue the "Autobiography
+of E. N. Woodcock as a Trapper." During his half century with trap
+and gun, he has had some narrow escapes and experiences, but not the
+many "hair-breadth escapes" that some claim, but which only occur on
+paper. Mr. Woodcock is a truthful man, and you can read his
+autobiography knowing that it is the truth even to the minutest
+detail."
+
+The autobiography was written by Mr. Woodcock at the request of the
+Editor of Hunter-Trader-Trapper in the spring of 1908 and published
+July of the same year. We are glad to add that since that time, Mr.
+Woodcock has enjoyed several hunting and trapping expeditions. Some
+were in his home state--Pennsylvania--on same grounds, or at least
+near those he camped on many, many years ago. He also took a couple
+of trips into the south--fall of 1911 and 1912. He was in Tennessee,
+Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas. An account of these hunts is
+given in Chapters XXX, XXXI and XXXII.
+
+In May, 1912, the Editor of Hunter-Trader-Trapper visited Mr.
+Woodcock and family at their home some four miles from Coudersport,
+Pennsylvania. Mr. Woodcock, though physically not large, is a
+wonderful man in the "ways of the woods." He is not given to
+exaggeration or boasting like many a man who has followed the Trail
+and Trap Line. Every word that he says or writes can be put down as
+truthful beyond a doubt.
+
+At this time, (May, 1912) he was afraid he would never be able to get
+out on the trap line again, as he was suffering from rheumatism and
+heart trouble. Towards fall he became better, and enjoyed the sport,
+which for more than fifty years has been his--may he be spared to
+enjoy many more.
+
+By noting the dates as given in connection with various articles
+published, it will be seen that Mr. Woodcock shortly after 1900 began
+to point out the need of protection to game and fur animals. After a
+life on the trap and trail of more than fifty years, such advice
+should be far reaching. Mr. Woodcock is a man of unusual foresight
+and knowing that he is nearing the end of the trail, wishes to
+forcibly impress the needs of protection.
+
+By referring to a good map, you will be able to see the location of
+many of Mr. Woodcock's hunting, camping and trapping trips, as he
+generally mentions State, County and Streams.
+
+Very few men have had wider experience than Mr. Woodcock. He knows
+from more than a half century much of the habits and characteristics
+of animals. He gives his reasons why marten are plentiful in one
+section and are gone in a few days. His reason too, looks plausible.
+He describes trapping wolves in Upper Michigan about 1880, also
+beaver. Tells how he caught the "shadow of the forests" as wolves are
+often called by trappers--they are so hard to trap. By reading of his
+many experiences you will not only enjoy what he says, but will get
+facts about bear, deer, fox, wolves, mink, marten and other fur
+bearers that you had never thought of.
+
+This man, while on the "trail" upwards of fifty years, so far as
+known never killed out of season or trapped unprime furs.
+
+
+
+A WORD FROM MR. WOODCOCK.
+
+The editor of HUNTER-TRADER-TRAPPER has requested a foreword of
+introductory to FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER OR EXPERIENCE OF E.
+N. WOODCOCK, saying that so many have enjoyed my articles, which have
+appeared from time to time in HUNTER-TRADER-TRAPPER, extending over a
+period of some ten years, 1903 to 1913, that same are to be published
+in book form.
+
+I was born at Lymansville, Potter County, Pennsylvania, August 30,
+1844. From early childhood, my nature led me to the Forests and
+Streams. I have hunted in many of the states of the Far West
+including the three Pacific States--California, Oregon and
+Washington. I killed my first panther or cougar in the mountains of
+Idaho on the headwaters of the Clearwater river. My first real
+experience in wolfing was in Southeastern Oregon. I met my greatest
+number of deer in Northwestern California.
+
+I have trapped of late years, in nearly all of the states east of the
+Mississippi river and also on the White River of Arkansas; also
+trapped bear and other fur bearing animals and hunted deer in
+Northern Michigan, also forty years ago.
+
+Another sport which I enjoyed was the "pigeon days." I have netted
+wild pigeons from the Adirondack Mountains in New York state to
+Indian Territory--now Oklahoma--trapping them in the states of
+Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, Pennsylvania and New York.
+
+My nature led me to the Trail and Trap line from early childhood and
+I have trapped bear and hunted deer in the mountains of Pennsylvania
+for more than 50 years--half a century--and my picture with my two
+foxes on my shoulder shows me on the trap line for the season of
+1912-13.
+
+March 1, 1913.    E. N. WOODCOCK.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Autobiography of E. N. Woodcock.
+
+I was born on the 30th day of August, A. D. 1844, in a little village
+by the name of Lymansville, Potter County, Pennsylvania. Lymansville
+was named after my grandparent, Isaac Lyman, or better known as Major
+Lyman, having held office of that rank in the Revolutionary War. It
+is from this limb of the family that I inherited that uncontrollable
+desire for the trap, gun and the wild.
+
+At a very early age it was my greatest delight to have all the mice,
+squirrels and groundhogs and in later years young raccoons, young fox
+and every other varmint or wild animal that I could catch or could
+get from other sources, and at times I had quite a menagerie.
+
+I began trapping at a very early age, the same as many boys do who
+live out in the country where they have an opportunity. My father
+owned a grist mill and a sawmill. These mills were about one-half
+mile apart and it was about these mills and along the mill races and
+ponds of these mills that I set my first traps for muskrats, mink and
+coon. Before I was stout enough to set a trap which was strong enough
+to hold the varmint, it was necessary for me to get some older person
+to set the trap. I would take the trap to the intended place and set
+for the particular animals I was in quest of, whether mink, coon or
+rat.
+
+In those days clearings were small, woods large and full of game.
+Deer could be seen in bunches every morning in the fields and it was
+not uncommon to see a bear's track near the house that had been made
+during the night. Wolves were not plenty though it was a common thing
+to see their tracks and sometimes hear them howl on the hills.
+
+Like other boys who lead an outdoor life, I grew stronger each year
+and as I grew older and stronger my trap lines grew longer and my
+hunts took me farther into the woods. Finally as game became scarcer
+my hunts grew from a few hours in length to weeks and months camping
+in a cabin built in the woods in a section where game was plenty.
+
+At the age of thirteen while out with a party of men on a hunting and
+fishing trip, I killed my first bear. While I had now been out each
+fall with my traps and gun, it was not until I was about eighteen
+years old that I took my first lesson from an old and experienced
+trapper, a man nearly eighty years old and a trapper and hunter from
+boyhood. The man's name was Aleck Harris. We made our camp in the
+extreme southeastern part of this (Potter) County in a section known
+as "The Black Forest" and it was here that I learned many things from
+an experienced trapper and hunter that served me well on the trap
+line and the trail, in the years that followed.
+
+It was here that I made my first bed in a foot or more of snow with a
+fire against a fallen tree and a few boughs thrown on the ground for
+a bed. At other times perhaps a bear skin just removed from the bear
+for covering, or I might have no covering other than to remove my
+coat and spread it over me. This I have often done when belated on
+the trail so that I was unable to reach the cabin and was happy and
+contented.
+
+It was here I first learned to do up the saddles or the carcass of a
+deer in the more convenient way to carry. It was here that I took my
+first practical lessons in skinning, stretching, curing and handling
+of skins and furs. I also learned many things of traps and trapping
+and to do away with sheath knives and other unnecessary burdens on
+the trap line. In my younger days I preferred to "go it alone" when
+in a country that I was familiar with and many a week I have spent in
+my cabin alone save for my faithful dog, but as I grew older and
+became afflicted with rheumatism I have found a partner more
+acceptable.
+
+I have met with many queer circumstances while on the trap line and
+trail, yet I have never met with any of those bloodcurdling and
+hair-breadth escapes from wild animals which are mostly "pipe dreams".
+Perhaps the nearest I ever came to being seriously hurt by a wild
+animal was from a large buck deer. It was in November and on a stormy
+day. I had killed a doe and was in the act of dressing the doe and
+was leaning over the deer at work. I was within a few feet of a
+fallen tree. Hearing a slight noise, I raised up to see what caused
+it, when with the speed of a cannon ball a buck flew past me, barely
+missing and landed six or eight feet beyond me.
+
+The deer had come up to this fallen tree on the track of the doe and
+seeing me at work over the doe, became angered and sprung at me and
+only my straightening up at the very instant that I did saved me from
+being seriously hurt or perhaps killed. I sprang over the log. The
+deer stood and gazed at me for a moment. His eyes were of a green hue
+and the hair on his back all stuck up towards his head. After gazing
+at me for a moment the deer walked slowly away. The suddenness of the
+occurrence so unnerved me that I was unable to shoot for some minutes
+though my gun was standing against the tree within reach.
+
+At another time I was somewhat frightened by what I supposed was a
+dead bear suddenly coming to life. I had caught the bear in a trap
+and it had got fastened in some saplings growing on the steep bank of
+a small brook. I shot the bear in the head, as I thought, and it fell
+over the bank in such a manner that his whole weight was held by the
+leg that was fast in the trap. I was unable to release it from the
+trap where it was hanging as I had no clamp to put the trap springs
+down with, to release the bear's foot. I had set my gun, a single
+barrel rifle, against a tree without reloading it.
+
+I cut the bear's paw off close to the trap which allowed the animal
+to roll down the bank to level ground. I had begun to rip down the
+leg that had been caught in the trap. A lad of about ten years was
+with me having accompanied me to attend the traps that day. The lad
+stood looking on when all of a sudden he said, "See him wink." I
+stopped my work and glanced at the bear's eyes and sure enough he was
+winking and winking fast, too, and almost before I knew it the bear
+was trying to get onto his feet. My gun was unloaded and the lad was
+screaming at the top of his voice, "Kill him! Kill him!" But what was
+I to kill him with? Nothing came to my mind at first except to use my
+gun as a club but I did not like to break it.
+
+In a moment I thought of my hatchet which I had taken from the
+holster and laid on the bank where I had cut the bear's foot off to
+release him from the trap. I grabbed the hatchet and one good blow on
+the head put a stop to the rumpus and nobody harmed, although the boy
+was badly frightened.
+
+At another time I might have got into trouble with a bear also caught
+in a trap. I was quite young at this time. I had gone some ten or
+twelve miles from home and set a trap for a bear. The trap was rather
+a poor one with a very light chain for a bear trap. I had only set
+the trap a few days before yet I thought I must go and look after it,
+but it was more the desire to be in the woods than it was of
+expecting to have a bear in the trap at that time. I did not take a
+gun with me, only a revolver loaded as I had no more balls and this
+was before the days of fixed ammunition.
+
+When I came to the trap there was an ugly bear in it and he had the
+clog fast in some roots and among some fallen trees. After firing one
+shot at the Bear's head, which I missed, I then shot the two
+remaining balls into the bear's body with the only effect of making
+him more determined to get at me. I now cut a good club determined to
+put a quietus on Bruin in that manner but after landing several blows
+my knees began to feel weak. I gave up the job and returned home
+leaving Bruin in the trap feeling as well as he did when I first
+found him, so far as I was able to see. But when I returned the next
+morning with help and now with a regular gun we found Bruin nearly
+dead and helpless from the shots that I had given him the day before
+from the revolver.
+
+I have met with other circumstances not quite so fascinating as those
+just related. At one time a young companion and I were camping and
+trapping several miles from home and several miles from a road. One
+day while we were some ways out from camp setting traps my friend
+became suddenly very ill. It required no skilled doctor to see that
+it was a case that must have help at once. I started with my friend
+to get to camp. While my companion was not as old as I, he was larger
+and heavier. I worked along with him, half carrying him, while he
+would support himself as best he could. I got him within about a mile
+of the cabin when he completely gave out and could go no farther and
+with all my pleadings I could not get him to try to go any farther,
+but he promised that if I went after help that after resting he would
+work his way to camp.
+
+Seeing that there was no other way to do, I left him and started for
+help. It was now dark. My way was over a road of about twelve miles
+and nearly all the way through a thick woods and part of the way
+without a road other than a path. When I reached the cabin I stopped
+long enough to build a fire so that the cabin would be warm when my
+companion got there if he did get there at all, which I doubted.
+
+I took a lunch in my hand and started for help. I would take a trot
+whenever the woods were sufficiently open to let in light enough so
+that I could see my way. I got to my companion's home about midnight
+and we were soon on the way back with a team and wagon while my
+companion's father went after a doctor to have him there when we got
+back with the patient. We drove with the wagon as far as the road
+would allow, then we left the wagon and rode the horses to the camp.
+
+When we reached the cabin, contrary to expectations, we found my
+companion there but very sick. We lost no time in getting him onto a
+horse and starting for the wagon where we had a bed for the patient
+to lie down on. We got home about eight o'clock in the morning. The
+doctor was waiting for us and he said as soon as he looked at the man
+that it was a bad case of typhoid fever. He was right, for it took
+many weeks before my friend was able to be out again.
+
+When game began to get scarce, that is when game was no longer found
+plenty right at the door, I began to look for parts where game was
+plentiful and accordingly, with three companions, I arranged to hunt
+and trap on Thunder Bay River in Michigan, where deer and all kinds
+of game, we had been told, were plenty and also lots of fur bearers.
+This we found to be quite true but the state had passed a law
+forbidding the shipment of deer. We did not know this when we left
+home and two of the boys soon got discouraged and returned.
+
+It was while hunting here that I had another trip of twenty miles
+through the woods over rough corduroy tote road in the night after a
+team to take my companion (Vanater by name) out to Alpena to have a
+broken leg set. He was carrying a deer on his shoulder and when near
+camp it was necessary to cross a small stream to get to the cabin. We
+had felled a small tree across the creek for the purpose of crossing.
+There was three or four inches of snow on the log and after my
+companion was across the creek and just as he was about to step from
+the log he slipped and fell, striking his leg across the log in some
+manner so that it broke between the knee and ankle.
+
+After getting my companion to camp and making him as comfortable as
+possible, I took a lunch in my knapsack and with an old tin lantern
+with a tallow candle in it, which gave about as much light as a
+lightning bug, I started over the longest and roughest twenty miles
+of road that I ever traveled in the night. Sometimes I would trip on
+some stick or log and fall and put out my light but I would get up,
+light the candle in the lantern again and hurry on all the faster to
+make up for lost time. I made the journey all right and was back to
+camp the next day before noon where we found my companion doing as
+well as could be expected under the circumstances.
+
+We got my companion out to Alpena where the doctor set the leg and in
+the course of two or three weeks he was so far recovered that he was
+able to return to camp and keep me company until he was able to again
+take up the trap line and trail.
+
+Some years later I again went back to Michigan and hunted deer and
+trapped on the Manistee, Boardman and Rapid Rivers, but I found game
+and furs had become somewhat scarce in that part so I next went with
+a partner to upper Michigan. At that time there was no railroad in
+Upper Michigan and but few settlers, after leaving the Straits, until
+near Lake Superior and near the copper and iron mines.
+
+I have tried my luck in three of the states west of the Rocky
+Mountains. In the Clear Water regions of Idaho there was a fair
+showing of big game, with a good sprinkling of the fur bearers,
+including a bunch of beaver here and there. (Beaver protected.) I
+heard men tell of there being plenty of grizzly and silver tip bear
+but I saw no signs of them. In California a trapper told, me of a
+large grizzly coming to his shack in the night. He said that he was
+cooking venison and that he had the fresh meat of a deer in the shack
+and he thought that the bear smelled the meat was what brought him
+there. The man said the bear smelled around the shack awhile and then
+began to dig at one corner of the shack and soon pulled out the
+bottom log. The man kept quiet until the bear pulled out the next log
+and put his head in through the hole when he put a ball between the
+bear's eyes that fixed Bruin too quick. (A bad case of nightmare.) I
+think it doubtful if there is a grizzly bear or at least very few now
+to be found south of the British Columbia line.
+
+My best catch of bear in one season with a partner was eleven. Years
+ago I caught from three to six bear each season but late years I have
+not caught more than one to three. I think that of late the heavy
+lumbering going on through Northern Pennsylvania had something to do
+with the catch of bear.
+
+The timber in Pennsylvania is largely cut away now leaving bark
+slashings which make fine shelter for bear and wildcats and both
+animals were apparently quite plenty I would judge from the number
+caught in this section, fall of 1907. Deer are very scarce in this
+state, perhaps the most to be found are in Pike County.
+
+I can lay claim to one thing that but few hunters and trappers can
+do, that is for forty years I lost only two seasons from the trap
+line and the trail and each time I was detained by rheumatism. Once
+being taken down with sciatica while in the camp trapping and
+hunting, and it held me to my bed for several months hard and tight.
+I still have the greater part of my trapping and hunting outfit, and
+am still in hopes to be able to get out on the line and pinch a few
+more toes.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Early Experiences.
+
+As I promised to write something of my early experience at trapping
+and hunting, I will begin by saying that I am now living within one
+mile of where I was born sixty years ago (this was written in 1904),
+and that I began my trapping career by first trapping rats in my
+father's grist mill with the old figure four squat trap. I well
+remember the many war dances that I had when I could not make the
+trap stay set; but I did not trap long inside the mill for father
+also ran a blacksmith shop and always kept a good man to do the work
+in the shop. I was soon coaxing the smith to make me a steel trap,
+which he did. I now began catching muskrats along the tail race and
+about the mill dam, but the spring on my trap was so stiff that when
+I found the trap sprung or found game in it, I was obliged to bring
+the trap to the house and have some one older than I to set it. Then
+I would carry it back to the creek and set it. Well this was slow
+work and I was continually begging the blacksmith to make me more
+traps with weaker springs so I could set them myself. After much
+coaxing he made me three more which I was able to set and then the
+muskrats began to suffer. Let me say at that time a muskrat skin was
+worth more than a mink skin.
+
+Boys, I was like a man in public office, the more of it they have,
+the more they want. So it was with me in regard to the traps, but I
+could not coax the blacksmith to make any more. An older brother came
+to my aid in this way: he told me to go to town and see the
+blacksmith there and see if I could not sell some charcoal to him for
+traps, and he, (my brother) would help me burn the coal. Now this
+burning the coal was done by gathering hemlock knots from old rotten
+logs and piling them up and covering them like potato holes, leaving
+a hole open at the bottom to start the fire. After the fire was well
+started the hole was closed and the knots smoldered for several days.
+Well, the plan worked and by the operation I became the possessor of
+five more traps. By this time the vicinity of the mill dam and race
+was no longer large enough to furnish trapping grounds, and I
+ventured farther up and down the stream and took in the coon and mink
+along with the muskrat.
+
+  [Illustration: WOODCOCK, WIFE, SISTER-IN-LAW, RESIDENCE AND HIS DOG
+MACK.]
+
+We had a neighbor, Washburn by name, who was considered a great
+trapper, for he could now and then catch a fox. As time passed by, I
+began to have a great desire to get on an equal with Mr. Washburn and
+catch a fox. I began to urge him to allow me to go with him to see
+how he set his trap, and after a long time coaxing, he granted my
+request. I found what everyone of today knows of the chaff bed set.
+You may now know that it was not long before I had a bed made near a
+barn that stood well back in the field, and after much worry and many
+wakeful nights I caught a fox and I thought myself Lord Jonathan. As
+time went by, and by chance I learned that by mixing a goodly part of
+hen manure with plenty of feathers in it, and mixing it with the
+chaff, it was a great improvement on chaff alone. Next I learned of
+the well known water set. However, I perhaps set different from the
+most of trappers in making this set. Well as all trappers learn from
+long years of experience, so have I, and those old-fashioned sets are
+like the squat traps, not up-to-date. I will now drop the trapping
+question for a time and tell you how I killed my first deer.
+
+Just outside of the clearing on father's farm and not more than fifty
+rods from the house was a wet place, such as are known to these parts
+as a "bear wallow." This wet place had been salted and was what is
+called a "salt lick." In those days it was not an uncommon thing to
+see six or eight deer in the field any morning during the summer
+season--the same as you will see them in parts of California today.
+It was not an uncommon thing for my older brother to kill a deer at
+this lick any morning or evening, but that was not making a nimrod of
+me. I would beg father to let me take the gun (which was an old
+double barreled flintlock shot gun) and watch the lick. As I was only
+nine years old, they would not allow me to have the gun, so I was
+obliged to steal it out when no one was in sight, carry it to the
+barn and then watch my opportunity and "skipper" from the barn to the
+lick. All worked smoothly and I got to the lick all right. It was
+toward sundown and I had scarcely poked the gun through the hole in
+the blind and looked out when I saw two or three deer coming toward
+the lick. I cocked the old gun and made ready but about this time I
+was taken with the worst chill that any boy ever had and I shook so
+that I could scarcely hold the gun to the peep hole. It was only a
+moment when two of the deer stepped into the lick, and I took the
+best aim I could under the condition, and pulled the trigger. Well of
+all the bawling a deer ever made, I think this one did the worst, but
+I did not stop to see what I had done but took across the field to
+the house at a lively gait, leaving the gun in the blind.
+
+The folks heard the shot and saw me running for the house at
+break-neck speed (this of course was the first that they knew I was out
+with the gun). My older brother came to meet me and see what the
+trouble was. When I told him what I had done, he went with me to the
+lick and there we found a fair-sized buck wallowing in the lick with
+his back broken, one buck shot (or rather one slug, for the gun was
+loaded with pieces cut from a bar of lead); one slug had struck and
+broken the spine and this was the cause of the deer bawling so loud
+as this was the only one that hit.
+
+The old shotgun was now taken from its usual corner in the kitchen
+and hung up over the mantle piece above the big fire place and well
+out of my reach. This did not stop my hunting. We had a neighbor who
+had two or three guns and he would lend me one of them. I would hide
+away hen eggs and take them to the grocery and trade them for powder
+and shot. Of course the man who owned the gun got the game, when I
+chanced to kill any, for I did not dare to carry it home. It was not
+long until father found that I was borrowing Mr. Abbott's gun, and he
+thought that if hunt I would, it would be better that I use our own
+and then he would know when I was out with it. He took the old
+flintlock to the gunsmith and had it fixed over into a cap lock, and
+now I was rigged out with both gun and traps.
+
+I will now tell you about the first bear that I killed. I was about
+thirteen years old, and it was not so common a thing for one to kill
+a bear in those days as it is now (1904), for strange as it may seem,
+bears are far more plentiful here today than they were at that time.
+
+Two of my brothers and three or four of the neighbors went into the
+woods about twelve miles and bought fifty acres of land. There was no
+one living within six or seven miles of the place. They cleared off
+four or five acres and built a good log fence around it. They also
+built a small barn and cabin. Each spring they would drive their
+young cattle out to this place, stay a few days and plant a few
+potatoes, and some corn. About once a month it was customary to go
+over to this clearing and hunt up the cattle and bring them to the
+clearing and salt them, then have a day or two of trout fishing,
+watch licks and kill a deer or two, jerk the meat and have a general
+good time.
+
+I was allowed to go on one of these expeditions, and the first night
+the men watched one or two licks and one of the men killed a deer,
+but I had to stay in camp that night with a promise that I should
+watch the second night.
+
+During the first night we heard wolves howl away upon the hills. The
+next morning the men talked very mysteriously about the wolves and
+said that it would not be safe to watch the licks that night, that no
+deer would come to the licks as long as the wolves were around. I
+took it all in and said nothing, but was determined to watch a lick
+that night. Finally one of the men, John Duell by name, said that I
+could watch the lick that he had and he would stay in camp. The one
+that I was to watch was only a short distance from the clearing. When
+the sun was about one-half hour high, I took the old shot gun, this
+time loaded with genuine buck shot and climbed the Indian ladder to
+the scaffold which was built about twenty feet from the ground in a
+hemlock tree.
+
+I sat quiet until sundown and no deer came. I thought I would tie the
+gun in the notches in the limbs, which brought the gun in proper
+range to kill the deer in the lick, should it come after dark. I got
+one string tied around the barrel and the limb when a slight noise to
+my left caused me to look in that direction and I saw a dark object
+standing in the edge of the little thicket, which I took to be a
+black creature I had seen down near the clearing when I came to the
+lick. My thoughts were that I would tie the breech of the gun fast to
+the limb, and then I would climb down and stone the animal away, so I
+went on tying the gun fast. On looking up I saw that the supposedly
+black heifer had turned out to be a black bear, and that it was going
+to go above the lick and not into it. My knife was out in an instant
+and the next moment I had the strings that held the gun cut. I raised
+it carefully to my face and about this time the bear stopped, turned
+his head around and looked back in the direction he had come. This
+was my chance, and I fired both barrels at his head and shoulders,
+and immediately there was a snorting, snarling, rolling and tumbling
+of the bear, but the maneuvers of the bear was no comparison to the
+screams and shouts that came from me. I was still making more noise
+than a band of Indians when Mr. Duell arrived on the scene and took
+in the situation. The other men who were watching other licks thought
+I had surely been attacked by the wolves by the unearthly yell I was
+making and the whole party were soon on the ground. The bear was soon
+dressed and the men gave me the cognomen of the "The Great Hunter of
+Kentucky" and so ended the killing of my first bear.
+
+I am still in hopes to take the pelts from one or two this fall and
+winter and later, I will tell of some of the incidents I have seen
+and experienced while trapping and hunting among them. Perhaps, how a
+brother of mine got a tenderfoot to ride the carcass of a deer down a
+steep and hard frozen mountain when there was about two inches of
+snow on would be interesting.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+My First Real Trapping Experience.
+
+When I was about eighteen, I received a letter from a man by the name
+of Harris, who lived in Steuben County, New York, wherein he stated
+that a Mr. Lathrop had suggested me as a suitable party to go with
+him to the region known as Black Forest. This section extends through
+four counties, the southern part of Potter and Tioga counties, and
+northern part of Clinton and Lycoming counties, Pa. Every reader
+knows or has heard of the Black Forest region.
+
+This section was and is still (1910) known as a good bear country. I
+thought it strange that Mr. Lathrop, a man of much note as a hunter,
+would recommend me, merely a boy, to go with Mr. Harris and into a
+region like the Black Forest. As Mr. Lathrop lived about four miles
+from our place I lost no time in going there to learn who this Mr.
+Harris was. I was informed that he was an old hunter and trapper
+about eighty years old and that he wanted a partner more for a
+companion than a hunter or trapper. Mr. Lathrop had met Mr. Harris
+while on a fishing tour on the Sinnamahoning waters during the summer
+and said that he knew nothing of Mr. Harris otherwise than what he
+saw of him at this meeting and to all appearances he was a fine old
+gentleman. I showed the letter to father and asked what I should do
+about it and he replied that he thought I could spend my time to a
+better advantage in school, but he did not say that I could not go
+with Mr. Harris. I therefore wrote him that I would be ready at the
+time mentioned which was the twentieth of October.
+
+Mr. Goodsil, the gunsmith in town, had been at work for some time on
+a new gun for me. Now that I was going into the woods to hunt in
+earnest, I was at the gun shop nearly every day, urging Mr. Goodsil
+to finish my gun which he did and in plenty of time. After I got my
+gun the days seemed like weeks and the weeks like months. I was
+constantly in fear that Mr. Harris would not come. But promptly at
+the time set, in the evening just before sundown, a man with a one
+horse wagon loaded with bear traps and other traps of smaller size
+and with one of the worst old rack-of-bones of a horse that I had
+ever seen, drove up to father's place, stopped and inquired if Mr.
+Woodcock lived there. I immediately asked if he was Mr. Harris, as I
+had already guessed who the man was. He replied that he was and said
+that he took it that I was the lad who was going with him.
+
+Mr. Harris said that "often an old horse and a colt" worked well
+together and that we would make a good team. While we were putting
+his horses away I asked him what he intended to do with the old horse
+and he replied that he brought him along so that if we got stuck he
+could hitch him on and help out. The other horse was a fine horse and
+I was at a loss to know what Mr. Harris meant.
+
+During the evening I thought father and Mr. Harris talked on every
+other subject rather than hunting but I managed to put in a few
+questions now and again as to what we were to do when we arrived at
+the great Black Forest.
+
+Mr. Harris was a tall, broad-shouldered man with a long beard nearly
+as white as snow. We were up early the next morning and on our way
+before daylight. Our route was over the road known as the Jersey
+Shore turnpike but after the first four miles we went through an
+unbroken wilderness for twenty miles, save only one house, then known
+as the Edcomb Place, now called Cherry Springs. The next place, ten
+miles farther on, was a group of four or five shacks called Carter
+Camp, but known now as Newbergen. This was in the year 1863 and the
+conditions over this road are the same today only the large timber
+has been mostly cut away and there is no one living at Cherry
+Springs. Five miles farther on we came to Oleana, where there was a
+hotel and store, owned by Henry Anderson, a Norwegian, who came to
+this country as the private secretary of Ole Bull, the great
+violinist, and it was here where the much talked of Ole Bull Castle
+was built.
+
+Beg pardon, I guess I am getting off the trap line. We stopped at the
+hotel for the night and the next morning purchased supplies
+sufficient to last during the entire campaign, consisting of lard,
+pork, flour, corn meal, tea, coffee, rice, beans, sugar and the
+necessary salt, pepper, etc. I remember well when Mr. Harris ordered
+fifty pounds of beans and asked me if I thought that would do? I
+replied that I thought it would. In my mind I wondered what we would
+do with all those beans. But now I wish to say to the man going into
+camp on a long hunting and trapping campaign, don't forget the beans
+as they are bread and meat.
+
+We are now within about ten or twelve miles of where we intended to
+camp, which was at the junction of the Bailey and Nebo Branches of
+Young Woman's Creek. It was about the middle of the afternoon of the
+second day we were out and Mr. Harris said that here would be a good
+place to build the camp. We got the horses out as soon as we could
+and Mr. Harris picked out a large rock; one side had a straight,
+smooth side and was high and broad enough for one end of the shanty
+and there was a fine spring close by. Mr. Harris pointed to the rock
+and said that there we had one end of our camp already as well as a
+good start towards the fire place.
+
+He told me to begin the cutting of logs for the other two sides and
+the other end. We cut the logs a suitable size to handle well and
+about twelve and fourteen feet long. Mr. Harris did the planning
+while I did the heavy part of the work.
+
+That night we slept under a hemlock tree and were up the next morning
+and had breakfast before daylight and ready for the day's work. We
+could see scuds of clouds away off in the southwest which Mr. Harris
+said did not show well for us. He had brought a good crosscut saw and
+it was not long until we had logs enough cut to put up the sides,
+about four feet high and logs for one end. We hauled the logs all up
+with the horse so they would be handy. Then we began the work of
+notching and putting up the logs.
+
+About noon a drizzling rain started and kept it up all the afternoon.
+We covered our provisions and blankets the best we could to keep them
+dry and continued to work on the camp. We got the body up, the
+rafters and a part of the roof on. We put up a ridge roof as Mr.
+Harris said it would not be necessary to have the sides quite so high
+with a steep ridge roof. We got our supplies under shelter and had a
+dry place to sleep that night. It was still raining in the morning
+but we continued to work on the camp like beavers all day and we got
+shakes split from a pine stub to finish the roof and chinking blocks
+to chink between the logs.
+
+The next morning Mr. Harris said that he would go and take the horse
+out to a farm house that was about six miles out the turnpike, known
+as the Widow Herod Place, or better known as Aunt Bettie. Mr. Harris
+said he would go while there was food enough to last the old horse a
+day or two until we were ready to use him. Then I knew that the old
+horse was doomed to be used for bear bait.
+
+When Mr. Harris started away with the horse he cautioned me not to go
+off hunting, but to stick to work on the shanty which I did like a
+"nailer." When Mr. Harris returned I had the roof on, the chinking
+all in and the gable end boarded up with shakes and all ready to
+begin calking and mudding. It was some time in the afternoon when he
+got back and after looking over the shack to see what I had done he
+said that he thought I had done so well that I was entitled to a play
+spell and suggested that we take our guns and go down along the side
+of the hill and see if we could kill a deer, remarking that we could
+use a little venison if we had it. He told me to go up onto the bench
+near the top of the hill while he would take the lower bench and he
+would hunt the side hill along down the stream until dark.
+
+Mr. Harris had a single barrel gun with a barrel three or four feet
+long which he called Sudden Death, and it weighed twelve or fourteen
+pounds. As for me I had my new double barrel gun which I have
+mentioned before. We had not gone far until I heard the report of a
+gun below me and soon I heard Mr. Harris "ho-ho-hoa," and I hurried
+to where the howling came from and found him already taking the
+entrails out of a small doe. I suggested to Mr. Harris that we take
+the deer down to the creek before we dressed it and that by so doing
+we probably could catch a mink or coon with the entrails. He
+consented to do so and after we had taken out the entrails Mr. Harris
+noticed a fine place to catch a fox or some other animal and pointed
+to a large tree that had fallen across the stream.
+
+The tree had broken in two at the bank, on the side of the stream
+where we were. The water had swung the trunk of the tree down the
+stream until there was a space of three or four feet between the end
+of the tree and the bank. Mr. Harris took a part of the offal from
+the deer and carried it across to the opposite bank and placed the
+remainder on the side where we were. He then placed an old limb for a
+drag to the trap at the place where he wanted to set the trap. As we
+had no traps with us we went to camp and early the next morning we
+took two traps and went to this place and set them.
+
+We put in that day finishing the camp, putting in the door and fixing
+the chimney to the fireplace and calking all the cracks between the
+logs and mudded tight between the logs and all the joints. Now the
+camp being completed we began setting the bear traps. The old horse
+was taken onto a chestnut ridge and shot, cut up into small pieces
+suitable for bear bait, and hung up in small saplings such as we
+could bend down. After the bait was fastened to the tree we let it
+spring up so as to keep it out of the reach of any animal until we
+had a trap set.
+
+The way Mr. Harris set a bear trap was to build a V shaped pen about
+three feet long and about the same in height, place the bait in the
+back end of the pen and set the trap in the entrance. We had eleven
+bear traps and after they were all set on different ridges where
+bears were most likely to travel, we began the work of setting the
+small traps which was not a long job, as we had only about forty.
+
+The next morning Mr. Harris said that I had better go down and see if
+the traps we had set had been disturbed and he said that he would
+rest while I was gone.
+
+When I came in sight of the traps I could see a fox bounding around
+in one of the traps. I could see on looking at the trap we had placed
+across the creek that the drag had been moved closer to the log but I
+could see nothing moving. I cut a stick and killed the fox when I
+crossed over to see what was in the other trap and to my disgust
+there was a skunk. I was not particularly in love with skunks in
+those days, for while they scented just as loud at that time as now
+they were vastly lacking in the money value. I took hold of the clog
+and carefully dragged the skunk to the creek and sank him in the
+water. I now went back to the other side of the creek and set the fox
+trap and when I had the trap set the skunk was good and dead. I reset
+the trap and took the fox and skunk to camp without skinning. When I
+got to camp I found Mr. Harris busy making stretching boards of
+different sizes for different animals from shakes that we had left
+when covering the roof. Mr. Harris laughed and said that he knew that
+we would need them when I got back. The fox and skunk were skinned,
+stretched and hung up on the outside of the gable of the shack, and
+that was the starting point of our catch of the season.
+
+We set the most of our small traps along the streams for foxes and
+mink, taking a few to the ridges to set in likely places to catch a
+fox, and at thick laurel patches where we were likely to catch a wild
+cat as there was a bounty of $2 on them.
+
+After the small steel traps were set we began building a line of
+deadfalls for marten and fisher. After the deadfalls were built we
+divided our time between hunting deer and tending the traps.
+
+We caught three bears, two fisher, which were very scarce, as I do
+not think that fishers were ever very plentiful in this state, a good
+bunch of marten, foxes, four or five wildcats and killed twenty-two
+deer. The last days of December Mr. Harris said that we would prepare
+to go home as the deer season closed the first of January. Although
+the law gave until the fifteenth to get your deer we had dragged the
+most of ours up to the Bailey Mill at various times. We got all those
+around the mill and sent them to Jersey Shore by freight teams to the
+railroad, then shipped them to New York. We got 15 cents for saddles
+and 10 cents for the whole deer.
+
+Mr. Harris had brought an auger with him so that he could make a
+sleigh to go home with and from birch saplings we made one and on the
+thirteenth of January I went and got the horse. He was as fat as a
+pig and felt like a colt. We hitched him up to the sleigh and got our
+stuff up to the Bailey Mill where we loaded the wagon onto the sleigh
+and piled on the furs and the rest of our outfit and early on the
+morning of the fourteenth we started for home. This ended my first
+real experience as a hunter and trapper.
+
+I received two or three letters from Mr. Harris, the last one in
+which he stated that he was not feeling very well and I never heard
+from him again.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Some Early Experiences.
+
+In 1871 or 1872 I had several bear traps made by our local blacksmith
+and I started in as a bear trapper and went it alone. After being out
+with Mr. Harris I had taken some valuable lessons on trapping bear
+and other animals. I built a good log camp on the West Branch of Pine
+Creek and went to trapping and hunting without either partner or
+companion, but after being in camp the first season I bought a
+shepherd dog that was a year old and broke him for still hunting and
+trapping. I found that a good intelligent dog was not only a
+companion but also a valuable one. I have noticed that some trappers
+do not want a dog on the trap line with them, claiming that the dog
+is a nuisance. This is because the dog was not properly trained.
+
+To get back to the bear trapping: In the locality where I was
+trapping, bear were not very plentiful except in season, when there
+was a crop of beechnuts, although there was but little other shack,
+such as chestnuts and acorns. However, some seasons there would be an
+abundance of black cherries which the bears are very fond of. I set
+three traps at the head of a broad basin where there were three or
+four springs and the next day I set the balance of my bear traps;
+then I built a few deadfalls for coons and set a few steel traps for
+fox.
+
+As I had seen several fresh bear tracks crossing the stream, where I
+had been setting the coon traps, on the morning of the third day
+after I had set the first three bear traps, I thought that I would go
+and look after them. They were about a mile and a half from camp and
+when I came in sight of the first trap I saw that I had a bear. You
+may be sure that I again felt like a mighty hunter. I was more
+pleased over this one bear than I was over the eight bear we had
+caught when I was with Mr. Harris, because now I was the trapper and
+not Mr. Harris. The bear was a good sized female. She had become fast
+only a short distance from where the trap was set. I shot and skinned
+the bear then cut the carcass into quarters, bent down a sapling and
+hung a quarter of the bear on this. With a forked pole I raised the
+sapling up until the meat was out of the way of small animals that
+might happen along.
+
+After hanging up three of the quarters in this manner, leaving one to
+take to camp, I took the lungs and liver and put them in the bait
+pen. The bait had all been eaten and I was quite sure it had been
+done after the bear was caught, as a bear immediately loses its
+appetite after placing its foot in a good, strong trap. I really
+expected to find another bear in one of the other traps as they were
+not far away, but the other traps were undisturbed.
+
+The next morning I thought I would take some bait from camp and bait
+the trap where I had put the offals from the bear, fearing that
+should a bear come along it might not eat the bait that was in the
+pen. You may imagine my surprise when I came in sight of the trap to
+see another bear fast in the trap.
+
+After killing the bear I removed the entrails and started to carry
+the bear to camp. It was a cub and I could carry it without cutting
+it in parts. I was just about to start for camp when I decided I
+would go to the other traps. If I was surprised at seeing the first
+cub, I was doubly so, for there was another cub tangled up in the
+trap. Do you think I felt gay? Well, that was no name for it.
+
+I shot this cub and without waiting to dress it I took a lively gait
+to the other trap to see if there were any more bears but there was
+nothing there. The last two bears, I think were the cubs of the old
+bear that I had caught the night before. I spent the entire day
+getting the bears to camp. I did not get any more bear for some time
+although I had an opportunity to learn a whole lot about them.
+
+Some days after I got the old bear and the cubs, I found the bait pen
+in one of the traps torn down by a bear, which had taken the bait and
+had not sprung the trap. Right here I will say that I learned a great
+deal more about the habits of Bruin. After finding the bait gone I
+thought that all I would have to do was to make the bait pen a little
+stronger so Bruin could not tear it down so readily to get at the
+bait. I did not think that a bear knew anything about "trapology,"
+for the experience I had so far in bear trapping was that bears knew
+but little more about a trap than a hog, though later I found I was
+very much mistaken.
+
+  [Illustration: SETTING A LARGE STEEL TRAP FOR BEAR.]
+
+The trap was set in a small brook where there were plenty of rocks of
+all sizes. I rolled several of these rocks, as large as I could
+handle, up about the bait pen to strengthen it to such an extent that
+Bruin would not think of tearing it down. I figured the bear by going
+over the trap would take the bait from the entrance of the pen as a
+good bear should; though in this I was greatly mistaken. The second
+day I went to the trap with full expectation of finding Bruin fast in
+the trap, but again I was disappointed--Bruin had again gone to the
+back of the pen and torn the top of the pen off, rolling away some of
+the stones, taking the bait.
+
+Now I saw that if I was to get my friend Bruin, I would have to work
+a little strategy. I removed the trap from the clog, leaving the clog
+undisturbed and making all appear just the same as it did when the
+trap was set. I was very careful to have the covering of the trap
+left just the same as when the trap was set. Then I got another clog
+and set the trap at the back of the pen at the place where the bear
+had torn off the top of the bait pen. Here I concealed the trap and
+clog as completely as I knew how and being very careful to make all
+appear just as before the trap was set, flattering myself that Bruin
+would surely put his foot in it this time.
+
+I went early the next morning, being sure that I would find Bruin,
+but no bear had been there. I went again early the next morning with
+high expectations of finding Bruin waiting for me, but again nothing
+had been disturbed. Thinking that Bruin had left that locality
+altogether, or that he would not be back again for several days, I
+thought I would go and have a team come and take out the furs and
+game I had, and give Bruin time to get back after more bait. As I had
+caught no bear at the other traps, I felt quite certain that Bruin
+was still somewhere in the neighborhood and would be around again
+after more bait.
+
+When I reached home an old gentleman by the name of Nelson who was a
+noted hunter and trapper and who lived near us, came to see me. Let
+me explain who this Mr. Nelson was, as I shall have more to say of
+him.
+
+Mr. Nelson was one of the early settlers in this county, moving here
+at an early date from Washington County, New York State. He was known
+here as Uncle Horatio and by many as Squire Nelson, as he was a
+Justice of the Peace here for thirty years.
+
+Mr. Nelson would always come to our house as soon as he found that I
+was at home, to see what luck I had in the way of trapping and
+hunting. On this occasion, Mr. Nelson, or Uncle Horatio, as we always
+called him, was soon over to learn what luck I had and when I told
+him what sort of a time I had trying to outwit the bear, he said I
+had better build a deadfall and let the bear kill himself. Uncle said
+that Bruin would give me much trouble and was likely to leave and I
+would not get him at all. This idea I did not like, for I had, before
+this, been put to my wit's end to outwit a cunning old fox, but
+finally succeeded in catching him and I thought I could outwit such a
+dumb thing as a bear. I thought if I could not get the bear in a
+steel trap, there would be but little use trying to get him in such a
+clumsy thing as a deadfall--however, Uncle had trapped bear long
+before I was born and knew what he was talking about.
+
+As soon as I got back to camp I went to the bear trap to relieve
+Bruin of his troubles, but it was not the bear that was in trouble,
+but myself, for Bruin had been there and torn out a stone at one side
+of the pen and had taken the bait. Well, the case was getting
+desperate, so I got another trap and set it at the side where the
+bear took the bait the last time, taking all the pains possible in
+setting the trap, but the result was no better than before.
+
+I had made it a habit to hang on a small bait near the bear traps,
+believing that the bear would be attracted by the scent of the bait
+hanging up from the ground more than it would from the bait in the
+pen. At this trap I had hung up the bait in a bush that extended out
+from the bank over the brook and each time the bear had taken this
+bait. I now took one of the traps at the pen, leaving the clog and
+all appearances as though the trap still remained there. Getting
+another clog I concealed it under the edge of the bank and set the
+trap under the bait that I had hung in the bush. I was certain this
+time that I would outwit Bruin, but instead, the bear went onto the
+bank, pulled the bush around, took the bait and went about his
+business. Now I was getting pretty excited and began to think of the
+advice of Uncle Horatio but I was not willing to give up yet.
+
+Up the brook, fifty or sixty feet from the bait pen, there had fallen
+a small, bushy hemlock tree which stood on the right hand bank of the
+spring, and the top of the tree reached nearly over to the opposite
+bank. I had noticed that when the bear had come to the trap he had
+come down the brook and went back the same way. The water was shallow
+in the brook, barely covering the stones and fallen leaves all over
+the bed of the brook. Going to the top of the hemlock tree, I saw
+that the bear had passed between the top of this tree and the bank of
+the brook. Here was a fine place to conceal the trap and I said, "Old
+fellow, here I will surely outwit you." I took the trap from the bait
+pen and set it in the open space between the top of the tree and
+concealing all the very best I could, I again put more bait in the
+bait pen and hung up more on the bush.
+
+I waited two days and then went to the traps again, wondering all the
+way what the result would be. Well, it was the same as before. The
+bear had gone to the bush on the bank, taken the bait, and had also
+taken the bait from the bait pen as usual. Now I thought it quite
+time to try Uncle's plan, though I had but little faith in it.
+
+It was several miles to Mr. Haskins', the nearest house, but I lost
+no time in getting there for I was now feeling desperate. Mr. Haskins
+readily consented to help me build a deadfall. We cut a beech tree
+that was about fourteen inches through, that stood back in thick
+undergrowth some rods from the bait pen. We cut a portion about four
+feet long from the large end of the tree for the bed-piece and
+placing it against the small tree for one of the stakes. With levers
+we placed the tree on top of the bed-piece and with three other good
+stakes driven at each side of the logs fastened the tops of the
+stakes together with withes to strengthen them, we soon had a good,
+strong deadfall made, as every boy who is a reader of the H-T-T,
+knows how to build. We baited the trap and set it, getting done in
+time for Mr. Haskins to get home before dark.
+
+I again put bait back in the bait pen and on the bush as before and
+patiently awaited results. The second day I looked after the traps
+but there were no signs of bear being about either the deadfall or
+the steel traps and I feared that I had frightened Bruin out of the
+country in building the deadfall. I put in three or four days looking
+after other traps, thinking but little about the bear that had, so
+far, been beyond my skill.
+
+After three or four days, I again went to the deadfall, wondering and
+imagining all kinds of things. When I came to the steel traps the
+bait was still undisturbed and I was now sure that that particular
+bear was not for me, but when I stepped into the thicket so that I
+could see the deadfall, there was Bruin, good and dead. When I looked
+at the bear I found that he had three toes gone from one foot and
+this I thought to be the cause of his being so over-shy of the steel
+traps.
+
+I learned a lesson that has since served me more than one good turn.
+
+* * *
+
+In later years it was customary for many of my friends to come to my
+camp and spend a few days with me. It was of one of these occasions
+that I will relate. Two young men, named Benson and Hill, had sent me
+word that they were coming out to my camp and hunt a few days; also
+to go with me to my bear traps but added that they did not suppose
+that I would get a bear while they were in camp, even if they would
+stay all winter.
+
+It had been drizzling sort of a rain for several days and every old
+bear hunter knows that dark, lowery weather is the sort bears like to
+do their traveling in. I had set the time to go out on a stream known
+as the Sunken Branch, to look after some fox traps and also two bear
+traps that I had in that section the day I got word from Benson and
+Hill that they would be over to camp the next day. I thought I would
+put off going to look after the traps in that locality until the boys
+came over and should I have the luck to find a bear in one of the
+traps it would come very acceptable to have the help to get the bear
+to camp for it was some four or five miles to the farthest trap.
+
+The boys came as they said but the next morning after they got there
+it was raining very hard and they did not want to go out and did not
+want me to go until it slacked up. Well, the next morning it was
+raining hard and the boys were in no better mood to go out than the
+day before. It had been several days since I had been to the traps,
+in that direction, and there were some chestnuts in that locality
+where the bear traps were set. The storm had knocked the chestnuts
+out and it was probable that bears would be in that locality. I told
+the boys I did not like to let the traps go any longer without
+looking after them and they could stay in camp and I would go to the
+traps. When I was about ready to start, Hill said that he would go
+with me, notwithstanding the rain, though Benson tried to persuade us
+not to go, stating that no bear was fool enough to travel in such a
+rain and that all we would get would be a good thorough soaking.
+
+I was determined to delay no longer looking at the traps and started
+off when Hill said, "Well, I'm with you." So we took the nearest cut
+possible to reach the traps. Hill was continually wishing we would
+find a bear in one of the traps and that he could shoot it so that he
+could joke with Benson.
+
+Our route took us along the top of a ridge for about three miles when
+we dropped off to the first trap. When we were still half way up the
+side of the ridge I saw that Hill had got his wish for I could see a
+bear rolling and tumbling about down in the hollow and knew that it
+was fast in the trap. I tried to point it out to Hill but he could
+not get his eye on it, so we went farther down the hill when Jim
+(that was Hill's given name) could see the bear. He said there was no
+need of going closer, that he could shoot it from where we were, but
+I said we must go closer as I did not like to make holes in the body
+of the skin unnecessarily. We had only taken a few steps farther when
+Jim said we were plenty close, that he could, shoot it from where we
+were and that if we should go closer the bear might break out of the
+trap and escape.
+
+With all my urging I could not get Hill closer so I told him to be
+sure that he shot the bear in the head and not in the body. I
+discovered that Hill was very nervous and told him to take all the
+time necessary to make a sure shot. When the gun cracked I saw a twig
+fall that the gun had cut off fully three feet above the bear's head.
+I urged Hill a few yards closer when he tried again with no better
+results than the first shot. After making the third shot Hill said he
+guessed that I had better shoot the bear as he thought something had
+gone wrong with the sights on his gun. It was raining hard so I
+killed the bear and took the entrails out, set the trap again and
+left the bear lying on the ground. As it was a small bear we
+concluded to take the bear to camp whole.
+
+We hurried on to the next trap which was about a mile farther down
+the stream. When we got to where the trap was set it was gone, but
+the way things were torn up we could see that we had a bear this time
+that was no small one.
+
+The bear had worked down the stream, first climbing the hill on one
+side of the stream until it became entangled in a jam of brush or old
+logs, then back down the hill and up on the other side until it
+became discouraged, when it would try the other side again. The bear
+was continuously getting the clog fast under the roots of trees or
+against old logs when it would gnaw the brush and tear them out by
+the roots. It was also noticed where he would rake the bark on the
+trees in trying to climb them, in hopes of escaping the drag that was
+following him. The bear would gnaw and tear old logs to pieces
+whenever the clog became fast against them.
+
+This was all very interesting and exciting to Hill and he said he
+would give Benson the laugh when we got to camp. Hill had made me
+promise not to tell Benson how he had shot three times at the bear's
+head and missed it.
+
+The bear had worked his way down the stream nearly a mile from where
+the trap was set, when we came upon him and shot him at once. Hill
+declaring that it was getting too near night and raining too hard for
+him to practice on shooting bear any more that day.
+
+We skinned the bear, hung up the meat, took the trap and skin and
+went back up the creek and set the trap in the same place again.
+Taking the bear skin we started back to where we left the other bear.
+After carrying the whole bear and bear skin until it was dark, we
+hung the bear skin up in the crotch of a tree, taking the bear and
+hurrying to camp at as lively a gait as we were able to make.
+
+Hill said that while we had had a pretty rough day of it he would
+make it all up in getting the joke on Benson if I would not give him
+away on shooting the bears, as Hill was to tell Benson all about how
+he did it.
+
+Before we came to camp I said to Hill that if he cared to we would
+play a joke on Benson. He wished to know what the plan was. I said
+that we would fix the bear up in the path that led from the shack to
+the spring and get Benson to go after a pail of water and run onto
+the bear. So we planned to have Benson think that we got no bear and
+after supper was over I was to take the pail and start to the spring
+after a pail of fresh water when Hill was to interfere and insist
+that Benson should go for the water as he had been in camp all day
+and needed exercise.
+
+It was about a hundred feet from the shack to the spring and down
+quite a steep bank and about half way from the shack to the spring
+was a beech log across the path. When we got near camp we made no
+noise and when we came to the spring we washed our hands carefully to
+remove any blood that might be on them. Then we took the bear to the
+log that was across the path and placed the forepaws and shoulders up
+over the log leaving the hind parts on the ground, then with a small
+crotched stick placed under the bear's throat to hold up its head we
+had it fixed up to look as natural as we were able to in the dark.
+
+We went into the shack looking as downcast as a motherless colt. It
+was unnecessary to deny getting any bear for Benson told us almost
+before we were inside that we should have known that we would get no
+bear in any such weather as we were having and none but simpletons
+would have gone out in such rain.
+
+We ate our supper which Benson had waiting for us. We had little to
+say farther than to talk of what a fearful rain we were having. After
+supper was over I took the water pail, though it was nearly full of
+water, and threw the water out the door before Benson had time to
+object, saying that I would get a pail of fresh water. Hill said that
+we should let Benson go after the water as he had not been out of the
+shanty all day and needed some fresh air. Benson consented to go
+after another pail of water although he said that he had brought the
+water that we had thrown out just before we came. I told Benson that
+I would hold the light at the door so he could see but Benson replied
+that I need not bother, all that was necessary was to leave the door
+of the shack open so that he could see his way back.
+
+About the time that Benson reached the log he gave a terrible howl
+and we heard the water pail go rattling through the brush and when we
+got to the door Benson was coming on all fours, scrambling as fast as
+he could and yelling "Bah--bah--bear--bear!"
+
+Hill nor I could not keep from roaring with laughter, and finally
+Hill managed to say, "Oh, you didn't see any bear."
+
+Benson made no reply but was as white as a sheet and shook as though
+he had the ague. We could not conceal our feelings and when Benson
+found his speech he said, "You think you are mighty cunning; if you
+got a bear why didn't you say so and not act like two dumb idiots."
+
+We had laughed so hard that Benson caught on and the game was up.
+
+Well, after Benson was onto our joke, nothing would do but we must
+get the bear in and skin out the fore parts so we could have some
+bear meat cooked before we went to bed. Every time Hill awoke during
+the night he would burst out laughing while Benson would hurl a few
+cuss words at him.
+
+The next day we brought in the skin and saddles of the other bear,
+leaving the fore quarters for fox and marten bait.
+
+The rain now being about over with and the ground and leaves
+thoroughly soaked, it was a good time for still hunting deer, so we
+were all out early the next morning. We started out together and soon
+became separated and it so happened that I was the only one to get a
+deer during the day. When I got to camp I found Benson was not in
+yet, so I did not tell that I had killed a deer, but thought I would
+wait until Benson came in and see what luck he had. If he had not
+killed anything I would give him the hint and let him have the credit
+of killing the deer that I got as a sort of off-set on Hill on the
+bear hunt. I stayed outside gathering dry limbs for wood until I saw
+Benson coming and I planned to meet him before Hill got to talk to
+him. I learned that Benson had not killed anything, so I told him
+where I had killed the deer and that if he cared to he could claim
+the deer as his game. Benson was much pleased with the idea and as I
+had told him just where I had killed the deer it was easy for Benson
+to explain to Hill where the deer was shot. Hill did not believe that
+Benson had killed a deer and said he would not believe he (Benson)
+had killed one if he did not know that he had been alone and anyway
+he must see the deer before he would believe it. I took the first
+opportunity when Hill was out to tell Benson which way to go so that
+he would be sure to find the deer and the next morning the boys went
+out and brought in the deer while I went to look after some traps.
+The boys stayed a day or two longer and then went home declaring that
+they had had the best hunt of their lives.
+
+I will now tell of some of my hunting and trapping with Mr. Nelson
+and my first experience with a big cat. About 1860, when I was a mere
+chunk of a boy, a man by the name of Perry Holman was camping on the
+extreme headwaters of Pine Creek, hunting and trapping. Early one
+morning Mr. Holman came out of the woods after groceries and other
+necessaries. On his way out he saw where a small bear had crossed the
+road just at the top of the hill on the old Jersey Shore turnpike and
+about five miles from Mr. Nelson's place. Mr. Nelson at that time
+always kept one or two good bear dogs. Mr. Holman told Mr. Nelson of
+the bear's track and said that the bear had gone into a laurel patch
+on the west side of the road and that the track was very fresh. He
+thought if Mr. Nelson would take his dogs and go out that he could
+get the bear without much trouble as he believed the bear would still
+be in the laurels close to the road.
+
+Mr. Nelson told Mr. Holman to get his groceries while he would come
+to see if I would go along to look after the team while Mr. Nelson
+and Mr. Holman went into the laurels after the bear. Of course, I was
+ready for anything that had hunt in it. The sleighing was good and
+Mr. Nelson was soon ready, taking his dogs into the sleigh so that
+they would not break off on the track of a deer or some other animal.
+
+When we came to where Mr. Holman saw the bear or cub, Mr. Nelson, or
+Uncle as we always called him, said to Mr. Holman before he got out
+of the sleigh:
+
+"Perry, that is no cub's track; that is a big cat and I think we will
+find him in the laurel patch."
+
+Uncle told me to stay with the team and that they would not be gone
+long; that if the track led off he would come back to the sleigh and
+I could go back with the team and he would go to Mr. Holman's camp
+and stay over night and come home the next day.
+
+The dogs were anxious to take the trail, but Uncle held them in to
+the laurels. They had not been gone more than ten minutes when the
+dogs began to give tongue like mischief. I could see that the dogs
+were coming towards the road and in about a minute saw the biggest
+cat that I had ever seen at that time, shinning up a large tree that
+was not further than fifty yards from the sleigh. The dogs were soon
+at the tree barking their best and in a few minutes I heard the crack
+of a gun and the big cat seemed to fly out into the air. I could hear
+the cat go threshing down through the limbs on the trees and the dogs
+doubled their howling and I could hear the men laugh. I called to the
+men to see if they got the cat. Uncle told me to watch the horses and
+they would soon be there, and they were soon in sight dragging a
+large panther instead of either a cub or cat. Uncle drove down to
+where Holman's path left the road to go down to his camp and we then
+drove back home. Uncle was greatly pleased over Perry's cat hunt as
+Mr. Nelson called it.
+
+* * *
+
+In or about the year '67 or '68, Uncle Horatio Nelson, whom I have
+spoken of before, had for years been accustomed to going to Edgecomb
+Place, later known as Cherry Springs, to hunt and trap. Wolves were
+then more plentiful than foxes are at the present time.
+
+I will explain that Cherry Springs was simply a farm house built of
+logs. This house was located about half way through, or in the center
+of a dense forest of about twenty miles square. The Jersey Shore
+turnpike ran through this vast forest and the stage or any traveler
+going through this region were obliged to stop at this house to feed
+at noon, or to stop over night, this being the only house on the
+road.
+
+From where this house was located there was easy access to the waters
+of Pine Creek, which flowed east, to the waters of the Cross Fork of
+Kettle Creek, which flowed south and to the waters of the East Fork
+of the Sinnamahoning which flowed west. There was no one living on
+any of these streams for many miles. This was the point where Mr.
+Nelson, or Uncle, as I shall call him, hunted for many years.
+
+At the time I am writing of, it had been a noted place for many
+hunters to stop from all parts of the country. There were almost too
+many hunters stopping at Cherry Spring to suit Uncle as he was
+getting pretty well along in years and did not like so much company.
+I had been camping a greater part of the time for several seasons
+about five miles north of Cherry Springs and one day Uncle said, if I
+cared to, he would go on to Crossfork and build a cabin and we would
+hunt and trap, more particularly trap. This was satisfactory to me
+although I had a good camp where I was trapping and in a fairly good
+locality for game, but the Crossfork country was a little farther in
+the tall timber so I thought that the change might be a good thing.
+
+About the first of October we took a team, went into the woods and
+cut out a sort of a turkey trail from the wagon road down to Boon
+Road Hollow to the Hog's Back branch of the Crossfork, where we
+selected a sight for the camp. We felled a large hemlock tree and cut
+off four logs of suitable length to make the body of the camp about
+ten by twelve feet inside. We worked them around in shape fitting the
+two shorter logs in between the ends of the two longer logs; then
+placing rafters at about half pitch, put on the covering, chinked and
+calked all the cracks and built a chimney of stones, sticks and clay
+and put in a door.
+
+We were now ready for the trap line. We set the bear traps on
+different ridges where we thought would be the most likely places for
+bears to travel. Then we put out two lines of deadfalls for marten.
+We then took the different branches and spring runs, building more
+deadfalls for mink and coons, setting the greater part of our steel
+traps for foxes. After all the steel traps but three or four were
+set, Uncle said that if I would go down the creek and set the balance
+of the steel traps, he would go and look after the first of the bear
+traps that we had set. I set the steel traps for foxes and built one
+or two more deadfalls farther down the creek. I think that I found a
+mink and one coon in the deadfalls that we had set in that section.
+
+I got to camp about dark but Uncle had not come yet. I hustled supper
+to have it ready when he came, but when supper was ready I could
+neither see nor hear anything of him. After waiting some time I
+concluded to eat and then if he did not come I would go in the
+direction he had taken as I now suspected that he had gotten a bear
+and was bringing in what he could carry and that I would meet him and
+help him in with his load. Before I started out to see if I could
+find him I gave several long and loud "coohoopes," but got no answer.
+I concluded I would fire a couple of gunshots and see if I could get
+an answer, but got no reply save the hoot of an owl.
+
+I now began to feel alarmed, fearing that some misfortune had
+happened Uncle as he knew every rod of the ground in that section. I
+had no lantern so I made two good torches from fat pine, having a
+good supply in camp, and followed the stream until I came to a little
+draw where we had a bear trap set. This trap had not been disturbed,
+so I climbed the hill to the top of the ridge when I fired two more
+gunshots but still got no response. I was now thoroughly alarmed as I
+knew that a gunshot on the still night air could be heard a long ways
+from the high ridge I was on.
+
+With the aid of another torch I hurried on to the next bear trap and
+upon arriving at the second trap I saw that the clog was gone and
+that there was a trail leading off through the leaves and
+undergrowth. I now knew that it was something in connection with the
+bear that was detaining Uncle, but what it was I could not tell.
+
+I followed the trail with the aid of the torch for fifty yards when I
+came to a fallen tree that lay up about a foot from the ground. Here
+I found the clog that had been fastened to the trap. I could see that
+the trap ring had been moved from the clog by the aid of a hatchet. I
+searched about but could find no signs of the trap nor of the bear
+and I could no longer follow the trail by the aid of the torch, the
+last one being now pretty well burned out. There was nothing for me
+to do but go back to camp and wait until morning.
+
+When I was within a mile or less of camp, I heard the report of a gun
+in the direction of camp and knew that Uncle had arrived and was
+firing his gun to let me know that he was in camp. I answered the
+call by firing my gun and hurried on to camp to see what had detained
+him.
+
+The bear had gone over the fallen tree while the end of the clog had
+caught under the log and a weak link in the trap chain had given
+away, Bruin going off with the trap. Uncle had followed the bear
+several miles when dark came on. He followed down the stream to where
+it came in to the branch that the camp was on, and being over a ridge
+and so far from the camp was the cause of him not hearing the
+gunshots that I had fired. Uncle followed the bear until dark so as
+to know about where he was in case a snow should fall to fill up the
+trail.
+
+It was after midnight when we turned in but we were up in good season
+the next morning and taking a lunch in our knapsacks and each a
+blanket, we started for the wind jam to see if we could find the
+bear. Uncle took me to the bear's trail at the edge of the wind jam
+where I waited, giving him time to get around on the opposite side of
+the jam, at a point, where the bear was likely to come out, provided
+I should start him. I had not followed the trail far into the jam
+before I came to where the bear had made a bed by breaking down
+briers and gnawing down saplings, but he did not stay long at this
+place when he again went on.
+
+I soon came to another such bed and after finding several more, came
+to one that was fresher than the others. I could see that the bed had
+been made during the night. I now began to work my way along the
+trail very cautiously with my gun in hand ready for action and my
+heart in my mouth for I knew that Bruin would soon be on the move. I
+worked my way through the jam at a snail's pace and soon heard the
+rattle of the trap and could see the brush move not more than a
+hundred feet away.
+
+The undergrowth was so thick that I could get no distinct sight of
+the bear but fired a shot more to let Uncle know that Bruin was on
+the move than of any expectation of hitting him. When the gun cracked
+the bear gave a snort like that of a frightened hog and I could hear
+him tearing through the brush at a great rate. It was not long until
+I heard Uncle shoot and in the course of two or three minutes I heard
+him shoot again and knew that Bruin had given up the trap.
+
+After I had gone along the trail quite a ways, I saw a few drops of
+blood now and then and when I reached Uncle he was already skinning
+the bear. We found three holes in the bear. Uncle's second shot which
+was the finishing shot, hit the bear in the head. The shot that I
+fired caught Bruin just forward of the hips and undoubtedly would
+have killed him in time.
+
+We skinned the bear and took the hind quarters, the skin and trap and
+started for camp. I must say that I think this was the hardest stunt
+of packing that I remember and every old trapper knows what sort of a
+job of toting he often runs up against. We went down the run about
+two miles before coming to the stream that our camp was on, and then
+we had to go up this stream about four miles to camp. When we reached
+the stream it was dark; there was no path and there was a great deal
+of fallen timber and undergrowth along the creek, the creek winding
+around from one side of the valley to the other. It was a continual
+fording of the creek, climbing over fallen timber, through
+undergrowth and what not. You know no one but a trapper would be
+silly enough to do such a stunt in the dark. We arrived at camp about
+9 o'clock, wet, tired and hungry. The next morning Uncle was still a
+little sore but I was as good as new and ready for another job of the
+same kind.
+
+Some days later we had a fall of snow of several inches and the
+second or third day after the snow came we heard a number of gunshots
+south of the camp on the ridge in the direction that we had a bear
+trap set. It was near sundown and as we were not aware that there was
+anyone camping or living in the direction of the gunshots, we
+concluded it was hunters shooting at deer. The shots were at such
+long intervals that Uncle said he did not think it was anyone
+shooting at deer and that the shots sounded like they were right
+where we had a bear trap set and that he thought hunters had run onto
+a bear in our trap and were shooting at it. It was then too late to
+go to the trap. Uncle said we would get up early in the morning for
+he was sure the gunshots were close in the neighborhood in which our
+trap was set, and he thought it likely that we had a bear in the
+trap.
+
+We were on the way before it was fairly daylight but when we came to
+the place where the trap had been set we found it gone. We followed
+the trail a short distance when the tracks of three men came onto the
+trail. The men had stamped and tracked about where they came onto the
+trail as though they were holding a council and then all started off
+on the trail of the bear. They did not go far before they came up
+with the bear where the trap clog had become fast between two
+saplings. The trap was nowhere to be seen. The men had made many
+tracks where they killed the bear.
+
+Uncle said it looked as though the men intended to steal the bear
+trap and all. We saw where the track of a man led off towards a large
+log and returned. Uncle told me to follow that man's tracks and see
+what he went out there for, as probably he hid the trap behind the
+log. I found the trap clog behind the log but there was no trap. It
+was snowing some at the time the men killed the bear.
+
+When we found that the men had taken the trap and hid the trap clog
+Uncle exclaimed, "The varmints intend to steal our bear." We followed
+the trail of the men as fast as we could for we were quite sure they
+must have stopped over night not far from there for it was nearly
+dark when they killed the bear. Their trail led down the hillside to
+the main stream, then down the creek and we hustled after them as
+fast as we could go. After going down the creek a mile or more we saw
+a smoke and Uncle said, "There the varmints are," and he was right.
+We were none too soon as the men were already hitching the horses to
+the sleigh ready to start off. We could see that the bear was already
+on the sleigh, although it was covered over with a blanket. The men
+started at us but did not say a word.
+
+Uncle walked up to the end of the sleigh, caught a corner of the
+blanket, threw it back and uncovered the bear. Then taking the bear
+by the foreleg he gave it a flop onto the ground saying, "You have a
+bear, haven't you," and the bear rolled to the ground and uncovered
+the trap; Uncle said, "You have a trap, too, haven't you." Not a word
+did any of the men say and when Uncle asked them who they were and
+where they lived, one of them said that they did not intend to steal
+the bear but were going to take it to the first house and leave it
+for us.
+
+Uncle told them that we did not care to have the bear go in that
+direction and told the men they must take the bear to our camp and
+their intentions were to steal the bear and trap and that they had
+better settle the matter at once. The men were ready to settle and
+asked what it would cost and Uncle told them if they would take the
+bear to our camp and then leave the woods and not be caught in that
+section again, that he would let them go. This they readily consented
+to do and insisted that we take a part of a cheese they had brought
+in with them. Uncle told them that we did not care for their cheese
+or anything else they had--all that we wanted was that they take the
+bear to our camp and get out of the woods. This they did and one of
+them also took the cheese along and left it at the camp. Then they
+left, begging that we would not say anything farther about the
+matter.
+
+We learned that the men did not live down the creek but instead lived
+in New York State. They had come for a few days' deer hunting and had
+only made a shelter of hemlock boughs. The first day out they ran
+across the bear and as it was snowing they thought it would snow
+enough to cover up their tracks and they would take the bear and get
+back to New York State. Well, they did get back but it happened they
+left the bear behind.
+
+I would like to ask the old liners who have grown too old on the
+trail and trap line to follow it longer with profit and pleasure, if
+they keep bees? I find it a great pleasure to watch these little,
+industrious and intelligent fellows work.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Some Early Experiences (Concluded.)
+
+I will state that I began my career as a trapper and hunter at a very
+early age. The woods extended to the very door of my father's house
+and deer were more numerous than sheep in the fields at the present
+day. Bear were also quite plentiful and wolves were to be found in
+considerable numbers in certain localities. Panthers were much talked
+of and occasionally one would be killed by some hunter or trapper of
+which I will speak later.
+
+It was not long before I found my way further up the stream into the
+woods where mink and coon tracks were in real paths, and here was
+where father taught me how to make the deadfall, which was the trap
+principally used in those days.
+
+The guns that father had were one double barrel shotgun and a single
+barrel rifle, both flintlocks, and with much anxiety I watched those
+guns and begged of the older members of the family to let me shoot
+the gun but mother was ever on the watch to see that I was not
+allowed to handle the guns.
+
+About this time a man moved into the place by the name of Abbott from
+Schuylkill County, Pa., who brought two guns with him, a double
+barrel shotgun and a double barrel rifle. After doing some hard
+begging Mr. Abbott said that I could take the shotgun but that he
+could not furnish the ammunition. I later thought that Mr. Abbott
+thought that the problem of getting ammunition would put me up the
+tree. But again the will was good and I soon found a way. I began to
+watch the hen's nests pretty close and hide away the eggs and mother
+began to complain that the hens were not laying as many eggs as
+usual. Well, three dozen of eggs would get a pound of shot, a fourth
+of a pound of powder and a box of G. D. gun caps.
+
+I had some fine times out with the gun and I always gave Mr. Abbott
+whatever game I killed. I did not dare to take it home fearing that I
+would be compelled to explain how I came by the game. One day I had
+been out after wild pigeons and had got quite a number or more than I
+liked to give away and go without ourselves. I thought I would resort
+to one of those white lies that we have all heard tell of. I told my
+parents that Mr. Abbott gave me the pigeons but the plan did not
+work, although it was the making of me so far as a gun is concerned.
+
+When father inquired of Mr. Abbott as to how I got the pigeons it
+brought out the whole thing as to the gun business and also why the
+egg basket had not filled up as usual. The result was that father and
+mother held a council of war and decided that if I was to have a gun
+the better way was to let me have one of my own. Father told me that
+I must not borrow a gun any more but take one of our own guns and
+that he (father) would take the gun to the gunsmith and have the
+locks changed from a flint lock to a cap lock.
+
+You may be sure that this was the best news that this kid ever heard.
+I picked up double the usual stone piles that day and went and got
+the cows without being told a half dozen times.
+
+Well, as every hunter and trapper who is born and not made is always
+looking for taller timber and trying to get farther and farther from
+the ting-tong of the cow bells, so it was in my case. I had seen some
+whelp wolves that friends of ours (Harris and Leroy Lyman, who were
+noted hunters) had got. They had gone onto the waters of the
+Sinnemahoning and taken five pup wolves not much larger than kittens,
+from their den. The puppies were brought out alive but they killed
+the old mother wolf. On their way home they stopped at our house so
+that we could see the young wolves.
+
+I heard these hunters tell how they discovered the wolf den; how they
+had howled in imitation of a wolf to call the old wolves up; how they
+had shot the old female and had then taken the young wolves from the
+den; heard them tell of the money that the bounty on wolves would
+bring them (there was $25 bounty on all wolves then, the same as
+now). All of this made me long for the day when I would be old enough
+to do as these noted hunters had done.
+
+I had already found a den of young foxes and had kept five of them
+alive, which father finally killed all but one because he said they
+were a nuisance. I had seen some Indians bring a live elk in with
+ropes, dogs and horses, which they had roped in, after the dogs had
+brought it to bay, on a large rock on Tombs Run (Waters of Pine
+Creek).
+
+All this made me hungry for the day that I too could hit the trail
+and trap line that I might get some of those wolves and with the
+bounty money buy traps and guns to my satisfaction.
+
+A number of persons at our place (Lymansville) had gone several miles
+into the woods to the headwaters of the Sinnamahoning and taken up
+fifty acres of land. An acre or two was cleared off and the timber
+from this clearing was drawn and put in an immense pile to be used
+for the camp fire. The camp was simply a shed or leanto, open on one
+side, and in front of this shed the fire was built of beech and maple
+logs. Brook trout and game of all kinds were in abundance. Two or
+three times during the summer a party of six or eight persons would
+go out to this clearing and camp a week, killing as many deer as they
+could make use of, jerking a good portion to take home with them and
+having a general good time feasting on trout, venison and other game,
+and amusing themselves shooting at marks, pitching quoits, etc. I
+will add that the main reason they went to this camp was for a good
+time rather than the game, as game was plentiful right at their homes
+in those days.
+
+Well, it was at one of these outings that I killed my first bear. I
+was about thirteen years old, and, of course, in my own mind, it made
+a mighty hunter of me, not to be compared with Esau of old. It was in
+June and shortly after we got to camp there was a heavy thunder
+storm, but it all passed over before sundown, the sun coming out nice
+and bright. I was determined to go with some of the men to watch a
+lick (there were three or four licks not far away), but none of the
+men cared to have my company, and they said it was likely to rain
+again and made many excuses why I should not go to watch a lick with
+them. Just before they were ready to start out to the lick we heard a
+wolf howl away off on the hills and they (the men) put up the wolf
+scare on me and said that there would be no deer come to the lick so
+long as wolves were in the neighborhood. I took their stories all in
+but insisted that I would watch a lick all the same. There was a lick
+only a few hundred yards from camp, but for some cause deer rarely
+ever worked it. When they saw that I was going to watch a lick in
+spite of thunder storms, wolves or all the rest of the excuses that
+they could make, they finally said that I could watch the lick which
+I have mentioned and get eaten up by wolves.
+
+There was a blazed line from camp to the lick and when the men
+started for the licks that each one had decided on watching, I
+started to the lick that was given me to watch.
+
+There was one man left in camp to watch the horses and to keep camp.
+This man said that when he heard me shoot he would come up and help
+me bring in the deer.
+
+The blind at the lick was a scaffold built up in a tree twenty or
+thirty feet from the ground. I climbed to the scaffold and placed the
+old gun in the loops that were fastened to limbs on the tree to give
+the gun the proper range to kill the deer, should one come to the
+lick after it was too dark to see to shoot.
+
+Nothing came round the lick before dark, but as soon as it got dark I
+could hear animals walking and jumping on all sides of me and one old
+inquisitive porcupine came up the tree to see what I was doing. He
+perched himself on a limb not more than two feet from my face and sat
+there and chattered his teeth until I could stand it no longer. I
+took the large powder horn that I had strung over my shoulder with a
+cord and gave the porcupine a rap on the nose that sent him tumbling
+down the tree. I remember well how other animals scampered from under
+the tree when the porcupine tumbled down. At that time I wondered
+what it all was, but later I learned that all these animals were only
+flying squirrels, rabbits and porcupines, but I imagined that the
+noises were made by anything but squirrels and rabbits.
+
+Well, about eleven o'clock I heard something coming towards the lick
+with a steady tread like that of a man and again I was taken with a
+chill that caused the scaffold to shake, but the chill only lasted
+for a moment. Soon I heard the animal step in the soft mud and
+directly it began to suck the salt from the dirt and I was sure that
+it was a deer and that it was the right time to pull the trigger,
+which I did. When the report of the gun died away all that I could
+hear were the same noises that were made when I knocked the old
+porcupine from the tree. I now feared that I had pulled the gun on
+some other animal rather than a deer. I thought the report of the gun
+would frighten all the deer in the woods, so that no deer would go to
+the licks the men were watching. I was afraid I would get a terrible
+scolding by the men who were watching the other licks when they came
+to camp in the morning.
+
+After waiting some time and hearing no noise of any kind, I concluded
+to get down and go to camp. Upon getting down from the tree I decided
+that I would go and look in the lick and see if I could tell what it
+was that I had heard there and had shot at. As it was so dark that I
+could not see from the blind, you can imagine my surprise when I got
+to the lick to see a large buck deer lying broadside as dead as could
+be.
+
+I immediately lost all fear of being scolded by the other men, so I
+claimed first blood. I began calling for the man who remained in camp
+but could get no answer from him so I went down to camp and found him
+fast asleep. I awakened him and we immediately made a torch and went
+to the lick and dragged the deer to camp. Then we took out the
+entrails and bunked down for the rest of the night.
+
+The next thing that I knew, one of the men who had watched a lick not
+far away was kicking me and saying, "Get out of this, you old deer
+slayer, you, and get some venison frying for breakfast." We were soon
+up for the sun was shining brightly and more than an hour high. Soon
+the other watchers came in and reported that not a sound of a deer
+had they heard about their licks. Two or three of us (I say "us"
+because I was now counted as one of them) went to catch trout for
+breakfast, while the others were at work taking care of the venison
+and preparing breakfast, boiling coffee, frying venison and trout.
+And so the day was spent, sleeping, cocking and eating until it was
+again time to go to the licks, as the men wished to get another deer
+so as to have plenty of venison to take home with them. When the men
+were about ready to start to their watching places, one of them
+inquired of me what I would do as there was no further use of
+watching the lick where I had killed the deer, as it was blooded from
+the deer I had killed.
+
+The man who had watched the lick nearest the camp, and quite an old
+man, said that I could watch the lick that he had watched and he
+would stay in camp. (The men now acknowledged me as a thoroughbred
+hunter, you see.) Well, I was getting there pretty lively, I thought,
+when an old hunter would give up his lick to me, when only the
+evening before none of the men thought that I was up to watching a
+lick at any price.
+
+I was pleased to again have a place to watch. Taking some punk wood
+to make a little smoke to keep off the gnats and mosquitoes, I
+started for the lick and climbed the Indian ladder to the scaffold,
+built in a hemlock tree.
+
+I had barely got fixed in shape to begin to watch when I chanced to
+look towards a small ravine that came down from the hill a few yards
+to my left and saw what I took to be a black yearling steer. I will
+add that the woods in that locality were covered with a rank growth
+of nettles, cow cabbage and other wood's feed, and people would drive
+their young cattle off into that locality to run during the summer. I
+thought I would get down from the scaffold and throw stones at it and
+drive it off lest it might come into the lick after dark and I might
+take it for a deer and shoot it.
+
+As I started to climb down I again looked in the direction of the
+steer, and this time I saw what I thought was the largest bear that
+ever traveled the woods. He had left the ravine and was walking with
+his head down, going up the hill and past the lick. I cocked both
+barrels of the gun and raised it carefully to my shoulder, and,
+breaking a little dry twig I had in my hand caused the bear to stop
+and turn his head around so as to look down the hill. This was my
+time so I leveled on his head and shoulders and let go both barrels
+of the gun at once.
+
+The bear went into the air and then began tumbling and rolling down
+the hill towards the tree that I was in, bawling and snorting like
+mad. But if the bear made a howl from pain he was in, it was no
+comparison to the howl that I made for help and it did not cease
+until the men in camp came on the run thinking that I had
+accidentally shot myself. Well, this was my first bear and it was the
+greatest day of my life.
+
+We took the bear to camp, skinned and dressed it and then went to
+bunk for the night, but it was very little I slept for I could only
+think what a mighty hunter I was (in my mind).
+
+The men came in in the morning with no better luck than they had the
+night before, and they all declared that if I had not been with them
+they would have had to go without venison.
+
+The men said that we had meat in plenty now and that we would not
+watch the licks any more that time, so they put in their time jerking
+the venison and also some of the bear meat. They built a large fire
+of hemlock bark, and when it was burned down to a bed of coals so
+that there was no longer any smoke, they made a rack or grate of
+small poles, laid in crotches driven in the ground, so as to have the
+grate over the coals, and then laid the slices of venison on this
+grate and stood green bark about the grate to form a sort of an oven.
+The strips of meat were first sprinkled with salt and wrapped up in
+the skin from the deer and allowed to remain wrapped in the skin for
+a few hours until the salt would strike through the meat so as to
+make it about right as to salt.
+
+The men remained in camp about a week. They would shoot at a mark,
+pitch quoits and have jumping contests and other amusements,
+including fishing, eating trout, venison and bear meat along with
+toasted bread and coffee and potatoes roasted in the ashes.
+
+* * *
+
+The time had arrived when I thought that I must take to the taller
+timber to trap and hunt. I searched among the boys of my age, in the
+neighborhood, for a partner who would go with me to the Big Woods, as
+the section where I wished to go, was called. I finally found a pard
+who said he would go with me and stay as long as I cared to.
+
+The middle of October came. We packed our knapsacks with a grub
+stake, a blanket or two, and taking our guns started for the Big
+Woods, with a feeling that is not known to those who are not lovers
+of the wild.
+
+As we only had a limited number of steel traps it was our intention
+to spend the first week in camp, building deadfalls for coon and mink
+and use the steel traps for fox. Our intention was to build as many
+deadfalls as we would be able to attend to before we baited and set
+any of them. We had built our traps on many of the small brooks and
+streams to the south and east of the camp, and had built traps on the
+stream on which the camp was located nearly a mile below camp.
+
+About a mile and a half below camp there was another branch coming in
+from the north. Pard and I started early one morning to finish the
+line of traps on the camp stream and then go up the stream that came
+from the north and build as many traps as we could during the balance
+of the day. We had finished the line of traps on the camp stream, and
+had built a trap or two on the other branch, when pard complained of
+having a bad headache, but refused to go to camp. We built another
+trap or two, when pard consented to go to camp, if I would build
+another trap on a little spring run where coon signs were plentiful,
+which I readily consented to do. When I got the trap done it was
+nearly sundown.
+
+It was about three miles to camp so I hurried to see how pard was
+feeling. I had not gone more than a half mile on my way from where
+pard turned back to go to camp, when I found him lying on the ground.
+He said that he was feeling so sick that he was unable to go any
+further and complained that every bone in his body ached.
+
+After explaining to pard the conditions under which we were placed,
+it was with difficulty that I managed to get him up, and by
+supporting and half carrying him I managed to get him along a few
+rods at a time. I could see that he was continually growing worse.
+After I had helped until we were within about three-quarters of a
+mile of camp, he begged me to let him lie down and rest. I tried to
+urge him along by explaining that I must go for a team to get him out
+of the woods, and that I could not leave him lying there on the damp
+ground. It was of no use; I could not get him to go any further.
+While I was somewhat older than pard, he was much the heavier, and I
+was unable to carry him.
+
+Taking in the situation, there was only one thing for me to do and
+that was to leave him and go for help. After making him promise that
+as soon as he rested he would work his way to camp I took off my
+coat, and put it under him, again making him promise to get to camp,
+I started for help.
+
+The night was dark and it was miles through the woods to the first
+house. When I came to camp I stopped long enough to get a bite to eat
+which I took in my hand. After lighting a fire so if pard did manage
+to get to camp he would have a good fire, I started for help.
+Wherever the light would get through the trees enough so that I could
+see the path, I would take a trot. After the first mile and a half I
+came to the turnpike road where I could make better time although it
+was dense woods. After about six or seven miles I reached the first
+clearing and from there the rest of the way was more or less
+clearings and I could see the road better and was able to make better
+time.
+
+I reached pard's home about a mile before I came to my home, rattled
+at the door and called for pard's father. I told him the condition of
+his son. He requested me to go to my home and get some of my family
+to take a team and start back at once after his son; he would go
+after a doctor and have the doctor there when we got back with the
+boy. I lost no time in getting started back. We could not get nearer
+than a mile and a half to the camp, as we were obliged to leave the
+wagon road at that point, and go down a very steep hill and only a
+trail cut through the woods. When we reached the camp, contrary to
+expectations, we found Orlando (that was pard's name) lying in the
+bunk in camp but he said that he was feeling no better. It was after
+midnight and we lost no time in getting him on one of the horses and
+started back to the wagon which we reached with some difficulty. On
+reaching the wagon we laid him on a straw bed which we had brought
+for the purpose and got back to his home sometime after daybreak.
+
+The doctor was there and after examining pard said he feared it was a
+bad case of fever. I waited a few days to see if he would be able to
+go back to camp and then the doctor told me that he would not be out
+of bed in two months and advised me to keep out of the woods or I
+would be brought out on a stretcher. I had my mind on all those
+deadfalls that we had built and all the coon, mink and fox that we
+could catch, and was determined to go back to camp notwithstanding
+our friend's advice to the contrary. After looking around for another
+partner which I was unable to find as no one wished to go and stay
+longer than a day or two (what we call summer trappers), I again
+packed my knapsack and went back to camp. The next morning, after
+catching a good lot of trout for coon and mink bait, I began the work
+of setting the hundred or more deadfalls that pard and I had built.
+As soon as I had all the deadfalls set I hunted up good places to set
+the traps that we had. I was so busy all the time that there was no
+chance to get lonesome. Every day there were coon and mink to skin
+and stretch. Now and then a big, old coon was so strong that he would
+tear the deadfall to pieces and I would be compelled to build it all
+over and make it stronger.
+
+What a difference there is now with the many styles of traps and the
+H-T-T to guide the young hunter and trapper. If I could have had a
+couple dozen of the No. 1 1/2 Victor traps made as at the present
+time, I would have been as proud as a small boy with a new pair of
+boots, although I think what was lacking in modern traps was fully
+made up by the number of furbearing animals.
+
+I had been so busy during the two weeks I was in camp that I had
+forgotten the day of the week; neither did I take time to kill a deer
+or to go up to the road to see if anyone had written, to see if I was
+dead or alive. There was a stage passed over the road twice a week. I
+had nailed a box with a good tight lid on a tree by the road so that
+I could send a line out home for anything I wanted or my family could
+write to me.
+
+I had two or three traps set for foxes up towards the road along the
+edge of a laurel patch where there were plenty of rabbits and the
+foxes worked around to catch rabbits. I thought I would go to the
+road and be there about the time the stage passed along and see if I
+could hear anything from pard and the folks at home and then I could
+tend the traps on my way back to camp.
+
+  [Illustration: WOODCOCK AND SOME OF HIS CATCH.]
+
+I was at the road shortly before the stage came along and was
+surprised as well as delighted to see a neighbor boy by the name of
+Frank Curtis aboard the stage as he had said he would come over and
+stay a day or two with me in camp. Frank had not been allowed to
+spend much time with a gun or traps, but like most boys, he liked a
+gun. My mother died before I was eleven years old and father allowed
+me to trap and hunt about as I liked.
+
+When we got down near the traps we set our packs down--I say we, for
+my folks had sent me a new supply of provisions--and went to look
+after the traps. The first one had a rabbit leg in it and it was
+plain to be seen that some animal had eaten the rabbit. We reset the
+trap and went on to the next trap which was set in a little gorge or
+hollow. A few yards below the trap two large trees had blown down
+across the little hollow. The tree on the side farthest down the hill
+from the trap had broken in two where it fell over the hollow and
+dropped down so that it laid close to the ground while the tree on
+the upper side, the side nearest the trap, lay a foot from the ground
+in the hollow.
+
+The trees were two or three feet apart right at the hollow but were
+close together on one side. When we came to where the trap had been
+set we found trap and drag gone and nothing in sight. We soon
+discovered the animal which we supposed was a coon, had gone down the
+ravine toward the two large trees that had fallen across the hollow.
+We went to the logs and looked between them. There we could see the
+clog but the animal was crowded back under the logs so we could see
+but little of it.
+
+Frank said that he would get between the logs and poke the coon out.
+I told him that he had better let me go, as I was afraid that he
+would take a hold of the clog and pull the trap loose from the coon's
+foot, but Frank grabbed a stick and jumped between the logs. He had
+hardly struck the ground when he gave a fearful yell and there was a
+spitting, snarling animal close at his heels. He scrambled out from
+between the logs, as white as a sheet. I then saw that it was a
+wildcat and a mad one. I cut a good stout stick and while Frank stood
+on the bank with his gun, I poked the cat from under the log by
+punching it, until Frank could see it enough to shoot it. We pulled
+the cat out from between the logs, took the trap from its foot, reset
+it and took the cat with our traps and went to camp, declaring in our
+minds that there was no other such mighty trappers as we.
+
+Frank declared that he was nearly famished with hunger so we had
+supper and then skinned the cat. We did not sleep much that night as
+Frank had to tell me all about things at home. He also told me that
+pard was no better. Every time an owl would hoot, or a rabbit or
+porcupine or a mouse would make a noise in the leaves, Frank would
+give me a punch and ask what it was. Frank remained three days in
+camp and then he took the stage back home, that being as long as his
+parents would allow him to stay. I went to the road to see him off.
+When leaving he made many declarations that he would come back to
+camp, although he never did.
+
+The snow now began to lie on the ground as it fell and it began to
+get cold at night. Coon did but little traveling and some way, after
+Frank had been over to camp and stayed those three days, I seemed to
+get homesick. I had not become expert enough to make a business of
+deer hunting and marten and bear trapping, so I sprung the deadfalls
+and took up the few steel traps that I had and began to take my furs
+and other plunder to the road to take the stage home. After going
+home I went to school for a few weeks.
+
+I no longer remember how many coon, mink and other furs I caught, but
+it was quite a bunch for furs were very plentiful in those days.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A Hunt on the Kinzua.
+
+Comrades, as I have not been able to trap any for the past two
+years--1905 and 1906--and as I have previously served for more than 50
+years almost without cessation, along the trap line, I beg to be
+admitted to your ranks as one of the "Hasbeens."
+
+I will therefore tell of one of my trips on a hunting and trapping
+expedition in the fall and winter of 1865-6, a party of two besides
+myself. My two companions' names were Charles Manly and William
+Howard. We started about the 15th of October for Coudersport with a
+team of horses and wagon loaded with the greater part of our outfit
+and went to Emporium, Cameron County, where we hit the Philadelphia
+and Erie Railroad. The only railroad that touched Northwestern
+Pennsylvania at that time. Here we took the railroad to Kane, a town
+in Southwestern McKean County, where we stopped one day and made
+purchases for three months' camping. We hired a good team here to
+take our outfit about seven or eight miles on to Kinzua Creek.
+
+Almost the entire distance was through the woods and over the rock.
+There was no sign of a road only as we went ahead of the team and cut
+a tree or log here and there. The outfit was lashed onto a bobsled,
+and as we had bargained with the man to make the trip for a stated
+price, he did not seem to care whether there was any road or not, so
+that he got through as quickly as possible.
+
+We reached the stream about noon. The man fed his team some oats,
+swallowed a few mouthsful himself and was soon on his way back to
+town, while we began laying plans for our camp. We selected a spot on
+a little rise of ground near a good spring of water, and where there
+was plenty of small yellow birch trees handy to cut logs out of for
+camp. We placed a good sized log down first at the end of the shanty
+that we intended to build the fire place in. Another was placed at
+the end that was to be the highest, so to give the right slope to the
+roof, which was a shed roof. We always kept the large ends of the
+logs one way, so that when we had the logs rolled up it made the
+lower or eaves end of the camp about five feet high.
+
+There was a slope of about two feet for the roof. We felled bass wood
+trees which we split in half, and then dug or scooped them out so as
+to make a trough. We notched the two end logs down and then placed
+the scoops or troughs in these notches so that they would lay firm
+with the hollow side up.
+
+After placing these scoops across the entire width of the shack we
+then placed another layer of the scoops (reverse) on the first set.
+That is to say, the rounding side up. This made a very good roof but
+required a good deal of chinking at the ends to keep the cold out,
+but as moss was plenty, it was not a long job. The second day after
+we got into the woods we had the camp in pretty good shape, well
+chinked and calked.
+
+The third day we worked on the fire place, laying it up to the jam of
+stone, then we finished the chimney with logs and mud. We had a
+fairly comfortable camp with but two exceptions. These were, no
+windows, and for a door we had what I called a "hoghole," that was a
+door so small that one had to get down on all fours to get in or out.
+On the fourth day we intended to cut wood all day, and were at it
+before it was fairly light, but before 10 o'clock it began to snow.
+In a couple of hours there was a good tracking snow and the boys were
+bound to go out and see if they could not kill a deer. I tried hard
+to get them to stick to the wood job, but it was no use, they must go
+hunting.
+
+There was no partnership business in this hunt. It was every man for
+himself, and the dogs, take the hindermost. I told the boys I would
+stay in camp and do something at the wood job.
+
+I had been along the creek a little the day before, poking my nose
+under the banks and old drifts to see what manner of signs I could
+see, and I had noticed several mink tracks. The boys had no more than
+gone when I had a fishing tackle rigged out. It consisted of a line
+braided from horsehair, out of a horse's tail, and a hook baited with
+some bits of fat pork. It did the business, for the stream fairly
+swarmed with trout. Taking three or four trout for bait, I was soon
+at work building deadfalls. It was not long before I had three or
+four built close up under the banks and behind logs where I thought
+the boys would not see them.
+
+I then scampered back to camp and went to cutting wood like a good
+boy. I had only just got to camp when I heard a gun shot away up the
+creek, and in about an hour Charley came dragging a yearling deer.
+Will did not show up for some time after dark, but had nothing,
+though he said that he had a fair standing shot at a large buck, but
+his gun snapped on him and he lost.
+
+The next morning we were out at the peep of day, each one going his
+own way. I went down the creek so that I could take a peep at my
+traps. None had been disturbed until I came to the last one. There,
+to my satisfaction, I found a mink. As I had passed a small run that
+emptied into the main creek I noticed that some animal had gone over
+a pole that lay across a little run and partly in the water. The
+animal had brushed the snow off the pole in going over it. I gave it
+no particular attention, thinking that it was a coon, but when I got
+the mink I thought I would go back to camp, make a stretching board
+and stretch the mink skin and get a trap and set at the run for the
+coon, as I supposed.
+
+I will mention that furs were bringing about the same prices then as
+at the present time, 1907, a good No. 1 mink being worth about $10.
+
+Near the camp was a large elm tree that was hollow, and the fire had
+burned a hole out on one side up the tree, nearly as high as a man's
+head. After I had stretched the mink skin I hung it up in this hollow
+tree, and it was a very good place to dry the pelts that I caught.
+The boys never mistrusted that I was doing any trapping for small
+game.
+
+To get back to my job, I took one out of three steel traps No. 3, and
+all the traps that we had brought with us. In fact, the other boys
+did not care to trap. When I got back at the run I gave more
+attention to the trail of the supposed coon, and discovered that it
+was an otter. With greater caution I waded up the run until I found a
+suitable place to set the trap, knowing that he would be back that
+way again sooner or later.
+
+After setting the trap I climbed the ridge to look for deer and got
+two shots during the afternoon but missed both. All came to camp that
+night without killing any deer. I had seen a number of marten tracks
+during the afternoon. The next morning it was thawing and the boys
+feared they would lose the tracking snow, so Charley and Will hurried
+to localities where they expected to find deer. I sliced some strips
+of venison from the fore-quarters, or rather what was left of the
+fore-quarters, of the deer Charley had killed the first day out. I
+made tracks to the ridge where I had seen the marten tracks, and I
+lost no time in putting up deadfalls at the best pace I was capable
+of getting into.
+
+In the afternoon on my way to camp I came to the creek some ways
+below where I had set the mink traps, so I put up two or three more
+deadfalls for mink. I also found a big flood drift which otter were
+using for their feeding grounds. I selected places to set the other
+two steel traps which were in camp, and then went to camp, looking at
+the mink traps on the way, but found that none had been disturbed.
+
+When I got to camp I found both Charley and Will there, and each had
+killed a deer. Will had killed a good sized buck close to camp, so he
+dragged it down to the shanty to dress and hang up. The boys gave me
+the laugh because I had not killed any deer. I told them to hold
+their breath and I would get into the harness after a bit. In the
+morning the snow was all gone and the boys were afraid that it was
+going to get so warm that their venison would spoil. Cuts were drawn
+to see which one of them should go to Kane to get a team to take out
+their venison. It fell on Charley. They tried to have me join in the
+draw, but I told them that I did not see where I came in as I had no
+venison to spoil.
+
+The weather kept warm for several days, so I kept building deadfalls
+on the different ridges for marten and along the creek for mink and
+coon. Charley and Will continued to still hunt, killing several deer.
+When the snow came again I had all the traps up I intended to build,
+but it turned out that later I built two deadfalls for bear. I now
+put in my time still hunting, shaping my course as much as possible
+so as to tend to my traps. I killed a deer occasionally as did the
+other boys. I set the two steel traps on the drift where I had seen
+the otter signs, and the second time I looked at them I found an
+otter tangled up in one of the traps.
+
+I was also getting mink, marten and coon now and then, and
+occasionally I would get two mink or marten in one day. I would cut a
+long slender withe to stretch the skins over, bending them in the
+form of a stretching board the best I could and hang the pelts in the
+old elm tree and kept mum. I remembered the old adage, "he that
+laughs last, laughs best," and was bound to have the last laugh.
+
+One night Will came in and said that a bear had eaten up the offal
+where he had dressed a deer. I asked him if he was going to set a
+trap for him, and he said that he had no trap to set. I told him to
+build a deadfall. Will said that I could have that job if I wanted
+it. I told him all right if he would tell me where to find the place.
+He said that he would go with me in the morning and show me. In the
+morning I took the best axe, some bait and went with Will to the
+place where the bear had eaten the offal. We saw that the bear had
+been back there during the night and cleaned up the remains left the
+previous night.
+
+I selected a good sized beech tree, where I could fell it so that I
+could cut a piece from the butt for the bottom piece and have the
+remainder of the tree come so that I could use a small tree for one
+of the stakes or posts. When I pulled off my coat and began chopping
+on the tree Will gave me the laugh again, and said that I had more
+days' work in me than brains, or something to that effect.
+
+It was my intention to get the trap all ready and then get one of the
+boys to help me set it. I got the trap done and saw that by using a
+long lever or pry I could set the trap without the aid of another.
+With the pry I raised the dead piece up as high as I wanted it. Then
+tied the lever to a sapling to hold the dead log in place, using the
+figure four trigger. I placed a bit of log in the bait pen to rest
+the bait spindle on. I then placed the trigger in place and pressed
+them between the logs to steady them until I could release the lever
+and let the weight onto the trigger. I then put some poles onto the
+dead log to make doubly sure that I had weight enough to kill any
+bear that traveled those woods. I now went to camp giving myself
+credit of doing a good job.
+
+When the boys came in the night of the day I built the first deadfall
+for bear, they both reported seeing bear tracks and they said the
+tracks all seemed to be going south. I told the boys that the bear
+were looking up winter quarters, and that if we would all go at it
+and put up several deadfalls we would stand a fair chance to get a
+bear or two, but it was no go.
+
+They said they would give me a clean title to all the bear I could
+catch, but they did not care to invest. So I took the axe and some
+bait and went to the head of a small draft where the boys had seen
+the bear tracks. I found at the head of this hollow what seemed to be
+a bear runway or crossing, for three or four bears had passed around
+the head of this basin in the past few days.
+
+With some hard work and heavy lifting I got another good deadfall
+built that day. The next day I went the rounds of the marten and mink
+traps, and I think I killed a deer and got two marten. I remember
+that at this time we had a good snow to hunt on, and that it was not
+an uncommon thing for us to cut wood for the camp long after dark,
+and sometimes it was pretty scant at that. I think it was the third
+day after I had set the first bear trap when Will came in, shortly
+after Charley and I had got to camp, and as he stuck his head through
+the hoghole (as I called the substitute for a door) he says, a fool
+for luck.
+
+I suspicioned what was coming and said, "Well, what kind of luck have
+you had?"
+
+Will said, "It is not me that has had the luck, but you have got one
+of the Jed-blasted bears up there in that rigging you built, you ever
+see."
+
+I remember that I had some kind of a hipo that night, so that I would
+laugh every now and then "kindy" all by myself. I do not think that I
+slept much that night, though it was not the first bear I had ever
+caught. I thought it was beginning to look as though the laugh was
+coming my way all right.
+
+In the morning the boys went to the trap with me and helped get the
+bear out of the trap and helped set the trap again, and then went on
+with their deer hunting. I went to skinning the bear, and it was all
+I did that day to skin that bear and stretch the skin on the shanty.
+I told the boys when they came in that night that I thought we were
+going to have a hard winter, and so I concluded to weatherboard the
+camp with bear skins. The carcass of the bear was, of course, a
+complete loss, and that is a serious objection to the deadfall as a
+bear trap.
+
+I think that it was about this time that Will met with an accident in
+his foot gear, so he went out to Kane after a pair of gum shoes. At
+this time we had several deer so thought it best to have the team
+come in and take them out and ship them.
+
+When Will came back that evening he said that some kind of an animal
+had crossed the path about one-half mile from camp, dragging
+something. He said that he could not make up his mind what it was,
+but thought it was some kind of an animal in a trap, but we knew of
+no one trapping in that locality.
+
+I did not know but it might be possible that some animal had gotten
+in one of my otter traps and had broken the chain and gone off with
+the trap. Early in the morning I went down the creek to look at the
+traps and see if they were all right. When I came to the Spring Run I
+saw that my otter (or at least I called it my otter), had again gone
+up the run, on his usual round of travel. When I came to where the
+trap was it wasn't there at all.
+
+I had fastened the trap to a root that was two or three inches under
+water and a root that I supposed sound. I was mistaken, for the root
+was pretty doty and the otter had broken the root and gone with my
+trap. I lost no time in taking up the chase. The trail led up this
+run to its source, then over a spur of ridge and down the hill again
+into a branch of the main stream, then up this branch for a distance
+of a mile or more, where I came up with him.
+
+He had gone under the roots of a large hemlock tree, and it took me
+two or three hours to get him out with nothing to work with only my
+belt axe and a sharpened stake. It was nearly night when I got to
+camp. I made a stretching board from a spault I split out of a
+basswood log and stretched the otter skin, and put in the balance of
+the day in chopping wood. One of the boys killed three deer that day.
+I do not remember which one it was.
+
+The next day I made the rounds of nearly all the traps and got what I
+have many a time before--nothing. I put in three or four days still
+hunting and had the luck to kill a deer or two, but Charley and Will
+killed more than I did. I remember, during this time, they were all
+the time joking me because they were getting more deer than I did. I
+claimed that they had the best grounds to hunt on, they hunting east
+of the camp and up nearer the head of the stream, while I hunted west
+of the camp.
+
+We would see bear tracks nearly every day, and Will and Charley would
+try to get around in their hunting course so as to look at the two
+bear traps, the traps being in the direction in which they hunted.
+They found the traps undisturbed. I had about made up my mind that I
+would get no more bear that trip. I was getting a marten, mink or
+coon now and then, so that I kept a stiff upper lip if the boys did
+kill a few deer more than I did. Finally one night when I came to
+camp I found the carcass of a bear, skin and all lying at the shanty
+door. I thought it was one that either Charley or Will had killed. I
+found that the boys by chance had met near one of the bear traps, and
+going to the trap found the bear. As it was a small one they took it
+out, set the trap and brought the bear to camp.
+
+It was now getting along in December and the snow was getting rather
+deep and the weather was pretty cold and the game did not move about
+very much. We all seemed to get a little lazy, and did not get out
+till after noon. In fact, some days, if the weather was pretty sharp,
+we did not go out at all but would stay in camp and talk of the hunt
+and tell where we thought we could find a bunch of deer over in this
+basin or on that ridge.
+
+The most of the deadfalls set I had not covered so to keep the snow
+off. A good many of them had snowed under, so I did not care how soon
+we broke camp and went home. Deer were quite plentiful, and we could
+find them nearly every day, when we would get a move on, so we
+continued to stay day after day, and putting in about one-half the
+time hunting and the other half telling what we would have done if
+there had not been so many "ifs" in the way.
+
+I would usually shape my course in hunting so as to come around where
+some of the deadfalls were and spring them. One day I came to one
+that was pretty well snowed under. I saw that a fox had done a good
+deal of traveling around the trap and had dug in the snow some about
+where I thought a marten would be, providing one was there. I kicked
+the snow away, and to my delight and surprise I found as good a
+marten as I had caught. I thanked the fox for the favor. I examined
+all the traps then to make sure that there was nothing in them, but I
+found no more marten.
+
+We now began to get our venison into camp, taking turns to help each
+other. I do not just remember how many deer we killed, but I think
+that Charley and Will killed 15 or 16 apiece, and I killed either 11
+or 12.
+
+The boys said I had done pretty well considering the two bear and
+otter, but when I went to the old elm and brought out the marten,
+mink and another otter and five or six coon, the boys looked greatly
+amazed and Will said, "I knew the fool was doing something besides
+hunting," Charley said he thought he could smell something that
+smelled like mink around the camp three or four times. I think I got
+13 marten, 8 mink, 5 coon, 2 otter and 2 bears. As near as I can
+remember, I got a little over a hundred dollars for the fur. I do not
+remember what we got for the venison, but it was war prices. We
+shipped our venison to George Herbermann, New York.
+
+I tried to have the boys help cut a lot of wood for the next season's
+hunt, but they said they were not counting chickens as far ahead as
+that. They hit it right, for neither of them hunted in there. I think
+Charley hunted on Hunt's Run in Cameron County, and I do not know
+whether Will hunted at all the next season, but I took a partner and
+went back on the Kinzua.
+
+This time we were in "swacks," and I will try to tell what luck we
+had some time, but one thing we did was to put a window in the camp
+and make the door large enough so that one did not have to get down
+on all fours to get in or out. Will and I stayed in camp while
+Charley went out to Kane and sent in the team to take out the venison
+and the furs and the camp outfit. We got home for Christmas and found
+all well.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+My Last Hunt on the Kinzua.
+
+As this hunt was about 1868, before there were railroads in this
+section, we went to Emporium, Cameron County, Pennsylvania, and there
+took the train to Kane, in McKean County, then by team and bobsled
+route to camp. This making the journey much farther, we concluded to
+go by wagon the entire distance, which would shorten the distance
+nearly one-half.
+
+This time conditions were different than on previous occasion. While
+there were three in the party before and every one hunted on his own
+hook, this time I had a partner and we were to share alike in profit
+and loss. My partner's name was William Earl, and he had recently
+moved from Vermont, or, as he would jokingly say, from "Varmount." He
+was somewhat older than myself, and a man who was ever ready to carry
+his end of the load at all times.
+
+We hired a team and took a full line of grub and the camp outfit,
+with about sixty small traps and eight bear traps. We went by way of
+Port Allegheny, Devils Blow and Smithport, taking three days to get
+to camp, as we had to cut out the road a good part of the distance of
+the last day's travel. They had just begun to operate in the oil
+industry in the neighborhood of what is now the city of Bradford, and
+as they used wood altogether for fuel to drill with, there was a
+great deal of wood being cut for the purpose. Bill, as my partner was
+familiarly called, used to say that if we could not get fat on
+venison and bear meat we would take a wood job, but we found plenty
+to do without the wood job.
+
+On reaching the camp the first thing noticeable was that the old
+hollow elm that I had used for a dryhouse to hang up skins in, had
+met with foul play, for it lay on the ground, having blown down. This
+made it necessary to build a sort of leanto against one side of the
+shanty to hang up our furs, as we did not like to have them hung up
+in the shanty where they would get more or less smoked.
+
+But the first thing we did was to enlarge the door, for it will be
+remembered that we were obliged to get down on all fours in order to
+get in or out of the shanty. As we had a good crosscut saw, it did
+not take long to enlarge the doorway so that one could go in standing
+up, man fashion. We next cut a window-hole large enough to take a
+single sash window. Then we replaced the chinkings that the
+porcupines had gnawed out, calked and mudded all cracks. When this
+was done, Bill looked it over and said, "By gum, don't it look like
+living?"
+
+As it was only about the middle of October we went to work at once on
+a good supply of wood for the camp. We did not quit until we were
+sure that we had plenty to last the winter, for we intended to stay
+as long as it was either profitable or a pleasure. After the wood was
+cut and piled up near the shanty door, we next set the bear traps, as
+we had brought bait for the purpose.
+
+After the bear traps were set we next looked over the deadfalls that
+I had built for marten the fall before, putting in a new stake where
+necessary. We also set crotches and laid poles on them, then covering
+with hemlock boughs to keep the snow from falling directly on the
+trap. We fixed up the two deadfalls I had made for bear, as we wished
+to get all the bear traps out that we could, as we had already seen
+several signs.
+
+We also built a number more deadfalls for marten on different ridges
+farther up the stream where I had not set any the fall before. We
+built a number of deadfalls along the streams for mink and coon. It
+was now getting well along towards the last days of October, so we
+put in a couple of days hunting deer, as we had to have bait to set
+our marten and other traps with.
+
+The first day's hunting we did not get a deer, though we each got a
+running shot but missed. The second day I did not see any deer but
+Bill killed a good sized buck before noon. We now began setting the
+traps that we had built. Bill baiting and setting the deadfalls,
+while I commenced on the steel traps. We had not baited and set any
+of the deadfalls that we had built up to this time. The steel traps
+we set for fox and wildcats, as there was a bounty of two dollars on
+wildcats at that time.
+
+In setting out the fox traps the knowledge that I had got of the
+locality was of much benefit to me. I had kept a watch out for warm
+springs and other good likely places to catch a fox or other animals.
+After we had all the deadfalls and steel traps out but three or four
+otter traps, we set one or two at the drift where I caught one the
+fall before. The others we set where we found otter signs.
+
+While setting the traps we got a marten or two, as well as one or two
+mink and coon. We had had one or two little flurries of snow, but we
+did not leave the traps to hunt deer. Now that the traps were all
+set, we divided up the trap lines as best we could for each one to
+attend to while hunting deer. In dividing up the lines in this way we
+saved much time, as we would not both be working the same territory.
+
+Now business began to get quite lively, and we were seldom in camp
+until after dark, and we were up early and had breakfast over and our
+lunch packed in our knapsacks. The lunch usually consisted of a good
+big hunk of boiled venison and a couple of doughnuts and a few
+crackers, occasionally the breast of a partridge, fried in coon or
+bear oil. Sometimes the lunch would freeze in the knapsacks and it
+would be necessary to gather a little paper bark from a yellow birch
+and a little rosin from a hemlock, black birch or hard maple tree and
+build a little fire to thaw the lunch. This, however, was quickly
+done, and was a pleasure rather than a hardship. I have delighted in
+eating the lunch in this manner for many a winter on the trap line or
+trail, as have many other hunters and trappers.
+
+Bill and I always had our lunch packed and ready to take up the trail
+at the first peep of day. Sometimes when we would get in late, tired
+and wet and our clothes frozen, I would suggest to Bill that we shut
+up camp and take a wood job, just to see what Bill would have to say.
+He would say that there would be time to take a wood job in the
+spring or after he had killed a certain large buck which is usually
+called "Old Golden." There were but a few days but what we either
+caught some fur or killed a deer, though sometimes we would have a
+bad streak of luck by wounding a deer, or having some animal take a
+foot off and escape, but this would make us all the more eager to
+follow the trail or trap line.
+
+  [Illustration: WOODCOCK ON THE TRAP LINE.]
+
+As we had gotten by this time several deer and had caught three bear
+(one in one of the deadfalls that I had built the fall before, that
+Will Howard called that "dashed dinged riggin'," when he found the
+bear in it) we wanted to get them out to Kane, that being the nearest
+point to a railroad. We started early one morning, Bill taking an axe
+and I carrying the saw, so that if we found any large trees across
+the trail that we had cut out the year before we would have the saw
+to do it with.
+
+After carrying the saw some distance and not finding any trees of
+much size across the road, we left it and only took the axe. We found
+but very little in the trail to cut out.
+
+We got to Kane in time to engage a man with team to come to camp the
+next day and take out the venison and bear and bring in some
+necessary commissaries that we were getting short of. It was only a
+few days after this that I found that a bear got in one of the traps.
+The trap chain having a swivel that was pretty well worn, broke, and
+the bear went off with the trap. I followed the trail until the
+middle of the afternoon, when I became satisfied that Bruin was
+disgusted with that locality, as he had continued his course nearly
+due east without a stop. I could see no signs that led me to think
+that Bruin intended to stop for the next fifty miles.
+
+So I gave up the chase and went to camp, getting there long after all
+good boys should have been in bed. Bill was up and out at the door
+listening if he could hear a gun shot or anything to indicate what
+had become of me. We held a council of war before going to bed, and
+decided to give Bruin another day's rest or travel, as he saw fit to
+do, before we started on the trail. We would go to all the traps that
+had not been tended to in the past three or four days and then take
+up the trail of Bruin and follow him to the end of his trail, no
+matter how long the trail might be.
+
+There was but little danger of the trail becoming snowed under or
+lost, as there was nearly a foot of snow on the ground, and the trap
+would make a broad trail in the snow, which was quite easily
+followed. The next day, as intended, we put in a full day attending
+the traps and got some fur, but I do not remember just what. We
+started out on the trail of Bruin with a three days' ration of the
+usual lunch, boiled venison, ham, doughnuts and biscuits.
+
+After following the trail about two hours from the place where I had
+left it, we came onto a man's track that had taken the trail of our
+bear. This roiled the temper of the Vermonter somewhat, and if I did
+not say anything, I had a mighty think on. But we had no cause for
+alarm at this time. The man after following the trail for a mile or
+two gave up the chase as a bad job, I guess. He stood and stamped
+about for some time (we judged by the tracks he had made) and then
+started back nearly in the same course that he had come.
+
+We followed on until dark when we came to a wagon road. Apparently
+several persons had seen the bear trail, for there was a beaten path
+for a few yards on either side of the road. We knew nothing about the
+road or where it went, but finally concluded to take the road leading
+south for a little ways. If we saw no signs of habitation then we
+would camp, as that was what we expected to be compelled to do when
+starting from camp and each had taken a blanket for the purpose.
+
+We had not gone far when a man with a sleigh overtook us, and we
+learned that we were about one and a half miles from what was called
+Bunker Hill. The man gave us a ride. We went to a boarding house and
+stayed over night, rather than camping on Bruin's trail, though we
+got plenty of camping on the trail of Bruin before this hunt was at
+an end.
+
+The next morning we were out early and had breakfast at 6 o'clock and
+started for the trail which we reached before daylight. We had gone a
+little way when we heard voices coming along the road. We listened a
+moment and saw that it was a party of three men who had come to take
+the bear's trail. We waited until they came up to us and one man
+said, "What in blazes are you fellows doing on this bear's track?"
+Bill replied rather sharp, "That's our business, but what are you
+here for?" Then they said that one of the men had seen the track the
+evening before and as there was no one after it, they had come out to
+follow up the track and kill the bear. They insisted on going after
+the bear but after some talk we convinced them that we did not need
+any help and they turned back.
+
+We took up the trail and followed it pretty lively for a time, as we
+did not know but those men would cut around and take the trail ahead
+of us, though they did not do so. We were now on the waters of Potato
+Creek and there was a good deal of laurel and here we found the first
+place that Bruin had stopped and made a bed.
+
+It is usually the case that a bear that has a trap on his foot will
+not travel any great distance before they stop and make a bed and
+then move a short distance and make another bed. Bruin now began to
+act more natural, to his family. We began to think that we would soon
+come to fresh signs at least, but were disappointed for we did not
+follow the trail far, after we came onto his bed before two men's
+tracks fell in and took up the trail.
+
+After following for some time on the trail of the men and bear, we
+came to where the bear had made another stop and we could see that
+the bear's track was much fresher showing that it had stopped some
+time. We expected that the men would divide here, one taking the
+trail while the other worked on the side, but both men continued on
+the same trail. After following the trail for three or four hundred
+yards farther, we came onto another bed and this time the bear went
+out on the jump and Bill said some cuss words about the men. It is
+possible that I did too.
+
+The trail here turned north. This took us into a section more thickly
+settled and hunters more numerous. The greater part of the time there
+was from one to two men on the trail ahead of us and all that was
+left for us to do was to follow on as fast as we could. The second
+night we were on the head of Salt Run and we followed the trail till
+dark. We now had the bear trail to follow instead of the men as all
+the men had left to go to their camps or homes. Bill said that we
+would sleep "dash-dang" close to the trail after this, so we soon
+found a large log to build a fire against. First we would build the
+fire out a few feet from the log after scraping the snow away. Then
+we would throw a few hemlock boughs over a pole laid in crotches and
+then move the fire down against the log, throw a few boughs on the
+ground where the fire had been moved from and the camp was complete
+in a very few minutes.
+
+We now began to fear that some one would get in ahead of us and kill
+the bear and we would lose bear, trap and all. Bill said that we
+would follow so "dash-darn" close that we would be up in time to
+attend the funeral. We were so close up that we were no longer
+bothered only a little while at a time as we would soon overtook any
+one who hit the trail ahead of us and followed it.
+
+The bear again turned east which took us across the road which runs
+from Coudersport to Emporium in Cameron County. We were now back in
+Potter County and only 15 miles from home. Bruin here turned south
+and true to his nature, led us through all the windfalls and laurel
+patches to be found and occasionally would break down a few laurel
+and act as though he intended to camp for a time but apparently would
+change his mind and go on again.
+
+We were now on the waters of the Conley and night was fast coming on.
+The trail led across a little bog and we were looking for water and a
+suitable place to camp, when Bill called my attention to a man
+standing on the trail watching us. When we came to him it proved to
+be a neighbor of ours. Mr. Ephraim Reed, who was hunting in there and
+said that his camp was only a little way down the hollow and asked us
+to go down and stay over night. We were glad to do so. Mr. Reed said
+that there were a good many hunters in that locality so we were up
+and on the trail before it was fairly light.
+
+We were in a section where there was a great deal of laurel and Bruin
+continued to make camps but as often would change his mind and move
+on and Bill thought he had concluded to go to the can brake in
+Virginia. Often when he would go into a wind jam or laurel thicket,
+we would separate, one taking a circuit on one side of the thicket,
+the other on the other side, meeting on the opposite side from where
+the trail had entered but we would always find that Bruin was still
+on the go. We were in a locality where there were apparently a good
+many deer and we saw signs of marten quite often.
+
+We were now on the head waters of Hunts Run in Cameron county and we
+decided to make that section our next hunting ground. While the trail
+would wind about some, yet bruin's general course was south. Often
+when bruin would vary considerably from his general course and go
+into a thicket or wind jam, we would feel sure that this time we
+would find him napping, but we were disappointed each time. Once when
+we were circling one of these thickets, I drove a deer out and it ran
+to Bill who gave him his finish. We were near a lumber camp and sold
+it for ten dollars and our night's lodging and some grub. We were now
+getting pretty well down to the railroad near Sterling Run. We were
+sure that bruin was going to cross the railroad so we left the trail
+and went down to the railroad and followed along the road until we
+came to the trail.
+
+The bear had crossed the road during the night and no one had noticed
+the trail. Here I suggested to Bill that we take a train to Kane and
+go to camp and go out and take a wood job, but Bill thought that we
+had about all the job on our hands that we were able to attend to. He
+was right, for as near as I can remember, the trail led us nearly a
+half day's tramp before bruin made a stop. The foot that the trap was
+on began to bleed considerably. We began to fear that the foot would
+come off and bruin relieved of the trap would escape after all.
+
+We now had some more help, two men took the trail ahead of us
+following it until nearly dark when they apparently held a council of
+war, judging from the way they tracked about where they left the
+trail. We were now in a pine slashing and concluded to camp on the
+trail, though we knew that we were not far from a lumber camp as we
+could hear men chopping and driving oxen. We were lucky in finding a
+good place to camp and water close at hand. As we had a small tin
+pail with us and coffee, we made a pail of coffee and ate our lunch
+and fixed our bunk, then we sat down before the fire for a time and
+talked over what we thought we might do the next day. Then we rolled
+up in our blankets and it was time to get the coffee boiling again
+before we were hardly aware that we had been asleep.
+
+Bruin now began to act more like a sensible bear and would zigzag
+about from one thicket to another. We now got close enough to him so
+that we heard him in the brush several times. Bill said that he
+thought that bruin was about to make up his mind to let us take off
+that handcuff. He proved to be right, for it was not long before
+bruin's trail led down onto the side of a steep ravine. The sides
+were not more than one hundred yards apart and were quite clear (only
+for the piles of pine tree tops) from fallen trees, that had been
+taken out for logs.
+
+We were standing a little way down the side of the ravine, laying
+plans as to our next move, as we had come to the conclusion that
+bruin had either turned down along the side of the ravine or had gone
+into camp. We had planned that one would go up around the head of the
+ravine while the other waited on the trail until the one that went
+around should get on the opposite side. While still laying plans, we
+saw bruin come out on the opposite side and began to climb the hill.
+
+We had followed the bear for six days and this was the first time
+that we had seen his lordship. He would go a few steps and stop and
+look back. We watched our opportunity and when he made a stop, we
+both fired. Bruin made a jump or two up the hill then tumbled back
+down again and the fun had ended. We took the entrails out and left
+him lying across a log and went down the ravine to where there was a
+lumber camp and there we found that we were on Dent's Run, a branch
+of Bennet's Branch and in Elk county.
+
+This was the fourth county we had been in since we had taken the
+bear's trail. They told us at the lumber camp that there would be
+three or four teams go down to the railroad station at Driftwood the
+next morning with spars which they were hauling to the river to raft.
+We got a man with a yoke of oxen and a bobsled to go with us and get
+the bear and the next morning about 5 o'clock we got the bear
+strapped onto one of the spars and started down the stream to the
+railroad and we shipped it, without removing the skin, to New York,
+where we got either $26 or $28 for it.
+
+We took the train to Kane where we stayed over night. The next
+morning we went to camp and found all well with one exception, that
+being, that the shanty was swarming with "deer mice" and a porcupine
+had tried hard to gnaw his way through the door. The following day we
+stayed in camp and rested before starting out to see what would turn
+up the next day.
+
+We first looked at the bear traps, tending what small traps came in
+on the way. On going the rounds of the bear traps, we found them all
+undisturbed except one, which might better have been as it only had a
+porcupine in it and we did not see any signs of bear. We began to
+think of taking up the bear traps as we thought that bruin had gone
+into winter quarters. We did not get around to take them up for
+several days, being busy tending the smaller traps.
+
+It was now getting along into December and the snow was quite deep.
+We concluded to put in the time hunting deer as we wished to get all
+we could, to send out with the team, when we had it come in, as it
+did not cost any more to take out a full load than half a load. The
+law closed on deer the first of January, although allowing the
+hunters 15 days to dispose of his venison after it was unlawful to
+kill deer. We hustled from early morning until long after dark, when
+we would get to camp and there was hardly a day that we did not kill
+at least one deer and some days two or three between us.
+
+I will tell of a little scrape I had one day with a yearling buck
+that I thought to be dead. I was following the trail of three or four
+deer along the side of a ridge, expecting every moment to catch them
+feeding, when I heard a noise behind me and looking back, I saw this
+little buck coming full tilt right towards me. The deer saw me about
+as soon as I did him and wheeled to run back when I fired and he went
+down. I set my gun against a tree and started to cut the deer's
+throat. I took the deer by the ear and straightened his back. About
+this time that dead deer began to get pretty lively and was trying to
+get on his feet and as I could not reach my gun, threw myself onto
+him, thinking to hold him down.
+
+Well I held him about as long as lightning would stay on a limb. When
+I got through gazing at the hole in the brush where I last saw him, I
+found that I was sadly in need of a new pair of trousers and vest, as
+well as a jack knife. I searched a long time in hopes of finding the
+knife, but did not. I had another knife at camp and after about a two
+hour's job with needle and thread, I managed to get the trousers so
+that they were passable in a pinch and all the time that I was
+repairing the trousers, Bill sat there laughing at me. Now this was
+the first time that I had supposed dead deer come to life and give me
+the go-by, though it was not the last time.
+
+I had given him what is called a fine shot, that is I had shot him
+just across the back and the ball had struck one of the joints or
+knuckles of the backbone as it proved. I had the satisfaction of
+killing the same deer two or three days later or at least we thought
+it was the same one. We had three or four days of mild weather and as
+we had not been the rounds of the traps for several days, only
+tending those that came handy while hunting deer, we thought we would
+reverse the plan and go over all the traps and pay but little
+attention to deer hunting unless we struck a hot trail. We thought we
+would take in those traps first in the direction where the bear traps
+were and go to the traps farthest from camp and bring in some of the
+traps. We did not expect to get any more bear as it was too late in
+the season for bear to travel until they had their winter's sleep.
+
+We were in luck this time for as we had usually tended the bear
+traps, the one that we went to first would have been the last trap to
+come to. When we came in sight of where the trap was set we saw that
+there had been a bear dance going on. As the snow was several inches
+deep, we saw at a glance which way the bear had gone and we only had
+to step to the brow of the ridge and look down the hillside a little
+way to see bruin fast among some small saplings. He was rolling and
+tumbling about trying to release himself.
+
+He looked like a great black ball as he rolled about. We lost no time
+in putting him out of his trouble. We skinned the fore parts and hung
+them up in a sapling to use for bait for fox and marten and took the
+saddles to camp, skinned them out and stretched the skin on the
+shanty. Later we shipped the saddles to market.
+
+The next day we looked at the balance of the bear traps but found
+them undisturbed but we concluded to leave them set a few days
+longer. On going the rounds of the smaller traps, we got a fox or two
+also a marten or two, but as I remember it, we got no mink or otter
+at this time. We now had the traps all looked after, so we put in the
+time hunting deer as the time for deer hunting was soon to close. The
+weather had turned and frozen so that it had formed a sharp crust and
+we were compelled to use the driving method of hunting. One of us
+would stand on the runways, in the beds of basins and in low places
+on the ridges while the other would follow the trail and drive the
+deer through to the hunter. I wish to say right here, that I do not
+like this way of hunting deer but little better than I do of hounding
+and running deer with dogs. The dog is all right but I want no
+dogging of deer for me.
+
+We would get a deer nearly every day. It was now the first of January
+and time to get our venison to camp or out to the road where we could
+pick them up on the way out to Kane. After we had gathered up the
+venison and had gone the rounds of the traps that had not been tended
+while hunting, we went to Kane. Here we engaged a team to come in
+after the venison and bear and bring in a grub stake to last us until
+the middle of March when we would break camp and go home. We both
+went back to Kane with the team to assist in getting over some of the
+rough places and see that our venison and bear meat was tagged and
+shipped all right. Then we came back to camp to put our entire time
+in tending to the traps which we did to good advantage. We had found
+other good warm springs while hunting, and some that we thought were
+lasting springs, had gone dry or had frozen up, so we shifted a good
+many of the traps to the other springs.
+
+Then we took it a little easier only going the rounds of the traps as
+we considered it necessary and on such days as the weather was
+favorable. We waited for February when we knew that the old dog coon
+would begin his rounds of calling on his friends.
+
+We managed to pass the time away fairly well as we would get a fox,
+mink, marten or something nearly every day so that we busied
+ourselves. About the middle of February we had several warm days and
+the time had now come for us to get busy and we were out as soon as
+it was light. We would follow up all the spring runs until we found
+the trail of a coon, then follow it up until it went into a tree.
+Sometimes it bothered us which tree to cut down for the coon would go
+from one tree to another so that it was hard to tell which was the
+tree that was the home of the coon (some call it a den). One day we
+chopped down a great large oak, three or four feet in diameter and
+nearly sound all the way through and nary a coon to be found. I asked
+Bill why he did not say cuss words and he said he thought we had
+spent enough wind in chopping the tree down, without wasting any
+unnecessarily.
+
+Well, as I said, the coon had been up and down so many trees that we
+did not know which one was the most likely one. We went to a large
+basswood tree that had only one track going to it and one away from
+it but when we pounded on it with the axe, we saw that it was very
+hollow. I suggested to Bill that we chop it down. Bill thought there
+were no coon in it and I had but little faith myself but I told him
+that as he had been wanting a wood job, here was his opportunity and
+Bill agreed with me, so we laid off our coats and went to chopping.
+The tree was only a shell. We soon had it down and to our surprise,
+coon began to run in all directions. Not having had much hopes of
+finding any coon in the tree we had not prepared ourselves with clubs
+to kill the coon. We used the axe handle as best we could but one
+coon got away and went into a hollow stump which we had to cut down.
+We got five coon. We then took up the trail of the coon that left the
+tree and after following it about a mile it went into a large hemlock
+tree that had a hole in it close to the roots. Pounding on it we
+discovered that it was hollow.
+
+There had been several coon tracks both out and into the tree. We
+circled around some distance from the tree and found no tracks
+leading away from the tree farther than a small spring a few rods
+away. As it was getting well on towards night we did not fell the
+tree but went back to the old basswood where we had left the coons
+and took them and went to camp. Bill said that he had a dash-dang
+sight rather chop wood than to tote those three coons. I carried two
+and told Bill not to complain and I would let him skin all of them
+when we got to camp. He said, "Oh, you are a clever jade, aint you?"
+We skinned the coon that evening but did not stretch the skin until
+the next afternoon after we had gone out and cut the hemlock and got
+three more.
+
+We kept up this coon hunt as long as we could find any tracks. It was
+now getting along into March and we had written home for a team to
+come in and take our camp outfit and furs out. As we had not been out
+over the road through the woods, the way we came in, we made a trip
+out to the main wagon road so that the man who came after us would
+have no trouble in following the trail to the camp. We now began to
+spring all the deadfalls that we had set for marten, mink and coon
+and take up all of the steel traps as we had written to the man to be
+there about the fifteenth of the month. I think it was a day or two
+later when the team came and our hunt on the Kinzua was ended.
+
+We got some thirty odd deer and either five or six bear and I think
+four otter. I do not remember the number of fox, mink, marten and
+coon, but we did well for there had been but very little trapping
+done in that locality at that time and furbearing animals were quite
+plentiful. I have never been back to that camp since. I gave the camp
+to a man by the name of Ball.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Fred and the Old Trapper.
+
+Yes, Fred, you can go with me to attend my traps, come down early as
+I wish to start at 5 o'clock." Fred was on hand next morning at the
+appointed hour. We leave the road here and go up this stream; this
+will take us to several traps and also to camp.
+
+"Are these woods very large?"
+
+"Yes, Fred. It is about fourteen miles either way through them."
+
+"Does any one live in them?"
+
+"No one only the lumberman. Well, Fred, here is the first trap."
+
+"I don't see any trap."
+
+"No, but it is there, just in front of that little stone pen; the
+bait is in the pen."
+
+"Why don't you take that bush away?"
+
+"Oh! that is part of the knack in trapping; see that is just far
+enough from the pen to let the animal pass through."
+
+"Oh! I see, and it will step in the trap in going through!"
+
+"That is it, exactly."
+
+"Won't the water take the brush away?"
+
+"Yes, if it gets too high, but you will see that I have put some
+heavy stones on the limbs that are down in the water; you also see
+that I turn the water above the trap by throwing up a few stones;
+this is done to keep the water so that it just covers the traps. You
+see that bunch of leaves that are a little higher than the rest of
+the leaves--the pan of the trap is just under those leaves."
+
+"Did that moss grow on the stone pen?"
+
+"No, I put it there to make the pen look old; you see a fox can
+easily step on that bunch of dry leaves that are on the pan of the
+trap from the bank. A fox does not like new things. You see this trap
+is set for mink, coon or fox, whichever may happen along."
+
+"What is the trap fastened to?"
+
+"See that limb that has moss all grown over it. The trap is stapled
+to it."
+
+"Can't a fox or coon drag it away?"
+
+"Yes, but not far. See the chain is stapled about the middle of the
+limb, and the animal would not go far before it got fast.
+
+"Fred, you get that rabbit out of the knapsack that we took out of
+the snare, and we will put some fresh bait in the pen for this is
+getting too stale; mink and coon do not like rotten meat. Cut it into
+several pieces so that the animal can not get it all at once. There,
+that is all right, and let us hurry on to the next trap. Here it is
+and a mink in it and drowned."
+
+"Where is the pen? I do not see it."
+
+"We do not always have a pen. You see that notch in that log where
+the water runs over? That is where the trap was set. See this hay
+wire that is fastened to the trap chain and which is fastened to that
+stone out in the deep water? The mink could not go toward the bank so
+it went into the deep water and was drowned."
+
+"Why did you set a double spring trap here?"
+
+"Well, Fred, an otter might happen along and that is just the place
+to catch it. You see above the log I have fixed to gage the water as
+at the other trap. I do this so the water will not wash the covering
+from the trap, or get so deep over the trap that the animal will not
+spring it when going over it." "I see that you have got those brush
+on either side of the trap with just enough space for the animal to
+pass through over the trap." "That is correct, you are catching on,
+Fred, all right."
+
+"Don't you use bait where you set a trap in this way?"
+
+"Not often; sometimes I fasten a fish with a horse-hair with a hook
+fast to it so that you can hook it to the lower jaw and fasten it in
+the water just above the trap; water keeps it moving and attracts the
+animal. We have got this trap set all right and will now move on to
+the next. We will take the mink to the next trap before skinning it."
+
+"What is that over yonder on the other side of the creek?"
+
+"That is a coon and it is in a trap. Fred, you take my cane and kill
+it while I fix up the bait pen, for it has torn things up as bad as a
+bear would."
+
+"Why did you not use stones to build this pen?"
+
+"Old chunks are just as good and much handier to get, and there was
+plenty of moss on the old logs near to cover it with."
+
+"Why do you not use old bushy limbs here?"
+
+"You see this trap sets in the mouth of a small spring run; we will
+cut some little twigs and stick them up in the ground, in place of
+the brush, to make the runway, as we call it. We will now skin the
+mink. Rip straight down the hind leg from the heel to the vent. Now
+lay the knife down and start the skin loose on the legs with the
+thumb and finger; work the skin down the leg to the root of the tail
+then take knife and cut the skin loose around the vent working the
+skin free around the roots of tail until you can get your fingers of
+the left hand around the tail bone. Now with the right hand near the
+body of the mink pulling with the right and you will strip the tail
+clean from the bone. With the knife make a slit on either fore leg
+about one inch from the heel and around the leg. You are now ready to
+strip the skin down the body to the fore legs and with the thumb and
+finger work the leg out. Strip the skin down to the ears and with the
+knife cut the ears close to the head, continue to strip the skin down
+to the eyes, cut around the eyes close to the bone and use the knife
+on down to the end of nose. That was a short job. Now we will put
+this mink carcass in the back end of the pen and cut the balance of
+the rabbit up and put it in the pen back about six inches from the
+trap."
+
+"Don't you use any scent; I have heard people say that you use some
+kind of scent?"
+
+"I use none, only of the animal itself. It did not take long to take
+the pelt off that coon; we will strip some of that fat from the
+carcass and do it up in the skin and put it in the knapsack; hang the
+carcass up on that sapling. We must be moving now. Our next trap is a
+bear trap; it sets up in that little sag you see and in a spring that
+comes out of the side of the hill. I like to set traps in those
+springs for they never freeze up and the bait keeps much longer. No,
+there is nothing in it, I can see the clog there all right. Yes,
+there is something in it; it is a coon and it is dead. Look, there is
+a fox in a trap."
+
+"Where was the trap set, I do not see any bait pen?"
+
+"Fred, you take this stick and walk up slowly to him; go up close and
+give him a sharp blow across the back of the neck--that will fix him.
+You see that big mossy log laying on the bank over there? That was
+where he was caught. We will now set the trap again. See this little
+sink in the log? That is where the trap was set; this limb is what
+the trap was fastened to, one end on the ground and the other comes
+just up to the log where the trap is set and we will staple the trap
+to it. We will now cover it with moss, just like on this log, but we
+will get it from another log. No one could tell that there was a trap
+there."
+
+"Will not the fox smell it?"
+
+"He might if it was not for this fox carcass. We will skin the fox,
+just as we did the mink. Look out there Fred, do not disturb the moss
+or anything on that log where the trap is. Keep away from that. We
+will put this carcass in the little hollow and will drive a crotched
+stake straddle of its neck; drive it well down; now take this stick
+and rake some leaves over it, cover the neck where the stake is quite
+well, the rest of the carcass only slightly. You have done it very
+well and the fox will not notice what scent there is on the trap as
+long as that carcass is there."
+
+"But you had no carcass there when you caught this one and I have
+heard that a fox was afraid of the scent of iron?"
+
+"That is all bosh. Keep your traps free from all foreign scent and
+you need not be afraid of the scent of the iron, but if you catch
+some animal in the trap, then you should have some of the scent of
+that animal around near the trap, this will overcome what scent there
+is on the trap. This, however, is only necessary with shy animals
+like the fox. Coon and skunk are not afraid of what they smell."
+
+"Do you ever wear gloves when setting your traps?"
+
+  [Illustration: LOG SET FOR FOX.]
+
+"No, that is all nonsense. Get the clamps out of the knapsack and we
+will set the bear trap. We set the trap this way so that the bear
+goes in lengthways of the jaws, not crosswise of them. We will now
+place the trap in this hole that we have dug out, so that the water
+will be deep enough to cover the trap and be sure that the jaws rest
+firmly on the ground, so that if the bear should step on the jaws,
+the trap would not tip up. Some trappers do not do this and then they
+think that the shy animal turned the trap over. We will now cover the
+trap with those water soaked leaves after which we will take this
+piece of moss as large as your hand, and with this forked stick put
+the moss on it, and place it on the pan of the trap."
+
+"Would the bear smell it, if you put it on with your hands?"
+
+"No, but if the trap should accidentally spring it would be better to
+catch the stick than your hand. Now we will cut this coon carcass
+into two or three pieces and put it back in the bait pen about three
+feet from the trap. There we have it fixed all right. We will now go
+over the ridge to where there is another bear trap set and will eat
+our lunch as we go along."
+
+"How did you know that a fox would go on that log where that trap was
+set?"
+
+"By knowing the nature of the animal. When the fox smelled the bear
+bait in the pen there, I knew that he would get on the highest point
+near the pen to investigate and that point was that log."
+
+"Is this the only way you catch foxes?"
+
+"No, that is only one of the many ways. Here we are; the trap is
+right down in the head of this hollow; that is a dark place down
+there, yes, that is the kind of a place that bears like to travel
+through. I can see the pen, but I do not see the clog. Yes, the clog
+is gone, I guess that Bruin has put his foot in it this time. Now go
+still and look sharp and see if we can find him anywhere for a bear
+will try hard and get away when they first see you. He has gone this
+way, see how he has torn down the brush and has turned up those old
+logs. He will not do that long and after a little we may be obliged
+to circle in places to find the trail. Here he has gone up this steep
+side hill but he will not go far that way. See how he has torn this
+old tree top up and gnawed those logs and those trees, he has been
+past here. He has gone straight back down the hill. Now he will keep
+along this side hill, for he may cross this hollow back and forth
+three or four times before we find him fast. Here is the trail again,
+he has gone back up the hill. We will work up the hill so as to keep
+on the highest ground."
+
+"You have followed these bear trails a good many times, haven't you?"
+
+"Yes, in 1900 I followed one seven days that broke the chain and went
+up with the trap, and then another party ran across the bear and
+killed it. I did not even get my trap back. They said they hung the
+trap up in a tree and some one stole it."
+
+"Hold on Fred, what is that away down there in the hollow?"
+
+"That is the bear, he is trying to climb that tree, I do not think he
+will make it, for the clog is fast between those two small saplings
+that stand by the large tree. We will go a little closer, there now!
+when he turns his head sideways take good aim and put the ball square
+in the ear. A good job, Fred, he never knew what hurt him. Now make a
+slit in the skin, right at the point of the breast bone, and then
+stick him as you would a hog. Do not cut the skin too much. Now Fred
+get the clamps out of the knapsack and we will see if we can get him
+out of the trap. Now we will skin him as you would a beef with the
+exception, we will leave the claws on, for the skins are a much
+better price where the feet are left. We will be very careful not to
+cut the hide, for they skin about as mean as a hog does. Well now we
+will hang the foreparts up in this tree and take the skin and the
+saddles and pull for camp."
+
+"Are you not going to set the trap?"
+
+"No, it will be dark before we get to camp now and we have got a
+heavy load to carry, in fact, if it was anything but bear, we would
+think we could not carry it."
+
+"My, but this is getting heavy."
+
+"Yes, Fred, but this all goes in with trapping and besides it will
+improve the appetite."
+
+"I guess so, for I am as hungry as a wolf."
+
+"Well, here we are at camp. Fred, you will find the lamp on that
+shelf close up in the corner. You light it while I start the fire.
+Now Fred you will find the key to the camp chest behind that ridge
+post. Open the chest and take the blankets out so that they will be
+airing. Now in the other part of the chest you will find some tin
+cups, plates, knives and forks, also some crackers, cheese and ginger
+snaps. The cheese is done up in waxed paper. You can put those things
+on the table while I go to the spring and get a pail of water. Now,
+Fred, you raise that lid and you will find a box sunk down in the
+ground, where you will find potatoes and bacon. Get some out. You
+will find the coffee in a sack in the chest and the coffee pot is
+hanging on that nail. You put the coffee on while I get the
+potatoes."
+
+"Oh, we cannot wait for potatoes to cook."
+
+"Yes, we can, I will pare three or four and slice them up and put
+them in the spider with a little water and some bits of pork and by
+the time the coffee boils, the potatoes will be ready. Fred, just
+hand me that lid so I can cover these potatoes over. You will find a
+can of condensed milk and the sugar in the chest. Please set them on
+the table while I fix the fire."
+
+"You have plenty of good dry wood."
+
+"Yes, I always come over to the camp before the trapping season
+begins and cut up a good lot of wood. And those old elevated stove
+ovens make the best kind of a stove for a camp. Fred, you pour the
+coffee while I take the potatoes up and we will partake of this
+frugal meal. In the morning for breakfast we will have bear steak,
+boiled partridge and buck-wheat cakes."
+
+"Well Fred, I feel better, how is it with you?"
+
+"Oh, I feel like a fighting cock now, but I was too hungry for
+anything. Well Fred, the dish water is hot in that pan on the stove,
+if you will wash the dishes, I will stretch those skins and dress
+those partridges. Now if you will spread the blankets on the bunk, I
+will mix the cakes for breakfast, and then we will be ready for bed."
+
+"How large is this camp?"
+
+"The logs were cut fourteen and sixteen feet long, so that makes it
+about twelve by fourteen on the inside. The roof is good and steep.
+Yes, I like a ridge roof and half pitch them, you do not have to make
+the body so high. Yes, I always chunk well and calk good with moss
+before I mud it, then you have a good warm camp. Yes, I like to have
+a 12 x 20, two small sash in each gable."
+
+"Does that roof leak?"
+
+"No, a roof put on with good hemlock bark like that will not leak and
+will last a long time. Fred we must bunk down for we must be moving
+early in the morning."
+
+"Come, Fred, turn out, I have breakfast about ready."
+
+"Why it is not morning, is it?"
+
+"Yes, it is six o'clock and we must be moving as soon as we can see,
+for we have a big day's work before us. Yes, Fred, everything tastes
+good in the woods. I suppose a keen appetite has something to do with
+that. Well, it is light, so that we can see to travel, so we will be
+going. Yes, Fred, you can come over with me again and I will show you
+how to set traps, many different ways, to catch different animals,
+and we might have a bear in a pen."
+
+"Do you catch bear in a pen?"
+
+"Yes, and I like a pen for a bear better than a steel trap. No
+getting away if the pen is properly made."
+
+"Well, here is the bear trap and there has been a wild cat at work at
+those inwards, so you see I did not bring that trap along for
+nothing. Fred, you place a few of those bushy limbs around on the
+upper side of those inwards, while I set the trap. There, that is all
+right, we will staple to this limb. Yes, he will be quite likely to
+get into the trap if he comes again, for he can't get at the bait
+very well from any other way, only over the trap."
+
+"How far is it from where the bear trap was set?"
+
+"About one-half mile. Yes, I suppose he dragged that trap three or
+four miles to get that distance. Here we are, it will not be a long
+job to set that trap as he has not torn the bait trap down. Fred, you
+get the clamps from the knapsack, while I cut that bushy tree for a
+clog. Yes, we let those limbs stick out about ten inches so that they
+will catch in the brush and on logs, and that bothers, you see. Yes,
+those lungs and liver are all right for bait as long as it is fresh.
+A bear does not like tainted meat. Well, that is all right now, we
+will go to camp and get a bite to eat, and then pull for home and get
+the horse and wagon and come out and take the bear meat and the skin
+in. Yes, we always ship the saddles to New York, they bring a good
+price.
+
+"Yes, it is more of a knack to stretch a bear skin right than any
+other skin. Here we are at camp again, we will eat a bite and then
+pull for home. Good bye, Fred, yes, you shall go again."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+Bears in 1870, To-Day--Other Notes.
+
+One not familiar with the conditions of a wild woods life would
+naturally think that bears would diminish in proportion to deer and
+wild animals. However, this does not seem to be the case. Forty years
+ago, trappers of bear were not as numerous as at the present time.
+People at that time, hunted more for profit than sport and their
+forte was the slaughter of deer. In those days it was nothing
+uncommon to see sleigh loads of deer pass every day on the way to
+market.
+
+After the first tracking snows of the season, the deer killed in this
+county (Potter) were hauled by team thirty and forty miles to the
+nearest railroad station and shipped to New York and Philadelphia but
+this is not what we wish to write of. We only speak of this to show
+that the man of forty years ago was of the trail, rather than the
+trap line.
+
+Forty years ago, the writer was acquainted with nearly every hunter
+and trapper who made a business of hunting or trapping in this and
+adjoining counties. Men who made a business of trapping bear as well
+as hunting deer could be counted on the fingers of your hands, and
+the grounds on which they operated were the counties of Clinton,
+McKean, Cameron and Potter.
+
+The names of these men who perhaps were the most interested in bear
+trapping in the section above mentioned were, Leroy Lyman, Horatio
+Nelson, Lanson Stephan, Isaac Pollard, Ezery Prichard and one or two
+others, including the writer.
+
+The traps mostly used were bear pens and deadfalls. It was considered
+a fairly good day's work for two men to build one good bear pen or
+two good deadfalls. Most bear trappers, however, had a few steel bear
+traps for it may be said that nearly every country blacksmith knew
+how to make a bear trap and how to temper a trap spring. This cannot
+be said of the average blacksmith of the present day.
+
+Bear forty years ago would migrate then as they do now. We used to
+think that bear would travel from the Virginias and from Northern New
+York if not from the New England States to Pennsylvania or from
+Pennsylvania north or south as the case may be. This was proven from
+the fact that if there was a good crop of mast in one locality, while
+a scarcity in another, the bear would all seem to be moved north or
+south as the case may be as though they had some way of informing one
+another where plenty of food was to be found. At such times when bear
+are on a migratory tramp it is not an uncommon thing to find a bear
+track near your house or barn on going out in the morning when there
+was snow on, so that the track is plain to be seen. This was no
+uncommon thing forty years ago, neither is it at the present time
+(1910) when there is a general scarcity of forage crops such as beech
+nuts, chestnuts and acorns. I have seen it stated by some writers
+that at certain times bear will move in a drove and at such times it
+was not safe for a man to meet a bear for they were very dangerous
+and would attack any one who chanced to be in their way.
+
+In my upwards of fifty years experience of woods life, I do not call
+to mind of ever seeing more than three bears on one trail at the same
+time and these were an old bear and cubs. It has been the writer's
+observation that when bears were on these migratory trips in search
+of food or from other cause, they travel singly and not in droves or
+even in pairs.
+
+During the summer when bears are existing on nettles, wild turnips,
+berries and other green food, it is not out of the ordinary to find a
+bear in pretty close proximity to the farm house and close around the
+fields where he can occasionally get a sheep or lamb.
+
+I have seen and heard much written and said of bear raising from
+their hind feet to attract people's attention who chanced to come in
+their way when in the woods. I have never seen a bear raise on his
+hind feet for battle, in any case, when a hunter or trapper
+approaches them. I have often seen them sit upon their haunches to
+listen when they heard a noise and were not sure of its origin.
+
+As to the number of bear at the present time and forty or fifty years
+ago, through Northern and Central Pennsylvania, there seems to be
+about as many now as there were then. This I attribute to the fact
+that much of the country in other localities has been cleared up and
+thus deprived bruin of his natural haunts.
+
+Forty years ago,--in the early 70's--it was customary then as now, to
+keep tab on trappers as to what they were doing along the trap line.
+Trappers of years ago would average from three to twelve bears,
+according to how plenty they were and to what the condition of the
+weather was.
+
+It often happens that when bear are plenty on the trapper's trapping
+grounds, he does not have the best of luck in taking the game. If
+shack is very plentiful it is sometimes difficult to get the bear to
+take ordinary bait. The bear will also den up or go into hibernation
+much quicker if they get fat, than they will if shack is a little
+scarce so that they do not get quite so fleshy. If the bears get real
+fleshy early in the season they will den up at the approach of the
+first cold and freezing weather and sleep until spring. On the other
+hand, if the bear continues to be a little lean, as he generally is
+during the summer, he will continue to search for food during quite
+severe weather. They will leave winter quarters and come out in
+search of food when there are a few warm days, or a slight thaw,
+which they will rarely do if they go into the den in good flesh.
+
+The bear is not like the raccoon. Their rutting season in this
+latitude is in August and not in February and March as with the
+raccoon and groundhog. Now all of these conditions has much to do
+with the number of bears that a trapper may get during a season. The
+number of bear taken in Pennsylvania by the average trapper at the
+present time and forty years ago may be slightly less now than then
+but the difference is not great.
+
+There are more bear trappers today than forty years ago. During the
+months of October and November, 1909, there were nearly one hundred
+bears caught in traps and killed with dogs in the above counties
+mentioned. Bears were more plentiful through this section than usual
+this season, although they did not work north into the beech timber
+until about the first of November, owing to a heavy crop of chestnuts
+and acorns farther south.
+
+Comrades of the trap line, if I was in a section of country where
+large game was as plentiful as it was here fifty years ago, I would
+not be able to get very far into tall timber, but as it gets
+monotonous to write of skunk, muskrat and rabbit hunting of to-day, I
+will tell of some of my experiences of fifty years ago, when it was
+my custom to hunt deer and bear for profit and pleasure. In those
+days I made it a point to be in the woods with my bear traps and
+rifle by the middle of October each year, if health permitted.
+
+In those days all that a trapper and hunter had to do was to get a
+few miles out into tall timber, build a good log cabin and hit a
+permanent job for the season. Deer, bear and fur-bearing animals were
+so plentiful that it only required a small territory to find game
+sufficiently plenty to keep the trapper on a lively gait all the
+time. In those days we made it more a specialty of hunting deer for
+the profit there was in it. We had built our cabin on the divide
+between the headwaters of the Cross fork of Kettel Creek and the
+headwaters of the East Fork of the Sinnamahoning. I had built a few
+deadfalls and bear pens for bear and also had three or four steel
+bear traps set, but beech-nuts, chestnuts and other nuts were so
+plentiful that the bear would not take meat bait and I had no other
+bait at hand. The bear would pass within a few feet of a trap and pay
+no attention to the bait.
+
+Now at this time, furs were so low that there was but little to be
+made from the sale of the pelts of the fox, mink, skunk, etc. But it
+was my custom to carry one or two steel traps in my pack sack and
+when I killed a deer, I would make a set or two for the fox, marten
+or fisher, whichever happened along first. As I have stated I spent
+the greater part of my time in deer hunting. On this particular day I
+was following a drove of four or five deer, but the wind was so
+unsteady and whirling about in puffs so that as near as I could get
+to a deer was to see his white flag, beckoning me to come on as they
+jumped a log or some other object. Striking the trail of a bear that
+had gone back and forth several times, nearly in the same place
+within the past three or four days, since a light snow had fallen, I
+was satisfied that it was a bear going back and forth from his
+lodging quarters to his feeding grounds.
+
+So I left the trail of the deer and took up the trail of the bear,
+taking the track that I thought had been made last. I did not follow
+the trail far, which led along the brow of the ridge, when I saw that
+the several different bear tracks were forming into one trail and
+making in the direction of several large hemlock trees that had been
+turned out by the roots and lay in a jumbled up mess. I followed the
+trail carefully until I was certain that the bear had entered the
+jungle of timber. Here I worked carefully around the jam of timber
+until sure that the bear was in the jungle and that it would be
+impossible for me to get near the bear. The density of brush and
+undergrowth was such that I would drive the bear out before I could
+get close enough to Bruin to get a shot at him. And this was a time,
+when I longed for a pard.
+
+Being convinced that I could do nothing alone, I got out on one side
+of the trail the bear had made in going back and forth and watched
+until dark, in hopes that Bruin would come out on his way to his
+feeding grounds. But in this I was mistaken so was obliged to give up
+the hunt for the time being and make tracks for the shanty. My camp
+was about five or six miles from Edgcomb Place, this being the
+nearest point to where anyone lived, where I might get help to rout
+Bruin. The Edgcomb Place was a sort of a half way house, it being
+about fourteen miles either way to a settlement. The stage made one
+trip a week over this road and stopped at Edgcomb Place for dinner
+and often some one would come out from town in the stage and stop
+there for a few days' hunt. It was one of these parties that I was in
+hopes of getting to help me out in this bear hunt.
+
+I started in the morning before daylight as the stage had gone the
+Kettel Creek way the day before, which was in my favor of catching
+help at the hotel. As good luck proved to be on my side, I found a
+man at the hotel by the name of John Howard, who was stopping there
+for a few days' hunt. He was more than anxious to join me in the bear
+hunt. We hastened back to camp so as to get onto the job as quickly
+as possible. We got to the shanty about noon and got a hasty lunch
+and started out to wake Bruin up if he was still sleeping where I had
+left him.
+
+When we got to the jam of timber, we found that he had been to his
+feeding grounds and had returned to his lodging apartments during the
+night, so we now thought that we would soon make sure of our game. We
+located the spot the best we could where we thought Bruin was
+sleeping and began to cautiously work our way in from opposite sides.
+It only took a short time to work our way into the jam sufficiently
+to locate a large root, where Bruin's tracks showed plainly that he
+was sleeping under this root. We continued to work our way up closer
+to the root with gun in hand for ready action. But still Bruin did
+not show up, neither could we hear the least bit of a noise from him.
+
+When we were within a few feet of the root, Mr. Howard on one side
+and the writer on the other side, suddenly, without any warning
+whatever, Bruin came out of his hole like a shot out of a gun and
+nearly landed on Mr. Howard, who sprang backwards to escape him. Mr.
+Howard's feet became tangled in the thick brush, he fell backwards
+and before he could regain his feet, Bruin had gone over the brow of
+the ridge, into the laurel out of sight. Mr. Howard was not able to
+get in a shot at Bruin, as I was on the other side of the root and on
+higher ground, I managed to empty both barrels of my rifle at him
+through the thick brush, but Bruin went on down the hill, through the
+laurel, apparently unhurt.
+
+After following the trail of Bruin for some distance, we began, now
+and then, to find a little blood, where the bear had crawled over a
+log or rubbed against the laurel. We followed him until we found one
+or two places where he had broken down a few laurel and scratched
+about in trying to make a bed, so we thought the better plan was to
+let Bruin go for the night and let him make his bed.
+
+But we did not go to camp empty handed for good luck favored Mr.
+Howard in killing a good, big deer on our way to the shanty. After
+leaving the trail of the bear, we followed up a spur of the main
+ridge that led to camp, Mr. Howard going up one side of the spur
+while I took the other spur. Just before reaching the top of the
+spur, I heard Mr. Howard shoot and in a few minutes I heard him
+shouting for help. When I got across the ridge to where he was, I
+found him dressing a good sized buck. As it was getting dark we lost
+no time in taking the entrails out of the deer, cutting a withe with
+a hook, which we hooked into the lower jaw of the deer. We hooked
+ourselves to the withe and made lively tracks to the shanty, where we
+could talk and laugh of the day's hunt.
+
+* * *
+
+We were up early the next morning and had our lunch packed in our
+knapsack, ready for an early start. It had turned warm during the
+night and the light snow that was on the ground, was fast
+disappearing. So we lost no time in getting back to where we had left
+Bruin's track the night before. We could still manage to follow the
+trail on the snow and we soon found where Bruin had broken down a few
+laurel and tried to make a bed. But he would not stop long,
+apparently, when he would move on for a short distance and again
+break down a few laurels as before to make a nest. We could see a
+little more blood at each place where he stopped than the one before.
+
+We were working the trail as cautious as we could, when we heard a
+noise in the thick laurel to our left and got a glimpse of Bruin
+going through the laurel. We emptied both barrels of our guns in the
+direction where we could see the brush wiggle, but all of our shots
+failed to take effect. Bruin now left this laurel patch, crossed a
+ravine and began to climb another spur of the main ridge. We did not
+follow the trail long, when we discovered that it was becoming hard
+work for Bruin to travel far at a time, as he would stop to rest. The
+snow was now gone so that it was a little more difficult to follow
+the trail of the bear. We thought that it would be better for one of
+us to go up the ravine to the top of the ridge and stand about where
+he thought that the bear would come out at the top of the ridge. Mr.
+Howard went to the ridge, while I was to follow the bear's trail.
+
+After waiting long enough to give Mr. Howard time to get to the top
+of the ridge, I took up the trail of the bear. I had not gone far
+when I came to a bed, where the bear had stopped for a time. I was
+now sure Mr. Howard would get to his watching place before the bear
+reached the top of the hill. I was not mistaken, for it was not long
+until I heard Mr. Howard fire both barrels of his gun in rapid
+succession. I thought when I heard the two shots that the bear hunt
+was surely over, but after listening a few moments and hearing
+nothing from Mr. Howard I was then unable to give a guess what he had
+done. I worked along on the trail until near the top of the hill when
+I saw Mr. Howard standing with head down and bearing the expression
+of a motherless colt.
+
+When I got up to him he said that the bear had stopped near the brow
+of the ridge and when he came in sight, the bear started across the
+ridge and he fired both barrels of his rifle at him but the bear was
+so far away that he could not reach him. The bear now crossed the
+ridge in the direction of Windfall Run, a branch of the Cross Fork
+and toward a large windfall. We followed the bear a short distance in
+to the windfall. Briers and brush were so thick that it was almost
+impossible to work our way along in the brush and one could scarcely
+see ten feet ahead. We had followed the trail but a short distance
+when we could hear Bruin whining like a little puppy and soon we
+could see him sitting up on his haunches and keeping up the whine. We
+soon put an end to his troubles. When we removed the bear's entrails,
+we found that one of the shots that we fired at him at the beginning
+of the hunt, had passed through the lungs but had not struck any
+large artery or any vital point. But the wound had weakened him so
+that he was no longer able to make his way through the thick briars
+and brush. We had two days of sport but now the real work began.
+
+We were about three miles from camp and any hunter who has toted a
+three hundred pound bear or a good big deer, lashed to a pole and
+where the route was up and down steep hills, knows what sort of a job
+he has on his hands. But comrades, we were not as old at that time as
+we now are and we could tote a bear or deer as easy then as we could
+a rabbit now.
+
+  [Illustration: WOODCOCK AND HIS CATCH, FALL 1904.]
+
+Mr. Howard stayed with me for about two weeks and we had other bear
+hunts and killed two other bear and we did it almost without knowing
+that there was a bear within ten miles of us. We also got five or six
+deer during Mr. Howard's stay with me. Deer were as plentiful in
+those days as rabbits. Comrades, look over the accompanying picture
+and note the difference at the camp of a trapper from what you can
+imagine it was about one's hunting camp at the time we write of.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Incidents Connected with Bear Trapping.
+
+Several years ago, I was trapping for bears on the East Fork of the
+Sinnemahoning River. I usually went on horse back as far as I could
+when tending the traps. But boys, don't be bad, as I was, for this
+was on Sunday that I went to look at the traps. I found the bait-pen
+of the first one torn down, bait gone and everything showed plainly
+that Bruin had been there. As I had no bait at hand, I went to the
+next trap. I found things quite different, for the old bear had
+surely "put his foot in it" this time, as the trap was gone. On
+taking the trail I did not follow it far, before I found bruin fast
+in an old tree-top. I soon dispatched him and taking off his coat,
+hung up his carcass. Now the bait was gone at this trap also. Let me
+tell you that this is something that rarely happens, for when the
+bear puts his foot in a Newhouse trap, he seldom tarries to monkey
+with bait. I suspected that another bear had been there after this
+one had got in the trap. As I had no bait I took the lungs and heart
+of the one I had caught and baited the traps the best I could, then I
+took the skin and started for home. Well, when I got near the horse
+you can bet there was some tall prancing and loud snorting. After a
+long time I managed to get on his back and home with the skin.
+
+The next morning I began to have some doubt whether bears were
+cannibals or not. I thought I would take some fresh bait and go back
+and bait the traps up good.
+
+When I got near the trap in which I had caught the bear the day
+before, I heard a great deal of wrestling going on and it did not
+take long to see that I had an old he-bear hung up this time. And now
+was the time that I began to realize what a boy's trick I had cut up,
+for I had not taken any gun with me; only a small revolver and three
+cartridges. I found that the bear was dead fast and a big one too. He
+seemed to be more inclined to quarrel than bears usually are. I took
+my trapping hatchet in one hand and revolver in the other, and worked
+my way up close as I dared and awaited the best chance I could get to
+shoot for he was rolling and tumbling like a ball. I fired at his
+head but missed it. I fired the two remaining cartridges just back of
+the fore-shoulders. He paid about as much attention to it as I
+imagine he would if it had been a flea that bit him. After waiting
+some time to see what effect the shots would have and noticing no
+change in Bruin's countenance, I concluded I would see what I could
+do with a club. I soon found that I and the club were not "in it," so
+I gave it up as a bad job and went home after the team and a gun. On
+my way home I had to pass the house of an old trapper by the name of
+Stevens. Of course, he was out to see what luck I had, and when I
+told him my story, he gave a great laugh and said he would go and let
+the bear out of the trap. When we got back to the trap the next day
+we found the fight all gone out of Bruin, for the two shots had
+penetrated the lungs and he was nearly dead.
+
+* * *
+
+Pard, whom I call Co, and I went camping many years ago on a branch
+of the Susquehanna River in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. At that
+time all that part of the country was an unbroken wilderness and we
+were several miles from the nearest town. Now Co was a good hunter
+but despised trapping, saying it was no gentleman's sport, yet he was
+always ready to do his share in camp life.
+
+One evening in December Co did not turn up at dark, the usual hour
+for his return, still I did not worry much until eight o'clock, but
+from that time until about nine I kept going to the door and giving
+an occasional "Kho-Hoop," just to let him know the direction of the
+camp if he was within ear shot. As Co did not return, about nine
+o'clock I shouldered my rifle and started out in the direction that
+he had gone, shooting off my gun, and occasionally letting out a
+shout that echoed from hill to hill, but no answer came back in
+reply. The weather was growing extremely cold and I began to feel
+very much worried about Co for although I knew he was a good
+woodsman, I imagined all sorts of calamities had befallen him. At
+every high point I would fire my gun but never an answer could I
+hear. I kept this up till midnight, and then retraced my steps to
+camp intending to take an early start in the morning, when I could
+see to track my wandering partner.
+
+Judge of my delight, when about half a mile from camp the sharp
+report of a rifle rang out on the clear night air, and I knew Pard
+had returned alive. I hastened to the shanty where I found Co all
+right but as mad as a hornet. As he raved around he exclaimed: "No
+one but a--fool would catch anything in a--steel trap. If you must
+trap things, get them in something that will stay put." When Co
+cooled off a little, I said: "Come old man, tell us what has
+happened." "What has happened," said he, "enough has happened, I
+should think. I went where you set that tarnal old bear trap and some
+critter has got into it and broken the chain and carried it off, and
+he makes a track bigger than an elephant. He's making for the big
+windfall and I followed him more than forty miles, and he was farther
+ahead of me than when I started, and I hope he will get into the old
+windfall and stay there till doomsday." Well, Pard felt better when
+he had eaten the hot supper I had left for him and we turned in for a
+few hours' sleep.
+
+The next day we went to town and got a number of men and dogs and the
+following morning started out early on the track of old bruin. We
+soon struck the trail and located the beast in a big ravine.
+Stationing the men around where the bear was likely to break cover, I
+went in with the dogs to drive him out.
+
+Now there was one young chap among the crowd called Dan, who proved
+to be of rather a timid nature. The battle which soon followed proved
+very short owing to the number of guns opened on the bear the moment
+he broke cover and he was soon dispatched and nearly as soon skinned
+and cut up. But when I looked for Dan he was nowhere to be found. A
+searching party was organized and after beating the bush for some
+time, poor, frightened Dan was finally located in the top of a small
+beech tree and came tumbling down inquiring if the bear was "sure
+dead."
+
+* * *
+
+I have often thought I would like to relate some of my experiences in
+the woods while deer hunting. Many a time while following a herd of
+deer or a wounded one over ridge after ridge, has the sun set and the
+stars come out and I found myself many miles from my cabin or any
+habitation. Then I would find a large fallen tree, that laid close to
+the ground, gather a pile of dry limbs and bark, scrape away the snow
+from the log, often the snow being a foot deep, build a fire where I
+scraped the snow away. When the ground became thoroughly warm, I
+would rake the coals and brands down against the log, put on more
+wood, and then I would place hemlock boughs on the ground, where I
+had previously had the fire. Soon they would begin to steam and after
+frizzling some venison (if I chanced to have it) before the fire I
+would take off my coat, lie down on my stomach, pull the coat over my
+head and shoulders and sleep for hours before waking. Sometimes I
+would have the skin of a bear to put over me, and for doing these
+things my friends would scold me, but the reader will know, if he has
+the blood of a hunter in him, that I enjoyed it.
+
+But this is not what I started to write about, it was of a day's hunt
+after a bear on the 16th day of December, 1903. On the day previous,
+the afternoon sun sinking to rest in the west, casts its rays for a
+moment upon a solitary hunter's cabin in the hills of old Potter,
+then the bright glows faded away, the sun disappeared behind the
+mountains and it was a soft beautiful twilight, while I stood just
+outside the cabin door meditating. Mart (that is an old liner who had
+come to my cabin to have a few days' hunt) came out of the cabin and
+I said, "old man, what are you thinking about?" The reply was, "just
+watching the sun set." "Don't you think the coon will be out tonight
+if it holds warm?" "I don't know what the coon will do, but I know we
+went around a bear over in that jam in Dead Man's Hollow. (This
+hollow is so called because a fisherman a few years ago, found the
+body of a man who had gotten lost and died in the snow the winter
+before).
+
+Well what do you think you will do about it? I think we had better
+turn in early so as to get an early start in the morning and see if
+we can find where the bear is sleeping. "Agreed," said Mart, and we
+were soon in bed, but it was a long time before I closed my eyes in
+sleep for I was familiar with the woods in the neighborhood where the
+bear was supposed to be and I mapped out and laid every plan that was
+to be carried out the next day before I went to sleep.
+
+At four o'clock in the morning we were astir and soon breakfast was
+ready and eaten, lunch put up and at the break of day we were on our
+way to where bruin was supposed to be, a distance of about five
+miles, which is no small job for an old cripple like myself. After
+about three hours we were on the ground where we were in hopes of
+finding bruin. Mart was to circle several points outside of where we
+thought the bear was snoozing; this was done to make sure that the
+bear was in there. I took a position where the bear was most likely
+to come out if he was there and should be started by Mart. My
+position was in an open piece of timber on the point of a hill and
+near a very thick jam of trees that had been broken down two years
+before by a heavy ice storm and near the bear track where he had gone
+in several days before. Mart was to make another circle somewhat
+smaller than the one he had previously made for we now knew that the
+bear was in the jam of timber.
+
+After completing the second circle Mart was to drop below the jam
+where we were quite sure bruin was napping and work his way through
+the fallen timber. This worked all right, for soon I heard Mart cry
+out: "Look out, he is coming." Soon I heard the crashing of the brush
+and could tell that bruin was coming directly toward me, and in
+another minute he broke into the open timber. My rifle was already
+pointed in that direction and bruin had scarcely made two jumps in
+the open timber when I fired. The bear made a loud noise like that of
+a hog and I knew that he was hit hard and could already see a crimson
+streak in the snow. But bruin steadily held his course, in a few
+yards further he made an attempt to jump a large fallen tree and I
+fired again. This shot was more fatal than the first, and he fell to
+the ground and could not rise. I hurried up and fired a shot through
+his head which soon quieted him. Mart was soon on the scene and after
+a little rejoicing we soon had his hide off, and cutting the fore
+parts off and hanging them in a tree to be brought out the next day.
+Mart took the saddles and I the skin and started for camp, which we
+reached shortly before dark, and as we had prepared things for supper
+before leaving in the morning, supper was soon ready which consisted
+of buckwheat cakes, wild honey, baked potatoes, bacon, bear steak and
+tea. Dear readers, do not tell Mart, but I think that he took a hot
+toddy after talking the hunt over and over. Again, we laid down to
+rest our weary selves and dream of the hunt which may never come.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Pacific Coast Trip.
+
+As I am always looking for taller timber to plant my traps in and as
+the drift of the trapper seems to be to the west, the Rockies and the
+Pacific Coast, and as I have had some experience in the Rockies, and
+along the Pacific Coast region, I will speak of some of the
+advantages and disadvantages that the trapper will meet with in that
+section.
+
+The trapper will find the fur bearers more plentiful and many more
+kinds of animals to take, than is found in the East, which is a great
+advantage to the trapper. The hunter will find deer quite plentiful
+in many places in the Rocky Mountains and on the Pacific Coast. In
+1904 I was in Humboldt and Trinity Counties, California and I found
+deer so plentiful and tame that it was no sport to shoot them. While
+the law limited the hunter to two deer in a season, the people in the
+mountains made their own laws, as to the number of deer that they
+should kill. Black and brown bear are plentiful all through the Rocky
+Mountains and in the Coast ranges. You see much written of the
+grizzly bear in this region, but it is doubtful if a hunter or
+trapper would see one or even the track of one during a whole
+season's trapping. The trapper will find marten, fisher and lynx in
+many places in the Rockies and in the Coast Range but nothing to what
+there was a few years ago.
+
+Now one who is contemplating trapping in the Rockies or on the
+Pacific Coast, must bear in mind that the conditions that a trapper
+meets with in this region are far different from what they are in the
+East. The trapper who is planning a trip in that section before
+starting out should examine his feet close to see that there are no
+tender spots on them. The man who makes a success of trapping in this
+region must be a man who can stand grief and hardships a plenty, for
+he will run up against it often. He will find the mountain streams
+hard to get along; he will have but little use for a boat as the
+streams are rapid and full of boulders. In most cases the trapper
+will be compelled to take his outfit into the mountains by pack
+horses, and in many cases it will be necessary for the trapper to be
+the horse.
+
+The trapper to succeed in a financial way must take in a supply of
+provisions to last at least until the first of June, for it is during
+April, May and even June that he must do his bear trapping; for the
+bear holes up or goes into hibernation down in the lower land and
+does not show up much in the mountains until spring.
+
+The trapper must provide himself with a good number of traps of
+different sizes from the No. 1 for marten to the No. 5 for bear; and
+that means a whole lot of packing and hard work. He must have at
+least one pair of snow shoes, and should have an extra pair in case
+of a mishap, in the way of breakage. One good gun is all that is
+likely to be needed, and don't load yourself down with a lot of
+revolvers, hunting knives, etc. A good strong pocket knife is all
+that I have found necessary, though one should have more than one
+knife no matter what kind he may use.
+
+Here I will say a word as to a gun especially for the trap line. The
+manufacturers of guns have as yet failed to make it. The Marble
+Game-Getter comes the nearest to it of any now made, but that is not just
+to my liking. We would do away with one of the barrels, and have a
+single barrel, 44 caliber straight cut, with cartridges for both ball
+and shot with 15 inch barrel, skeleton stock, similar to the Stevens
+Pocket shot gun. Mind, I am speaking of an arm on purpose for the
+trap line, and this kind of a gun would do the work and be light to
+carry.
+
+Now the expense for an outfit to go into the mountains for a season's
+campaign is necessarily a considerable item. It is quite necessary
+that the trapper has a number of camps on his line at advantageous
+points, for the trapper cannot cover sufficient territory from one
+camp to make it pay; besides, a number of camps on the line will
+relieve the trapper of much hardship. I mention this matter thinking
+it might be of some interest to some one whose feet are itching to
+get into a big game country, and are thinking of only the game, and
+not of the hardships they are sure to meet with. Another thing that
+is well for the trapper who is looking for a happy hunting and
+trapping ground to remember is, that he will no longer find game as
+plentiful as it once was, in any place that is in any way easily
+accessible. If the trapper will take into consideration the expense
+and hardship that one must put up with in going on one of these
+outings, it might be that he can find quite as much pleasure and
+profit in looking up a trapping ground nearer home.
+
+I will mention one or two places where one can find some sport where
+it will not require the hardship nor expense, and at the same time
+will find deer and some other game quite plentiful, with a fair
+sprinkling of the fur bearers.
+
+In Humboldt County, in California, on Redwood River, deer and bear
+can be found quite plentiful, and there are some marten, fisher and a
+few lynx, coon, mink, skunk and fox. The fox are mostly grey and you
+may by chance meet occasionally with a mountain lion. To reach this
+section the best way is from San Francisco by boat to Eureka, then by
+rail and wagon.
+
+Another section where game and fur bearers are fairly plentiful and
+of easy access, is in the vicinity of Thompson's Falls, in Northern
+Montana.
+
+But if only a good outing is wanted, that can be had in Pecos Valley,
+New Mexico. You will not find much to trap other than muskrats and
+coon on the river and lakes, but they are quite plentiful, especially
+the latter. You will find coyotes and some grey wolves, and some
+antelope, which are protected. Duck shooting is good, the climate is
+mild, only freezing ice the thickness of window glass in the coldest
+weather, which is all thawed out and gone by ten o'clock. This
+section is easily reached by rail.
+
+* * *
+
+In July, 1902, I was spending a few days at Spokane, Wash. Nearly
+every day I would take an old cane fish pole and go to the river just
+above the falls and fish for bass. I would shift my post from one
+point along the bank of the river to another and sometimes I would go
+out on the boom timbers and fish among the logs. Some days I would
+get a bass or two, but oftener I got nothing further than the
+pleasure of drowning a few minnows.
+
+Nearly every morning I noticed a man would come down along the bank
+of the river and go in the direction of the mill. Sometimes he would
+stop and watch me for a few minutes, and then pass on without saying
+anything. But one morning he came along when I happened to be sitting
+close to his path. I looked up and gave the usual morning nod. The
+gentleman, for such he proved to be, inquired what luck I was having.
+I replied that I guessed it must be fisherman's luck, for I got but
+few fish. He replied that he thought that there were very few bass in
+the dam, as there was so much fishing done there.
+
+I was quite sure that he was right from the number of fish I caught,
+and I could see a number of others scattered about the pond, and some
+on the logs, some on the boom timbers and some in boats. The next
+morning I was back at my old post, and this man came along as usual.
+He stopped, laughed and said that I seemed to have plenty of faith. I
+replied that the occasion demanded great faith. He inquired if I
+lived in the city. I told him that I lived in Pennsylvania and was
+only out in that country to see the sights and get a few fish and a
+little venison and later might try to get a little fur.
+
+He informed me that his name was Nettel (Charles Nettel) that he was
+a lumber inspector and that he was going to have a vacation the next
+week. He intended going to the North Fork of the Clearwater on Elk
+Creek, where he had a camp, and that if I wished to fill up on trout
+and venison, I had better join him, as he had no one selected to
+accompany him yet. I said, "Thank you, I would be pleased to do so,"
+as quick as I could, for fear he would change his mind. I now dropped
+my bass fishing and would drop into the mill where Mr. Nettel was at
+work and catch a few minutes chat with my new-found friend, as an
+opportunity would occur, until the time came to go to Mr. Nettel's
+camp. As I had a complete outfit, including blankets, tin plates,
+cups, knives, and forks, a takedown or folding stove with the
+necessary cooking utensils, which I had not yet unpacked, we
+concluded to take the whole kit along so that if anything had
+happened at Mr. Nettel's camp we would have a tent as well as the
+other camp outfit, but we found Mr. Nettel's shack all right. We took
+a train to near a place called Orofino on the Clearwater River in
+Idaho where we repacked our outfit, putting it into sacks.
+
+We engaged a man with two pack horses to take our plunder to camp
+which we found to be all right, and I wish to say that this was the
+farthest up the gulch in the Rockies that I had been at that time.
+
+I found my friend all right on the trout question, for trout were so
+plenty it was no sport to catch them. The next morning after we were
+in camp we climbed to what Mr. Nettel called the bench, but I thought
+it was the moon. We had hardly got to the level, or bench, when we
+say plenty of elk tracks so we followed in the direction in which the
+fresh trails seemed to lead.
+
+We had not gone far when I noticed something moving in the
+underbrush, which might have been taken for a rocking chair for all
+that I could tell. We stood still a few moments when three elk came
+out in sight. We watched them feed for a few minutes, then made a
+noise like a deer blowing, and the elk stopped feeding, stood and
+listened and looked about for danger; Mr. Nettel again snorted and
+the elk trotted off.
+
+We now separated a little and began walking across the bench. We had
+not gone far when I saw two buck deer feeding and shot one of them.
+Mr. Nettel soon came to me and we took the entrails out of the deer
+and drew the carcass down to camp where we sure had venison as well
+as trout.
+
+The man who packed our outfit up the gulch for us had a little
+whiffet dog with him, and in some manner he neglected to take the dog
+back with him. We were a little worried at first because the man had
+left the dog with us, but later I at least was pleased that the dog
+was with us.
+
+We had dressed the deer and hung the meat up on trees near the shack.
+The second night after we had the deer hanging up, along in the night
+the dog kept growling so that after a time, as the moon was shining,
+I thought I would get up and see what was worrying the pup. When I
+opened the shack door the pup lit out like shot from a shovel, and I
+could see the outline of some animal taking up a tree. I could hear
+the bark from the tree falling to the ground like hail.
+
+Mr. Nettel was still sound asleep, so I said nothing but took my gun
+and stepped outside the shack. I could see the outlines of something
+standing on a limb of the tree. I took the best aim I could owing to
+the dim light and fired. The tree stood on the side of the gulch,
+which was very steep, and when the gun cracked the object in the tree
+apparently flew right up the side of the gulch from the tree.
+
+The pup gave chase and within fifty yards I could again hear the bark
+from the tree and soon again I could see the outline of the animal on
+the tree. I was working along out towards the pup, when Mr. Nettel,
+close to my side said, "It is a lion; be careful and take good aim
+this time and kill him, if you can." I got up to the tree where I
+could see the cat fairly fell, and with all the care possible, I
+fired. The cat lit out from the tree, but this time he went down the
+hill instead of up, and when he struck the ground it was broadside
+instead of on all fours. As good luck would have it, I had hit him
+square through the shoulders.
+
+The cat was a little over seven feet long, and Mr. Nettel said that
+it was not a large lion, but as it was the first one that I had seen
+then I thought it was longer than a twelve-foot rail. We pulled the
+cat up to the shack and turned in again. It was only eleven o'clock
+and Mr. Nettel was soon sound asleep, but I had too much cat
+excitement for me to do any more sleeping that night.
+
+In the morning we skinned the cat, gathered dry leaves and stuffed
+the skin and had a stuffed cat in camp. Later, we sold the skin to a
+party for three dollars. We stayed in camp two weeks, feasting on
+venison, trout, grouse, and other game. Some of the time we spent
+prospecting for gold, but we failed to strike it rich.
+
+At the end of the two weeks allotted Mr. Nettel, he was obliged to
+return to his work, and I can say that I never spent two weeks' time
+with more pleasure than I did with the friend I found while fishing
+for bass.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Some Michigan Trips.
+
+Owing to the recent fires (1905) in the northern portion of Michigan,
+which have undoubtedly killed many of the smaller fur bearing animals
+in that section, has called to mind experiences I had trapping and
+hunting in both the Lower and Upper Peninsulas of that state. In the
+fall of 1868 on the first of October, a party of four of us took a
+boat at Buffalo, New York, and went to Alpena on Thunder Bay,
+Michigan, where we purchased provisions for a winter's campaign
+hunting and trapping.
+
+We engaged a team to take our outfit up the Thunder Bay River, a
+distance of about twenty miles, where the road ended. The road was an
+old lumber road and rather rough over those long stretches of
+corduroy. We camped at the end of the lumber road the first night and
+the team returned home the next morning. We took our knapsacks with
+some blankets and grub and went up the river to find a camping ground
+to suit our notion.
+
+Mr. Jones and myself took the one axe that we carried with us and
+began clearing a site to build the camp on. Mr. Goodsil and Mr.
+Vanater went back after more of the supplies, which included another
+good axe and a crosscut saw. They cut out a road as they returned so
+that we could drive to camp when it became necessary. At the end of a
+week we had up a good log cabin, and all was ready to begin to slay
+the deer and skin the fur bearers. Two of the boys now went down to
+Alpena to get the mail and send letters home. On the boys' return
+next day they brought word that we would not be allowed to ship any
+deer out of the state. This put a wry face on Goodsil and Jones, for
+deer hunting was their delight. It was not so bad with Vanater and
+myself, for we could find plenty of sport with the traps and tanning
+a few deer skins. Vanater was an expert at it, graining the skins in
+the water and using the brains of the deer and coon oil for tanning
+and then smoking the skins.
+
+We did not kill many deer though they were plentiful, but venison was
+so cheap in Detroit and other Michigan cities that it did not pay one
+for the trouble. By the last of October there was quite a fall of
+snow and Mr. Goodsil, who was a gunsmith, suddenly came to the
+conclusion that he was neglecting his business at home and we could
+not persuade him to stay any longer. It was only a few days later
+when Mr. Jones also concluded that he was neglecting his business and
+left us. Now I began to wonder if Mr. Vanater or myself would be the
+next to get the home fever, but knowing the metal Charley was made
+of, I expected that I would be attacked first.
+
+Charley and I being now left alone began building deadfalls for mink,
+marten, fisher and lowdowns for bear. I will explain that a lowdown
+is one of those affairs, half pen, half deadfall, which are built by
+first making a bed of small poles, then placing on this bed notched
+together the same as for a log house. The logs should be about twelve
+inches in diameter, and two tiers will make the pen high enough. The
+space inside the pen is usually made about seven feet long, two feet
+high and twenty inches wide. The roof is made of poles or small logs
+pinned to cross logs, the one at the back end of the pen forming a
+roller hinge. The cover is raised up and fastened with the usual
+lever and hook trigger, which the bait is fastened to. The bear in
+order to get the bait goes over the logs into the pen. I wish to say
+that while this sort of a trap is quickly made, I do not like them,
+as the bear will rub the fur madly in its struggles, and they are an
+inhuman sort of an affair at best.
+
+  [Illustration: BUILDING A BEAR "LOWDOWN."]
+
+To get back to my story, Charley and I did fairly well in catching
+mink and marten, but the bear had either migrated or gone into winter
+quarters. The coon had also gone into winter quarters. The snow was
+getting quite deep as it was now past the middle of November, and it
+now proved to be my luck to be left alone in camp. One night when we
+were coming to camp, we had to cross a stream on a small tree which
+had fallen across the creek. There were several inches of snow on the
+log and Charley was carrying a small deer on his back. I was behind
+him carrying the guns. Charley worked his way carefully across the
+log but just as he was about to step off the log on the opposite bank
+he slipped and fell striking his left leg across the log, breaking
+the bone just above the ankle joint. Fortunately we were only a short
+distance from camp so that Charley hobbled to camp, using his gun for
+a crutch.
+
+When we got in camp it did not take long to see that the bone was
+broken. I fixed wood, water and food as convenient as possible for
+Charley and took a lantern, a lunch in my pocket and started for
+Alpena, reaching there shortly after daylight the next morning.
+Engaging a team without any delay we started back to camp. Reaching
+camp about three o'clock in the afternoon, we found Charley quite
+comfortable and feeling quite chipper under the circumstances. While
+the team was eating we fixed both blankets on the straw and a
+mattress which we had brought for the purpose from town, and fixed
+things as comfortable as we could. We were soon on our way back to
+town, which we reached about midnight. The next morning the doctor
+set the broken limb with but little difficulty.
+
+After staying two or three days and making arrangements with a young
+man to come to camp every Saturday and bring mail and word from
+Charley, I returned to camp, where I found things all right. While
+out to town I bought a pair of snow shoes. I had never used them, and
+for the first few days it was who and who to know which would be on
+top, myself or the snow shoes. I finally mastered them and found them
+a great help in getting about in the deep snow. It kept me pretty
+busy attending to the traps.
+
+One night after Charley had been gone about three weeks, on nearing
+camp, I saw a big smoke coming out of the chimney. I first thought
+the cabin was on fire, but I soon saw that that was not the case, and
+knew some one had started a fire. When I got there I saw some one had
+been there with a team. When I rapped on the door Charley called out,
+"Come in, I am running this camp now." Well, I tell you I was pleased
+to hear that voice call out, "Come in." It was some time before we
+thought it best for Charley to go out very much, but he could keep
+camp and I had company. We stayed in camp until the middle of May,
+thinking that we would have a big catch of bear in the spring, but
+were disappointed for we only caught three; but we caught quite a lot
+of coon. We did not trap any for muskrat.
+
+My next trip to Michigan was to Kalkaska County, and I had two
+partners, Moshier and Funk by name, and both were residents of the
+state. Our camp was on the Manistee River near the Crawford and
+Kalkaska County line. This trip was some ten or twelve years later
+than the one previously mentioned, probably 1878. We killed some
+thirty odd deer, and Mr. Moshier having some friends living down
+close to the Indiana line, he shipped our venison down to his friend
+and he sold it for us. I do not know where he sold it but the checks
+came from a man by the name of Suttell, N. Y. We caught 11 bear
+during the fall and spring. We caught a good number of mink, coon and
+fox, also a few marten.
+
+I should have said that on my trip on Thunder Bay River we caught
+several beaver, but on the Manistee we saw no fresh beaver signs but
+plenty of old beaver dams. We would make an occasional trip on to the
+Boardman and Rapid Rivers for mink. On Rapid River two or three miles
+above Rickers Mill was a colony or family of three or four beaver,
+but we did not try to catch them.
+
+My third trip to Michigan was to the Upper Peninsula, in Schoolcraft
+County. A pard of mine by the name of Ross and myself had a boat made
+at Manistique, and started the first of September. We poled and rowed
+the boat up the Manistique River for a distance of about a hundred
+miles, according to our estimate. The boat was heavily loaded with
+our outfit, and we were nearly a month making the trip up the river
+to where we built our camp on a small lake about one-half mile from
+the main river. We found mink, marten, beaver and coon quite
+plentiful, but from what I read bear and wolves are more plentiful
+there now than they were about 1879. At that time there was not a
+railroad in that section, nor scarcely a tree cut in the northern
+part of the Upper Peninsula, with the exception of up about the Iron
+Works where they were cutting timber and burning coke and charcoal.
+In fact, I found bear more plentiful in Lower Michigan.
+
+About the fifteenth of October we had the camp in shape and a big
+pile of wood cut and piled close to the door. We now began to explore
+the country for the best sites to set our traps, mostly Nos. 2, 3 and
+4, besides seven bear traps, all Newhouse. We would build deadfalls
+along the line, for we would not set a steel trap only where we were
+quite sure that we would make a catch. We used the water set mostly
+for wolves and fox, and of course, for mink and coon.
+
+Good springs were not so common where water sets could be made as in
+Pennsylvania. We could find occasionally a good log crossing where we
+could get in a set for wolf, but suitable places of this kind were
+not plentiful. We worked for beaver all we could. We would break a
+notch in their dams and then set a trap just on the edge of break in
+water just deep enough so the beaver would spring the trap. It was
+while trapping here that I learned to make the bait set for beaver.
+This is to use the kind of wood beaver were feeding on for bait.
+
+We caught three or four wolves on the ice close to the bank.
+Sometimes the ice would settle along the banks and the water would
+run over the ice too close to the shore and then freeze. This made a
+good path, or rather place for the wolf to travel. Now, where a
+spruce or cedar tree would fall into the lake so as to leave a narrow
+space between the boughs on the tree and the bank, was a good place
+to set. We would watch the weather and when it began snowing we would
+go to one of these trees from the ice or water side, cut a notch in
+the ice, put in some ashes or dry pulverized rotten wood. The notch
+cut in the ice must be just deep enough to let the trap down level
+with the surface. The clog was concealed under a bough of the tree.
+
+Now, I wish to say that I was never able to catch a timber wolf
+unless I was able to outwit him, and in order to do this the
+conditions and surroundings must be perfect for making the set. Where
+we found good places to make a set of this kind we would place the
+carcass of a deer several yards from shore out on the ice. This would
+entice the wolves to come around, and of course increase our chances
+of making a catch.
+
+We were bothered some by having a wolverine follow a line of
+deadfalls, tear down the bait pen and take the bait, but we did not
+allow him to do his cussedness long before we would put a trap in the
+way.
+
+We would sometimes have the parts of a deer taken down by a lynx
+where we had hung up venison so that it would be convenient to use
+for bear bait. We never objected much about it for we were willing to
+trade venison for a cat almost any time, for deer were very
+plentiful.
+
+In April, when we were taking up our traps and getting ready to start
+down the river as soon as the water dropped so that we dare start, we
+were going onto a stream one day to take up three or four traps that
+we had set for beaver, our route led us across the point of the
+ridge. The point faced to the southeast, and the snow was off in
+spots on this point. When we went over this point in the morning we
+saw many deer run from these bare spots, so when we came back along
+in the afternoon we were as careful as possible and kept the highest
+ground so as to get a good view on this bare point to see how many
+deer we could count. There were upwards of forty in sight at one
+time. How I wish I could have had that picture.
+
+We did not dare to start down the river until the first of June, on
+account of the high water. We had been told that there was a camp on
+the head of the river where they were cutting wood to be burned into
+charcoal. While we were waiting for the water to drop we took a
+knapsack of grub and some fishing tackle and started to find the wood
+choppers' camp, which we did on the second day after leaving camp. We
+stayed ten or twelve days at this camp, and while there a Frenchman
+invited me out to a lake two or three miles from their camp and fish
+for bass. He said he would take along a couple of traps and we would
+have some rats for breakfast, as we were going to camp at the lake
+over night. I did not say much about rats for breakfast, as I thought
+the man was joking. But sure enough, we had rats for breakfast, also
+plenty of fish.
+
+Well, after the man had argued and plead the case of the rats from
+all points of view, and I had done a good deal of snuffing and
+smelling, I tasted, yes, I ate a piece of muskrat and I must confess
+it was of a fine flavor and would be splendid eating if it was not a
+rat. However, I have not tried any more from that day to this. I
+prefer partridge, and I have never been in a place where there were
+as many partridges as there were in Upper Michigan.
+
+It is remarkable how long and well one can live on one hundred pounds
+of flour, twenty-five pounds lard, ten pounds salt and some bacon,
+(tea and coffee if one thinks he can't get along without it), in a
+good game and fish country with a good gun and fishing tackle.
+
+We started on our return trip down the river on the second day of
+June. There had not been a man to our camp during this time. We were
+well satisfied with our catch with one exception, that being bear, as
+we only got four and they were all rather small. We had a splendid
+journey on our return trip down the river. We would see deer at
+almost every turn and once we saw a bear swimming the river. We
+caught lots of fish, all we could use, with hardly an effort.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Hunting and Trapping in Cameron County, Pa., in 1869.
+
+In my last letter on hunting and trapping in Cameron County, I
+promised to give Bill Earl's and my own experience in hunting in that
+county the next season. Well the story is not long, as we had our
+camp already built, we concluded not to go out into the woods until
+it was time to begin hunting and to put out bear traps. Accordingly
+on the last day of October we took a man with a team to take our
+traps, camp outfit and the grub stake to camp.
+
+Going by the way of Emporium in that county, we were compelled to
+stay there over night, the distance being too far to reach camp the
+first day. At Emporium we purchased what more necessaries we needed,
+that we had not brought from home. We reached camp the second day
+about 10 o'clock. When we came in sight of the camp, Bill was walking
+ahead of the team with an axe cutting out brush here and there as
+needed. All of a sudden Bill stopped, set down the axe and looked in
+the direction of the shanty. When I was close enough so Bill could
+speak to me, he said, "I be-dog-on if the wicky is not occupied." I
+asked, "What with, porcupines?" Bill's reply was that he had known
+porkies to do some dog-on mean work, but he had never known them to
+build fires.
+
+I could now see the shack, and sure enough there was a little smoke
+curling up from the chimney. Bill said that he hoped that there was
+no one there that wanted to tarry long, for he was dog-on sorry if
+that wicky was large enough for two families.
+
+We found the shanty occupied alright. There was a sack of crackers
+set on the table and a pot of tea set in the chimney and a couple of
+blankets lay on the bunk. After Bill had sized up the contents of the
+camp, he concluded that the occupants did not intend to stay long,
+judging from their outfit, but Bill was mistaken. Bill said that he
+would proceed to clean house at any rate.
+
+We had taken in new straw for the bunk, so we threw the old boughs
+and the other litter outside and burned it and went in for a general
+house cleaning. Just before dark, two men came in great haste. One
+rushed into the shack and demanded to know what in h--- does this
+mean. Bill said, "nothing, just moving in is all."
+
+Then the spokesman said, "Do you fellows pretend to own this camp?"
+Bill replied that we did, as we did some dog-on hard work building it
+at least. The one man continued to go on with a great deal of telling
+what he would do and what he would not, until we had supper ready,
+when we asked the men to eat with us. The man that had done very
+little talking readily consented but the other man was still inclined
+to bully matters, but he finally took a stool and sat up and ate his
+supper. After supper we learned that they were from near Wellsville,
+N. Y. We made arrangements for the men to sleep on the floor, or
+rather on the ground at the side of the bunk.
+
+The next morning after breakfast was over, the man who proposed to
+run things to his own liking said that he did not see any other way
+but what we would all have to get along together the best way we
+could in the shanty. This was more than Bill could stand so he opened
+on the man and said, "See here, stranger, I am dog-on if a aint
+willing to do almost anything to be neighborly, but I am dog-on if it
+don't take a large house for two families to live in, and this shack
+is altogether too small."
+
+It now began to look as though we were not going to be good neighbors
+very long, when the man that had but very little to say, up to this
+time, said, "See here, Hank, you know that this is not our shanty. I
+told you that some one would be here and want it," and he took his
+blankets, gun and sack of crackers and started off down the run.
+After the other man had done some more loud talking, he gathered up
+the rest of their plunder and started on after his partner with the
+remark that he would see us again. Bill replied that he would be
+dog-on pleased to have him come when we were at home.
+
+We were a little afraid that they might return and do us some dirt,
+but they did not. They went farther down the run and built a sort of
+a shelter out of boughs and pieces of bark where they stayed about
+two weeks, when they went home, leaving the field to Bill and myself.
+
+We put in two days cutting wood and calking and mudding the shanty
+wherever the chinking and mud had been worked out by squirrels and
+other small animals. As soon as we had this work done we put in our
+time setting our bear traps. We also built two bear pens. After we
+had the bear traps all set, we then began putting out small traps,
+setting the most of the small steel traps for fox and building more
+deadfalls and repairing those that we had made the year before for
+marten on the ridges, and along the creek for mink and coon.
+
+After this work was done we gave more time to bear hunting. We had a
+good deal of freezing weather without much snow for tracking. Being
+very noisy under foot, we were compelled to hunt for several days by
+driving the deer, that is, one of us would stand on the runways in
+the heads of basins or hollows and in the low places on the ridges
+where it was natural for deer to pass through when jumped up. In
+going from one ridge to another, we would get a deer in this way
+nearly every day, and one day we had the good luck to get three bears
+while driving, an old bear and two cubs. We were also having fairly
+good luck with the traps.
+
+The first snow that fell to make good tracking was a damp one, and
+hung on the underbrush so much that it was impossible to see but a
+few yards unless in very open timber. Here I wish to relate an
+incident that nearly caused my hair to turn white in a very short
+time. I am not given very much to superstitions or alarmed at
+unnatural causes, but in this case I will confess that I felt like
+showing the white feather.
+
+I was working my way very cautiously along the side of a ridge and
+down near the base of the hill in low timber, as that is the most
+natural place to find deer in a storm of this kind. I had just
+stepped out of the thicket into the edge of a strip of open timber
+where I could see for several rods along the side of the hill. I had
+barely stepped into the open when I caught sight of some object
+jumping from a knoll to a log where it was partly concealed behind
+some trees, so that I was unable to make out what it was. I was sure
+that I had never seen anything like it before, either in the woods or
+out in civilization. I could get a glimpse of the thing as it would
+pass between the trees, then it would disappear behind brush or a
+large tree for a moment, then I would get a glimpse of it as it would
+move.
+
+Sometimes it would appear white and then a fire red. I could see that
+it was coming in my direction. As I always wore steel gray, or what
+was commonly known as sheep gray clothing, which is nearly the same
+color of most large timber, I stepped to a large hemlock tree, leaned
+close against the tree, set my gun down close to my side and stood
+waiting to see whether the thing was natural or otherwise.
+
+It was not long before I could see that I had been frightened without
+any real cause, for it was a hunter who had dressed in fantastic
+array to put a spell on or charm the deer. He had on a long snow
+white overshirt and had tied a fire red cloth over his hat and a
+black sash was tied about his waist. I stood perfectly quiet against
+the tree until the man was within a few feet of me, I could no longer
+keep from laughing, and I burst out with laughter. The man jerked his
+gun from his shoulder as he turned in the direction in which I was
+standing and gazed at me for a moment and then said, "You frightened
+me." I replied that I guessed that he was no more frightened than I
+was when I first caught sight of him.
+
+Well the man explained that he always dressed in that manner when the
+underbrush was loaded with snow, as the deer would stand and watch
+him with curiosity until he was within gun shot. When in New Mexico
+many years after I had tied a red handkerchief to a bush to attract
+the curiosity of the antelope, and it reminded me of the hunter that
+I had seen working the curiosity dodge on the deer.
+
+That night when I got into camp, Bill had not got in but came soon
+after, and he had hardly got the shack door open when he began
+roaring with laughter. I inquired what it was that pleased him so.
+"Pleased me so?" "I guess I was pleased, and had you seen the dog-on
+nondescript that I did, you would have laughed your boots up." I
+asked if he had seen the man dressed in red, white and black. Bill
+asked, "Did you see it too?" I told him of the hunter that I had met
+and talked with. Bill said that he had not been close enough to speak
+to it, and he was dog-on if he knew whether it was safe to get too
+close to the dog-on thing or not.
+
+We had good tracking snow from this time on during the remainder of
+the hunting season. We now each hunted by himself, working as usual
+over the ground that would bring us in the locality of our traps,
+which we would look after and relieve any fur bearers that we chanced
+to get.
+
+We met with one mishap during the season. Well along toward December
+I went to one of the bear traps that we had not been to in a number
+of days. The trap was a blacksmith made one with high jaws. I found
+the trap a short distance from where it had been set, tangled in an
+old tree top with a bear's foot in it. The bear had been caught just
+above the foot. As the trap jaws closed tight together the trap clog
+had got fast solid in the brush soon after the bear had been caught.
+The animal twisted and pulled until he had unjointed the foot, worn
+and twisted off the skin and cords of the leg and was gone. He had
+escaped some time during the night before I came to the trap.
+
+I reset the trap and then took the trail of the bear, which had taken
+a northeasterly course. I followed the trail until nearly night, when
+I became satisfied that he was making for a large windfall on a
+stream known as the South Fork, some fifteen miles away. I gave up
+the trail and returned to camp, which I reached about 10 o'clock at
+night. Bill was still keeping supper warm for me well knowing that
+something was out of the ordinary and wondering what it was.
+
+The next morning we held a council and concluded to look after a few
+traps near camp and put in a day of partial rest and prepare to take
+the bear's trail early the next morning. As planned the next morning,
+we had our blankets and a grub stake strapped to our backs and were
+off for the trail some time before daylight. Striking the bear's
+trail where I had left it about 9 o'clock in the forenoon, we
+followed the trail good and hard all day through wind jams and laurel
+patches, coming to the big windfall just before dark, very tired.
+
+We put up a rude shelter and camped for the night at the edge of the
+windfall. In the morning as soon as it was light enough to travel
+without danger of passing over the trail we were on the move. There
+were several hundred acres in the windfall so we concluded to go
+around and make sure that the bear was still there. Bill skirted the
+jam to the left while I went to the right. Not long after daylight it
+began to snow. We met on the east side of the jam about 11 o'clock
+without seeing anything of the crippled bear track, though I had
+crossed the trail of two bears that had gone into the jam two or
+three days before.
+
+We now concluded to go back to where the two bears had gone into the
+jam and one of us stand near the trail while the other one would drop
+below the trail and work around on the opposite side and drive them
+out if he could. The wind was blowing strong from the northeast,
+which would make it next to impossible for the bears to wind the
+watches. Bill said that he would watch as he could stand the cold
+weather better than I could. It was now snowing very hard, and we
+knew that the bears were aware of the approaching storm and had gone
+to the windfall to go into winter quarters. Chances were that they
+would not come out unless driven by getting close on to them. We were
+in hopes that the three bears might be all in one nest, and that the
+one that did the driving would stand a fair chance to get a shot at
+them as they left.
+
+I made my calculations from what I knew of the jam about where the
+bear would lay. Good luck was on my side this time and I hit it just
+right, coming on to them from the opposite side from where they had
+gone in, but I did not see or hear them when they went out. The first
+thing I knew of their whereabouts was when I came on to where the
+bears had been breaking laurel brush for their bunk. Will I did some
+fine looking and listening, but all to no purpose, as they had got
+the wind of me and had gone out. Undoubtedly they would not have done
+this had they been in their nest a few days longer and had got well
+to sleep.
+
+They had gone in under two large trees that had been blown out by the
+roots. They had taken dry rotten wood torn from the two old trees
+that formed the root to their winter quarters, and with laurel brush
+and other matter they had made very good quarters for the winter. I
+soon discovered that the lame bear was not with the two other bears.
+I did not follow the trail very far when I came onto the trail of the
+lame bear going on still further into the jam, but I did not follow
+it but continued on after the two bears to learn what luck Bill had
+had. I heard no gun shot and was afraid that the bear had not come
+within gun shot of Bill, although the bears were following nearly
+back on their trail that they went in on.
+
+When I came to the edge of the wind jam, I saw that the bear had of a
+sudden made some big jumps down the side of the hill. One of them had
+turned back into the jam while the other had followed down the hill,
+and Bill's track was following the trail. I did not go far when I saw
+Bill tugging away at the bear trying to draw it down to the hollow
+and near where we had camped the night before.
+
+It was still snowing very hard, and after getting the bear down to
+the hollow and near to what was called in those days a wagon road--a
+near trail cut out through the woods--we went to the camp where we
+had stayed over night and rebuilt the fire and ate a lunch. We had
+not eaten anything since morning, not wishing to spare the time. It
+was snowing so hard, and as we knew that we would not be able to
+reach camp until well along in the night, we concluded to again use
+the camp of the night before. We gathered a few more hemlock boughs
+and made the shelter a little more comfortable and went to roasting
+bear meat on a stick to help out the grub we had brought with us, so
+that we could look further for the lame bear the next morning.
+
+When morning came, it had snowed more than twelve inches, and as we
+were satisfied that the lame bear would not leave the jam, we
+concluded to go down the run about five miles to where a man lived by
+the name of Reese. Arrangements were made with him to get the bear
+down to his place where we could get it later. From Mr. Reese's we
+went to camp and waited a few days for the snow to settle a little.
+On the way back to camp we looked at two or three bear traps and
+found a small bear in one of the traps, and the last bear that we got
+during the season.
+
+We now began to take in the bear traps as we came near one on the way
+to camp. The snow was so deep we were obliged to reset the most of
+the small traps, although we had when setting out the traps taken
+every precaution to set in such places as would afford them all the
+shelter possible. After tending all the traps again, we went once
+more to see if we could route the lame bear. We spent two days
+searching the windfall in every quarter, but were unable to find a
+trace of the track. We were quite positive that she was still
+somewhere in the jam, but the snow had fallen so deep that it had
+completely obliterated all signs.
+
+Two years later I was one of a party that killed a bear and captured
+her two cubs. The old bear had one foot gone. I am quite sure that it
+was the one that had escaped from our traps.
+
+We now put in the time hunting deer and looking after the small traps
+until about the first of January, when we pulled all of our traps and
+went home. This ended my hunting with William Earl, one of the best
+pards that I ever hit the trail with, or followed a trap line. Bill
+left these parts and went back east to his native state, and after a
+time I lost all trace of him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Hunting and Trapping in Cameron County.
+
+It will be remembered that when Mr. Earl (or Bill, as I preferred to
+call him,) and the writer followed the bear from the Kinzua in McKene
+County, through Cameron County, that we saw signs of bear, deer,
+marten and other game quite plentiful in the region of Baley Run,
+Salt Run and Hunt's Run, and that we concluded to pitch our camp in
+that quarter. As there were no huckleberries in the vicinity of our
+homes, we decided to kill two birds with one stone, that was to pick
+some huckleberries and build our camp for the next season's hunt.
+
+Accordingly about the last days of July, we took a team and our
+outfit for camp building and started for Hunt's Run by way of the
+Sinnamahoning and Baley Run. At this time the country in that section
+was an unbroken forest of pine, oak and hemlock with a goon
+sprinkling of chestnut. As the saying was in those days, "God owned
+the land in that section," so all we had to do was to go into the
+woods, select our camp site and proceed to build. (Boys, let me stop
+long enough to say it is different nowadays; you must go through a
+whole lot of red tape and get a permit to camp and the permit only
+lasts two weeks, when you must get a renewal.)
+
+The site we selected for our camp was on the left-hand branch of
+Hunt's Run. We rolled up the usual box log body, about 10 x 14 feet.
+We put up a bridge roof, putting up about four pairs of rafters and
+then using three or four small cross poles for roof boards. We then
+peeled hemlock bark, making the pieces about four feet long, which we
+used for shingles to cover the roof with. After the roof was
+completed, we felled a chestnut tree which we split into spaults
+about four feet long. With these we chinked all the cracks between
+the logs, striking the axe into the logs, close to the edge of the
+chinking and then driving a small wedge in the slot made by the axe
+to hold the chinking in place.
+
+Next we gathered moss from old fallen trees and stuffed all the
+cracks, using a blunt wedge to press the moss good and tight. We then
+begun on the mason work. We found a bank of clay that was rather free
+of stones and made a mortar by using water, making the mortar about
+as stiff as mortar usually used in house plastering. The chinking and
+mossing had been done from the inside, while we now filled the space
+between the logs good and full of mortar, or rather mud.
+
+The next work was to take the team and haul stones, which we found
+along the run and put up the fireplace. Considerable pains was taken
+and we done a pretty good job, as we hoped to use this camp for a
+number of seasons. After the fireplace was completed, we hung a door,
+using hinges made of blocks of wood and boring auger holes through
+one end. Shaping the other end on two of these eyes to drive in two
+holes boring into the logs close to the door jams. The other two eyes
+were flattened off and made long enough for door cleats as well as to
+form a part of the door hinge. Now a rod was run through these eyes
+or holes in these pieces. This formed a good, solid door hinge. Then
+a door latch was made from a slat of wood, which worked on a pin in a
+hole bored in one end of the slat and a hole bored through the door.
+A small hole in the slat and a string tied to latch and run through a
+hole in the door furnished the means of raising the latch. A loop for
+the latch to work in and a catch on the door jam and the door was
+complete.
+
+We next put in the window and made a bunk or bedstead from small
+poles and the hut was completed. I think we were about four days
+doing the work including an hour or so each day spent in picking
+huckleberries enough for our special need. Now as the camp was
+completed, we began to search for a place where we could find berries
+more plentiful than we had found them near camp. On the hillsides
+facing the river, where there were barrens, we found more.
+
+While searching for huckleberries we found a deerlick or salt log,
+which the deer were working good. Bill said he guessed we had better
+appropriate the loan of the lick for one night to our own use, and
+see if we could not get some venison to take home with us as well as
+huckleberries.
+
+When the sun was about an hour high, we took our guns and went to the
+salt log. There was no blind made to get in to watch them. We
+selected two jack pines that stood near together and we each climbed
+into a tree, breaking some of the boughs out that obstructed our view
+in the direction of the lick and laid the boughs across some limbs to
+sit on. We had scarcely got our seats fixed when I heard the crack of
+a limb off to our left. I whispered to Bill and pointed in the
+direction I had heard the breaking of the limb. Bill shook his head,
+to indicate that he had not heard anything, but had hardly done so
+when I saw Bill begin to cautiously shift his gun from the way it was
+pointed and slowly move it so as to shoot to his left. When he had
+the gun worked around so it pointed in the direction in which he
+wanted it, he began to raise it slowly to his shoulder. I thought to
+myself, that means venison for breakfast. I thought right, for when
+Bill touched the trigger and his gun spoke, I saw two yearling deer
+jump into sight and my gun came to my shoulder from habit, but there
+was no need to shoot.
+
+The second jump that the deer made one of them fell dead, the other
+one ran a few rods, stopped and looked back to see what had become of
+his mate. Bill's gun came to his shoulder like a flash, but I
+hollowed, "Don't shoot." Bill dropped his gun and said, I came
+dog-on-nigh making a fool of myself. We got down from our perches and
+dragged the deer (a yearling buck) out away from the lick, removed
+the entrails and Bill made a knapsack of the carcass and started for
+camp.
+
+The sun could still be seen shining on the highest peaks of the
+hills. Bill said, "That fun was over with too quick; I had one of the
+most comfortable seats I ever had. I had no time to enjoy it, when
+you called my attention to those little bucks and spoiled all my
+comfort." We got to camp before dark and stripped the skin from the
+deer, spread it out, cut all the meat from the bones, layed it on the
+skin, sprinkled some salt over it, then wrapped the meat up in the
+skin, saving out a few choice pieces to frizzle over the coals and
+eat with our lunch before bunking in for the night.
+
+We had seen some parties, while picking berries during the day. They
+told us that there was a man by the name of Sage living down on the
+river near Emporium, who had a large clearing on the hill only about
+a mile from where we were, or about two miles from our camp. He told
+us in which direction we would find the field, and said that we would
+find Mr. Sage there, as he was up there cutting oats. As the grub
+stake for the horses was getting rather low, and as we were not yet
+ready to go home, Bill said that if I would stay and jerk the venison
+(for here we cannot keep venison by hanging it up in a tree, or on a
+pole, as you can on the Pacific Coast or in the Rockies), he would go
+and see Mr. Sage.
+
+In the morning I began preparation to jerk the venison, while Bill
+went in search of grub for the horses. There was no road, but there
+was but very little down timber in the woods in those days, only
+occasionally a wind jam, which you had to work your way around. Bill
+found the clearing all right, and got oats in the bundle for the
+horses. Bill also made arrangements with Mr. Sage to bury eight
+bushels of potatoes and leave them on the hill where we could get
+them as we wished. Bill also killed a large rattlesnake on his way to
+the field, which he brought to camp, where we skinned and took out
+the oil. When we were skinning the snake Bill remarked, "that he
+thought the fur rather light on the varmint, but it was a pretty
+cuss." Let me say that at our place on the head waters of the
+Allegheny we had no eels, rattlesnakes or wartelberries, so we
+concluded that we would stop one night on the Sinnamahoning and get
+some eels to take home with us.
+
+While Bill was gone for horse feed I was busy jerking the venison. I
+gathered a good hill of dry hemlock bark from the logs, burned it to
+a good pile of live coals. I now made a rack or gridiron by driving
+four crotched stakes in the ground about the embers and then laid
+small poles across in the crotches to form a rack to spread the
+venison on over the coals. I stood hemlock bark up about the rack,
+freshly peeled from the tree and covering the top over also with
+bark, which forms an oven. It is necessary to remove the top or cover
+occasionally and turn the meat, and say, boys, next June when you are
+out camping just kill a small deer and prepare the meat as described.
+Is it good? I guess yes.
+
+Having our work completed at the camp, the next morning after we had
+got the horses fed and the venison prepared, we drove back onto
+Baleys Run. Here we camped near the mouth of the run, and that night
+we set fifty eel hooks, some in the run and some in the main
+Sinnamahoning. I think that we caught twenty-two eels and some trout.
+As we were now in a section where there were some barrens, which
+contained good huckleberry picking, we put in the next day picking
+berries until near night, and drove home at night, a distance of
+about twenty miles. All the time while picking berries, setting eel
+hooks and trout fishing, of which we did enough to supply our needs,
+we kept a close watch for signs of animals that we intended to take
+in later on.
+
+We saw signs of mink, coon and where an otter had been at play on a
+steep bank of the run. We saw signs of bear in several places where
+they had torn old logs to pieces in search of grub and ants. We saw
+at one place where a bear had dug out a woodchuck, and I should judge
+by the amount of digging he had done that he earned his chuck. We saw
+considerable signs of bear in the huckleberries, and of them will
+have more to say later on.
+
+* * *
+
+About October first, Bill and your humble servant again started for
+camp, which we found all right. From all appearances it had been
+occupied for several days by someone, probably berry pickers, and as
+usual they had burned up what wood we had cut. Bill made a little
+kick, and said they were welcome to the camp, but he would be
+"dog-on" pleased if they would cut what wood they burned. Our first week
+in camp was spent in cutting a good supply of wood and mudding the
+shack a little in places where we failed to do good work the first
+time.
+
+Being located well up at the head of the streams, it made it
+necessary for us to do a good deal of traveling to get from one
+stream to another where the water was of sufficient size to afford
+good trapping ground. Steel traps being none too plenty with us now,
+we started in to build deadfalls. The territory so far as trapping
+was concerned was left to Bill and I, and we took in the waters of
+Baley Run, the Portage, Conley Run and Hunt's Run, as well as several
+lesser streams. As the Baley was the farthest from our camp, Bill
+said we would put up the traps on that stream first. Bill said that
+we would go at it man fashion, for we would be compelled to get our
+grub from the trap line, for there was no chance to take a wood job
+in that section of the country. I suggested that we might get a job
+at the lumber camp, where we sold the deer the year before, and get a
+few beans and a little pork. I guess that Bill did not like the idea,
+for I remember he only gave me a grunt for an answer.
+
+Say, boys, the question of pork and beans leads me to ask how many of
+you who have a fireplace in your camp have a bean hole? Now, Bill and
+I had one in our camp, and I tell you we thought it fine and we did
+it in this way. We dug a hole in one corner of the fireplace about
+two and a half feet deep and about eighteen inches in diameter, using
+the regular old style of bake kettle. This is merely an iron pot,
+with a close fitting flange lid so as to seclude all dust and ashes,
+and we used it in this way. We would first rake a good lot of live
+coals from the fireplace into the bean hole, having the beans already
+in the kettle. Then we would put the kettle down in the hole and rake
+the hole full of live embers, being careful to cover the hole over
+with plenty of ashes.
+
+We prepared the beans about in this fashion: After washing we soaked
+them for about twelve hours. The water was drained off and the beans
+were then put into the kettle with the necessary trimmings, which
+consisted of a good chunk of pork put in the center of the beans, and
+two or three smaller pieces laid on top, a pinch of salt providing
+that the pork was not sufficiently salty. A spoonful of brown sugar
+or rather a little baking molasses and a little pepper. Now this
+kettle was allowed to remain three or four days in the hole without
+disturbing farther than to cover over occasionally with hot embers.
+You ask if beans are good baked this way--we guess yes. We have heard
+a great deal about the famous Boston baked beans, but we wish to say
+that they are not in it compared to beans baked in a bean hole.
+
+Well, to get back to the trap line. We took the Baley waters first.
+This was about six miles from camp, and as it was still a little
+earlier in the season than we cared to begin to take fur, we would
+build the deadfalls and have them ready to set when we thought that
+fur was ripe enough to begin to gather. Bill used a good heavy axe,
+and would cut the dead pole and bed pieces and the stakes and fit
+them all ready to put up. He would then go on and select a place to
+build another trap and get the material all ready as before and then
+move on to the next place. I would follow him up and build the trap,
+make the bait pen and have the trap all ready to set when the right
+time came. The triggers we would make evenings in camp. We always
+used the three-stick trigger, for then we could adjust the trigger so
+that we were sure that the front legs of the animal were over the bed
+piece, when the trap was sprung. In that condition there was not
+get-away for the animal that tried to snip the bait. We would build traps
+on one stream until we had a plenty for that stream. We would take up
+another and put in a supply on that stream, and so on until we had
+gone over as much ground as we could work to good advantage.
+
+All the time we were putting up these deadfalls we were keeping a
+watch out for likely places to set our steel traps for fox and other
+animals. After we had gone over the streams we built the necessary
+deadfalls in the dark, heavy timbered sections where we thought
+likely that there might be marten. As it was now well along toward
+the last of October, we set our bear traps on the different ridges in
+the sections where the chestnut timber was the most plenty. The
+chestnut crop was good and we knew that the first hard freeze would
+open the burs. Bill said we got to get a move on us from early in the
+morning until after dark when we would get into camp. We wished to
+get all the traps out now that we could. Later we were going to put
+in some time gathering chestnuts, as soon as they began to fall, as
+there was good money in gathering them. At this business there was
+lively competition with the squirrels, coons, bears and other animals
+to see which could gather the most, so naturally there is but a few
+days good picking after the chestnuts fall.
+
+Bill said that we would be in a deal while the nuts lasted and we
+did, for we gathered several bushels. I do not just remember how many
+now, but that wasn't all we got while we were gathering chestnuts.
+One day we came to where a bear had been raking for nuts and as it
+was only about a mile from camp I said to Bill that it might be
+possible that if we would stay out and watch for Bruin as long as we
+could see to shoot, we might get a shot at the bear. Bill said that
+he preferred to let the traps do the watching. There was a little
+mist of rain falling, and just the right kind of weather for Bruin to
+be prowling around. Some way it seemed to me if we stayed and watched
+we would get a shot at a bear, but Bill had no faith and said that I
+would get good and wet for my trouble. I told him that if he would
+take what nuts I had gathered along to the shanty, I would stay and
+watch awhile at least. Bill agreed, and said that he would have a hot
+supper ready for me when I came to camp. I suggested to Bill that he
+have the frying pan hot when I got there, for I would bring in some
+bear meat for supper. Bill said that I need not bother to skin his,
+as he would eat his hair and all.
+
+As soon as Bill was gone I selected a point where I could see down
+the hill, as well as over a good stretch of the top of the ridge. I
+had only fairly picked my ground to watch when I heard the brush
+crack close to me from behind. My gun came to my shoulder as I turned
+in the direction of the noise, and there stood Bill a-grinning. I
+asked him what had changed his mind. He said that if I could stand it
+he could, so he stepped along the ridge a few yards and I leaned up
+against a large hemlock tree. He had scarcely taken his stand when
+all of a sudden I saw him begin to slowly raise his gun to his
+shoulder. I knew that he was about to shoot at something, but thought
+it must be a deer. I thought that I ought to shout and scare it away,
+for I thought that Bill had come back on purpose to beat me out of
+the sport, and I guessed right. Bill said after he had started to
+camp it seemed to him that he had done wrong in leaving me to watch
+alone, and that I would kill a bear. So he turned back and got there
+just in time so as not to frighten the bear away, as well as to shoot
+it, which was a yearling and weighed about 125 pounds, with a fine
+pelt.
+
+Bill apologized for the little trick. Said he would never do anything
+of the kind again. He never did. A good reason being that another
+opportunity never occurred. But later I will tell how I got the laugh
+on Bill. The next morning Bill took the saddles of the bear to
+Emporium and sold the meat, but he said that bear meat was not at a
+premium in Emporium. I think he got about $6.00 out of the saddles.
+While Bill was gone to Emporium I took two bear traps and went on to
+a ridge where I thought would be the most likely place to catch a
+bear, as there was considerable beach timber on that ridge in places.
+Beach nuts last long after chestnuts are gone, and bear would be
+likely to work in this timber. As we had not got all of our small
+traps out yet, Bill said that if I would finish setting the rest of
+the small traps, he would put in the most of his time hunting deer,
+as the leaves were now pretty well off from the undergrowth, so that
+the woods were now quite open. This I agreed to, as I knew Bill to be
+a good deer hunter, while I was a little skeptical as to some of his
+trapping methods.
+
+Well, as the busy season was with us now, it was an early breakfast
+and a late supper day after day. Yet we were able to keep up the pace
+from the natural stimulating desire for sport, being anxious to know
+what the results of the next day would be. We were having the usual
+success of the average hunter and trapper who, as Bill said, if
+willing to get a move on, our supply of meat and game was never
+lacking, for I always shot at small game when hunting deer. Bill said
+that he did not like to come into camp empty handed, so he would
+shoot a grouse or a squirrel whenever a chance occurred. We had no
+snow up to this time, so that deer hunting was a little dull, and
+Bill said that he would take a line of traps, either on Baley Run or
+on the Conley, as I liked. I said, take your choice, Bill, so he said
+he would go to Conley Run, which was a little farther from camp than
+the Baley Run, and one or two more bear traps than on Baley Run.
+
+I found a coon or two, and I think I got a fox and one marten, but no
+mink or other furs. I found that a bear had been to one trap and torn
+down the bait pen and taken the bait, but left the trap unsprung. I
+knew that he would cut the same trick again, if I set the trap there,
+so I bent over a small sapling and hung the carcass of a coon on it
+for a bait. The carcass hung four or five feet from the ground.
+
+  [Illustration: RESULTS OF A FEW WEEKS' TRAPPING.]
+
+I set the trap under the carcass and said to myself, "Old fellow,
+when you take that coon, there will be a bear dance." I got to camp
+long after dark, but when I came in sight of camp and looked for a
+light, there was no light to be seen, or any Bill to be found in
+camp. I lit a light and looked at my watch. It was only a few minutes
+of eight o'clock. I got supper and waited until nine o'clock, but no
+Bill came, so I laid down on the bunk to rest, expecting Bill to turn
+up every minute.
+
+I dropped to sleep and when I awoke, the fire had burned out and Bill
+had not returned. I looked at my watch. It was after three o'clock,
+and I knew that there would be no more sleep for me. I went outside
+and listened, but no sound could be heard. I got my breakfast, put an
+extra lunch in my knapsack, and sat down and waited for the break of
+day. As soon as the first streaks of light appeared in the east, I
+strapped on my knapsack, took my gun and started in the direction in
+which I had known Bill to take. I followed the ridge to the Conley
+Run waters, over which Bill would likely come if he had been detained
+in that region.
+
+When I came to the head of a run that led to the main Conley waters,
+I stopped at the brow of the hill. I could look down into the hollow.
+Here I knew that I could be heard for some distance. I listened for
+some time to see if I could hear a gun shot or any other noise that
+would lead me to the whereabouts of Bill. Not a sound to be heard,
+not even the hoot of an owl. I gave a long whoop and then listened,
+but still no answering sound. I again gave a long continued "co-hoop"
+and Bill burst out laughing, and asked what was the matter with me.
+Bill had sat down on a fallen tree that lay close to a large pine
+tree to rest before making the last pull to the top of the ridge. He
+had caught a glimpse of me just before I came to the brow of the hill
+where I stopped to send a wireless message. Bill skulked behind a
+pine tree to see what I would do and give me a scare, when I came
+along.
+
+When I inquired what had kept him out all night, he said that he got
+so big a job on his hands that he could not get to camp. Bill said
+that he had got about half way down the side of the hill from the
+ridge leading down into the Conley River, when he jumped a buck,
+which Bill said slid down the hill like a greased rag. He fired at
+the pile and happened to catch him well back to the hips. The deer
+being wounded through the small intestines made it very sick, but it
+was still able to lead Bill a merry chase. Bill had been working from
+the middle of the forenoon until about three o'clock in the afternoon
+before he was able to get in a finishing shot on the buck. While
+following the deer, he had come near one of the places where we had a
+bear trap set and found that a bear had been caught. He followed the
+trail a little ways, and as it led in an opposite direction from that
+taken by the deer, Bill said he thought he would finish one job at a
+time, so he continued after the deer.
+
+Before Bill was able to get in the finishing shot on the deer, it had
+swung around in the direction of the trail of the bear, so that when
+Bill finally got the buck, he knew that he could not be far from the
+trail of the bear. He hung up the saddles of the deer, which he had
+started to take to camp, and let the bear rest until the next
+morning. After hanging up the saddles he didn't search long until he
+found the trail of the bear, and followed the trail only a little
+ways, when he found Bruin fast in a clump of brush. Bill then killed
+the bear, and taking out the entrails, rolled the carcass up over a
+log and again started for camp with the deer saddles. He did not go
+far when it was so dark that it was difficult to travel and carry the
+deer saddles and gun, so Bill said he thought he would build a little
+shelter and camp for the night.
+
+Bill had started for camp with the saddles of the buck as soon as he
+could see to travel. He was near the top of the ridge on his way to
+camp and had sat down to rest when I came to the brow of the hill and
+began to "co-hoop" to see if I could get any word from him, which I
+did and much closer than expected. Bill brought his load up to where
+I was, and threw it down with the remark "I suppose that you did not
+think to bring along an extra lunch, did you?" When I told him I had
+the extra lunch, and also a bottle of tea (Bill being a great hand
+for tea). Well, said Bill, "then we are all right, once more." We now
+hung the deer saddles up, and went back after the bear. After setting
+the bear trap again, as Bill did not have time after he had killed
+the bear, we started to carry the bear to camp whole. We soon found
+it too heavy to carry that way, so skinned it and hung up the
+foreparts and took the skin and hindquarters.
+
+The next morning, we went back after the deer. We went to where Bill
+had left the fore parts of the deer; then we went to where the fore
+parts of the bear were left, intending to take them as far as where
+the deer saddles were and leave them there, and take the deer saddles
+to camp. When we got to where the bear meat had been left, we found
+that a cat had been there, and filled his shirt on bear meat. It was
+not far to where we had a steel trap setting. I told Bill to go on
+slowly with the deer meat, and I would go and get the trap and set it
+for the cat. Bill said that he thought that would be the right thing
+to do, as there was a two dollar bounty on wild cats. He said we
+could carry the pelt of the cat a great deal easier than we could
+tote the bear meat; he thought that the cat skin and the bounty would
+even things up for the bear meat.
+
+I soon had the trap set for the cat, and then hurried on to catch
+Bill. We went to camp with the deer and the next morning we took the
+bear and deer saddles to Emporium and shipped them to New York. The
+distance that we toted those saddles must have been ten or twelve
+miles. Say boys, won't a man do more hard work to get thirty cents
+out of a coon skin, or a saddle of venison, or bear, than he would to
+get thirty dollars in some other way? As it had been three or four
+days since we had been over a good part of the trap line, we now got
+back to regular business, each one taking up his line of traps. Each
+night when he came to camp, we would have some kind of pelts to
+stretch, either two or three coon, a mink or two, as many more fox,
+with now and then a marten. It would take the evening to stretch the
+pelts and tell our day's experience just what particular trap we got
+that or this fox in, or that mink or coon; just how clever some shy
+old fox has worked to get the bait at a certain trap; on what
+particular ridge or point we had seen Old Golden's track (you know
+all large buck deer have the name of "Old Golden".)
+
+Every man of the woods or trap line knows what pleasure there is in
+relating the experience of the day's hunt or of the trap line to his
+pard during the evening in camp. Yet, I will tell of one occurrence
+though I have told the story many times, and I cannot say that I
+relate it with any great amount of pleasure. Still since many years
+have passed, I have often laughed over the circumstance. I can still
+see that sympathetic grin of Bill's, when he would ask "if it hurt me
+much."
+
+It was a lowery morning, and Bill proposed that we go together and
+look after a line of traps on Salt Run, and then put in the balance
+of the day still-hunting deer. We went down to the lower end of the
+line, worked up the run so as to be near the top of the ridge and in
+a locality where we expected deer to be. We had not looked at more
+than three or four traps, when we came to one that was set under the
+bank. The trap chain was stapled to a root, and was stationary (and
+let me say here that I believe it bad policy to fasten a trap to
+anything, stationary) and it certainly was in this case for me. The
+water was quite deep right at the point where the trap was set and
+came close up to the bank. In order to see the trap, it was necessary
+to lie down on my stomach, and lean my head over the bank.
+
+When I looked down under the bank, I saw that there was some animal
+in the trap. The trap chain was drawn tight and when I drew gently on
+the chain I could tell that some kind of an animal was in the trap. I
+little suspected that it was loaded, as it proved to be. I could not
+see what sort of an animal it was, but supposed it was a mink. It did
+not like to be drawn out in sight, and I was afraid to pull too hard
+on the chain for fear I would draw his foot out of the trap. I let up
+and straightened up to consult Bill, as to the best thing to do. Bill
+said, pull him out and if he gets away, we will get him at another
+trap, and I now suspect that Bill knew what was coming. I leaned down
+over the bank and stuck my head down to see where the chain was. All
+of a sudden I was struck with something more terrible than lightning
+if not quite so fatal, and for the next half hour I was rolling on
+the ground and washing my eyes. Bill said that I danced the Bear
+dance and a Pot Full of Catfish all at the same time. When I
+recovered enough to see what "hit me", I found that I had been
+terribly shot by a measly skunk square in both eyes. Bill was
+grinning and asking "if it hurt much" and telling me that I could see
+better after a little and lots of other sympathetic nothings. I hope
+that none of you may ever have the experience that I met with by the
+treatment of that infernal skunk.
+
+After the atmosphere and my eyes had cleared somewhat, we went on and
+looked after the balance of the traps on the run. We then started out
+to hunt deer, Bill taking one side of the ridge and I the other. I
+saw nothing more of Bill until I reached camp long after dark. I
+worked along the different spires of the main ridge and through the
+heads of the different basins, and only got a glimpse of an old
+buck's tail, making over the ridge and beckoning me to come on. He
+had come over from the opposite side of the ridge and had got wind of
+me before he was fairly in sight. I kept on working the different
+points and basins, shaping my course as best I could in the direction
+of the camp.
+
+A drizzling rain kept up all day, and deer had not moved very much. I
+felt confident that towards evening the deer would come out in the
+open to feed in spite of the rain, and pretty well toward night I had
+the satisfaction of seeing three deer feeding along the hillside and
+coming in my direction.
+
+The wind was in my favor, and as the deer were rather too far to
+shoot, I stood quiet, only occasionally moving from one tree to
+another as a favorable opportunity occurred. The deer finally worked
+up in gun shot, and they proved to be an old doe, a yearling and the
+doe's fawn. The yearling was undoubtedly the doe's fawn of the year
+before. I was very careful to make a sure shot on the doe. The
+yearling and the fawn only took a few jumps when the gun cracked and
+the doe went down, and stood looking at the old lady to see what had
+happened to her. I gave the yearling the contents of the other
+barrel. He made a jump or two and went down, the fawn still standing
+and wondering what was taking place, but before I could get a load
+into my gun, the little fellow thought it best to move on.
+
+I took the entrails out of the two I had shot, hung them up and took
+a lively pace to camp. Bill was already in and had supper waiting.
+Bill asked me if I had seen any deer, and when I told him what I had
+done, he said that he had seen a deer. I told him that if he had used
+a little skunk eye-opener, he probably would have seen some deer.
+
+As it had now been three or four days since we had made the rounds of
+the bear traps, we concluded that we would not spend any particular
+time in deer hunting until we had looked all of the bear traps over.
+We were quite sure that some of the traps would be likely to be in a
+mixup with bruin as the weather had been favorable for bruin to be
+prowling around. Further we had seen several fresh tracks in the past
+few days. Early in the morning with an extra lunch in our knapsack we
+started out to see what luck with bruin, each taking a different
+route.
+
+Bill went to Baley Run, while I went to Conley Run. I had not gone
+far out on my road, when I came across a man that had been out as he
+said, hunting deer. But from the story he told, I judged that he had
+put in the greater part of his time hunting himself, and he was still
+lost.
+
+The man informed me that he was from Lockhaven, Pa., and that his
+name was Henry Jacobs; and that he was boarding at a farmhouse on the
+Portage but had gotten a little mixed and was unable to find his way
+out to his boarding place. I told him that I was on my way to the
+Conley waters to look after some bear traps, and if he wished he
+could go with me to the main branch of the Conley. Then he could
+follow the stream down until it emptied into the Portage, and to the
+road which would take him to his boarding house, which Mr. Jacobs
+seemed pleased to do. But it proved that Mr. Jacobs' destiny was in
+other directions.
+
+The first bear trap that we came to, we found a "porky" in it. I
+could see that Mr. Jacobs was very much excited and began to ask many
+questions as to bears and bear trapping. When we came to where the
+second trap was setting, we found things generally torn up and the
+trap gone, and it was plain to be seen that it was no cub that had
+taken the trap this time. The bear had gone only a few yards, when he
+had gotten fast in some saplings, and he had gnawed the brush and
+raked the trees and "raised Ned" generally; but had finally released
+the clog and had gone on down the hillside.
+
+By this time I had discovered that Mr. Jacobs had become pretty
+nervous and was shaking rather too much to do good shooting. At every
+rod we advanced along the trail, it was plain to be seen that Mr.
+Jacobs was becoming more and more excited. We did not follow the
+trail far when we discovered Bruin fast again. We went up within a
+few yards of the bear, who did not seem to like our company and would
+chank his jaws and snort similar to an angry hog.
+
+I told Mr. Jacobs to shoot the bear, and he did shoot somewhere, but
+I could not say that he shot in the direction of the bear. As my
+attention had been on the bear, I had not noticed Mr. Jacobs in
+particular, but when I saw that he had entirely missed the bear, I
+looked at him and he was shaking so from excitement, that he could
+not have hit a barn, and drops of sweat stood all over his forehead.
+He had a double barrel rifle, and as soon as he fired the first shot,
+he advanced a few steps toward the bear and fired again, and at once
+began to reload his gun, all the time going nearer to the bear until
+I was afraid that he would get so close that the bear could reach
+him. I had to caution him and tell him to step back, that he was
+getting too close.
+
+When Mr. Jacobs had one barrel of his gun loaded, he immediately
+fired again, with the same results of the other two shots. I told him
+to take my gun and try it, which he did with no better results. Mr.
+Jacobs was all the time becoming more and more excited, and the sweat
+was running off him like a man in the harvest field. I loaded my gun,
+while Mr. Jacobs was loading his, and after Mr. Jacobs fired another
+shot with no better results, I though that the fun had gone far
+enough, and shot the bear.
+
+After the bear was dead, Mr. Jacobs wondered why it was so hard to
+hit a bear's head. "Just look at it," he said, "it is as large as a
+dry goods box". As soon as the bear was dead, Mr. Jacobs wanted to
+know if I would sell the bear. When I told him that I expected to
+sell it, he asked what it was worth. I told him that I thought the
+hide and meat would bring thirty or thirty-five dollars. He drew out
+his purse and said, "I will take it." I told him that if he wanted
+the bear, that we would call it twenty-five dollars, as he should
+have something for his part in the game. He declared that the hunt
+had been worth a hundred dollars to him.
+
+We made a sort of a litter or drag rack with which we managed to haul
+the bear down the hill to an old lumber road where it could be
+reached with a team.
+
+Not long after this I received a copy of the Williamsport Sun
+containing the report of a monstrous bear captured by Mr. Jacobs in
+the wilds of Cameron County. It was a bear story equal to the one the
+prophet relates when the children called him Baldy.
+
+When I got to camp I found Bill stretching a couple of mink skins. He
+had also got a fox or two, and said that a bear had been in one of
+the bear traps, but had escaped, leaving two toes in the trap. Bill
+was considerably down at the heel over the escape of the bear, and
+said that if he had attended to the trap the day before, that the
+bear was then in the trap; that he had put up a hard fight before he
+had made his escape.
+
+When Bill called for my report I took out a marten skin and the money
+that I got for the bear and layed them on the table and told Bill
+there was my count. Bill said that I got the marten from one of the
+deadfalls, but he was dog-on sorry if he could tell where I caught
+the money. When I told him about Mr. Jacobs and the capture of the
+bear, Bill said he would have given a summer's work to have been
+there and seen the man sweat.
+
+I said that I would relate how it happened that I got even with Bill
+for the bear that he killed on my watching grounds.
+
+Well, after we had gone the rounds of the traps, we again put in our
+time still-hunting. Bill had gone south of camp, while I went east. I
+had traveled until the middle of the afternoon without having any
+luck or seeing any deer. So I shifted my course to the west and
+worked my way in the direction of a "burn-down" that was in the head
+of a hollow. As soon as I came to the brow of the ridge and looked
+down into the basin I saw four deer feeding and working towards me.
+The wind was blowing directly from the deer towards me, so I stood
+quiet and in a few minutes the deer fed up within easy range. I
+pulled the gun onto an old doe in the lead, and broke her down almost
+in her tracks. The three remaining deer made a few jumps in my
+direction and stopped and looked back, which gave me a good shot at a
+yearling buck, which also went down in my sight. The other two deer
+ran close by me and over the ridge into the green timber. I had
+hardly cut the deers' throats when Bill called out, "This is a dog-on
+pretty trick that you have played me."
+
+Bill had been following these deer all day and had followed to the
+"burn-down" and had seen the deer on the opposite hill, but too far
+away to shoot. As the wind was against him he had dropped down the
+hollow a ways, crossed and worked up around on the opposite side to
+get the wind in his favor, and was just about ready to fire on the
+deer when I began shooting. After Bill had explained how he had been
+working the deer all day and then have me slip in just as he had the
+game bagged and swipe it, Bill claimed was dog-on mean. I cautioned
+Bill to hold his temper and I would call it even on the bear he
+swiped from me, and told him I was pleased to have him on hand to
+help hang up the deer.
+
+We had worked along now up to about the middle of December with the
+various ups and downs that one on the trap line and trail always meet
+with. We had killed twelve or fourteen deer, and I think we had
+caught six bears and had made a fair catch of fox, mink, marten and
+some other furs. There had not been much snow up to this time, when a
+fall of 12 or 14 inches came all in one night. Bears had not denned
+up to this time, but we were quite sure that bruin would now go into
+winter quarters. We concluded to gather up the bear traps and all the
+small traps that were not setting in springs that did not freeze, or
+those setting in other likely places to make a catch. In nearly the
+last bear trap that we went to get, we found a bear, and when we
+began to skin it we found that it had lost two toes on one forefoot.
+We concluded that it was the same bear that had escaped from Bill's
+trap some time before, although it was eight or ten miles from where
+the trap was that had held Bruin's toes.
+
+A day or two after the heavy fall of snow we got a letter from a man
+by the name of Comstock, living at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, asking
+the privilege to come and camp with us and hunt deer until the season
+closed, the first of January. He stated that he had never killed a
+deer, and that he was very anxious to kill one. We wrote him to come
+on, and that one of us would be at Emporium on the following Friday
+to guide him to our camp. Friday morning I went to Emporium and found
+Mr. Comstock there as agreed. He had paraphernalia enough to equip a
+fair-sized army, so we hired a team to take the outfit to camp and
+also bring out the saddles of a bear and what venison we had on hand.
+
+For three or four days Mr. Comstock hunted all by himself but had no
+luck in the way of killing deer, as he said it took more time to hunt
+the shanty than he had to hunt deer, and suggested that we all hunt
+in company. We had now been on the ground long enough so that we had
+learned all the runways. Bill said that if I would take Mr. Comstock
+down to a certain runway, which he had given the name of Fork Point,
+and place him on it, he would drive the ridge and see if he could not
+drive a deer to Mr. Comstock.
+
+Bill started a bunch of five deer and succeeded in getting a shot and
+breaking a foreleg of a large doe. As the doe with the broken leg
+soon dropped out from the other deer, he was sure that the deer had
+start enough so that they would come through to where Comstock and I
+were watching, he decided to take the trail of the broken legged doe,
+and as good luck, the deer did come through to Mr. Comstock, and as
+he had an Osgood gun with four shots, he succeeded in killing a very
+large buck. After firing the four shots, the fun began.
+
+Mr. Comstock was determined to take the buck to camp, as he wanted to
+take the deer home whole. We had a very steep point to climb for a
+distance of five hundred yards to reach the top of the ridge. The
+deer weighed about two hundred pounds. Any hunter will tell you what
+an awkward job it is to carry a deer of that weight lashed to a pole.
+Mr. Comstock would not consent to drawing the deer for fear it would
+rake the hair off. Well, we could not carry it up the steep point on
+the pole, as the swaying of the deer would throw us off our feet. Mr.
+Comstock said that he would carry it alone if I would help him get it
+on his shoulder. Mr. Comstock was a large man, weighing over two
+hundred pounds, but nevertheless I did not think he would be able to
+carry the deer and told him so. After some hard tugging we got the
+deer on his shoulder and he started up the hill. I started to get out
+of the way, and I was none too soon in doing so. Mr. Comstock had not
+taken a half dozen steps when back he came, deer and all, like ten
+thousand bricks. But as he did not break any limbs or his neck, he
+was bound to try it again, which he did with the same result. But
+this time he was quite badly bruised, and he was now satisfied to
+leave the deer until morning, when Bill went with us and we made a
+sort of a litter and carried it to camp whole; and he was a proud and
+happy man. When Mr. Comstock and I left the deer and decided to await
+reinforcements, we struck the trail of Bill, drawing a deer in the
+direction of camp, so we now knew why Bill had not followed the trail
+of the deer through to where Comstock and I were watching.
+
+It was now about the closing time for deer hunting, so after Mr.
+Comstock had left for home, Bill and I put in the time until the
+first of March tending the small traps with the usual success of the
+average trapper, getting a fox, or mink or marten or some piece of
+fur nearly every day.
+
+When the team which we had written home for came and got our camp
+outfit and our furs, we broke camp and went home to await another
+trapping season.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Trapping and Bee Hunting.
+
+Comrades of the trap line and trail, as every trapper and hunter
+likes to know what other trappers and hunters are doing, I will tell
+of some of my last season's (1908) doings. Having been somewhat
+relieved from my old enemy--rheumatism--I concluded to take a trip
+south and see if I could not find a place suitable to my liking where
+I might escape some of the rigorous cold of the Northern Pennsylvania
+winters.
+
+I went first into Southeastern Missouri. Here I found land cheap,
+unimproved lands ranging from $3.00 to $15.00 per acre; also plenty
+of timber for fuel and building purposes; plenty of fish of various
+kinds, some deer, a few wild turkeys, no bear, some mink, plenty of
+raccoon, a few otter and fox; with minor other fur-bearers, which was
+all quite satisfactory to me, but I did not like the water.
+
+From Poplar Bluff, Missouri, I went to Kenset, Arkansas, where I
+found the conditions as to the price of lands satisfactory, although
+the country was much less broken than Southern Missouri. As to water,
+well, there was water almost anywhere; in fact, you could hardly
+cross the streets without wading in water. The people who were
+natives of that country informed me that the water in the streets was
+not always so plenty, as they said that there had been very heavy
+rains of late. Here I found game of all kinds quite scarce, although
+I was told that southeast of Kenset game was quite plenty, including
+bear, deer, turkeys, quail, etc., and that mink, otter, coon,
+opossum, also a few wolves, were to be found. The water gave me the
+chills in three days, so I concluded to move to other parts of the
+lower St. Francis River, in Lee County. There appeared to be quite a
+plenty of mink, otter, coon and some bear, but the cane brakes were
+pretty thick in the bottoms.
+
+I think that if one was well prepared for trapping, they could do
+fairly well in either St. Francis or Lee County. I went from Hanes in
+Lee County, Arkansas, to Memphis, Tennessee. From Memphis I went to a
+town by the name of Shepard, on the Hatchie River, in Haywood County,
+Tennessee. Along the Hatchie River there were signs of otter, mink
+and coon quite plenty, and in some places the cane brakes were quite
+open. I liked the lay of the land here very well. It was just rolling
+enough to suit my fancy, but again I failed to find our cold,
+Pennsylvania spring water. From Shepard I went to Pickens, in Pickens
+County, South Carolina. Here I found fairly good water, but other
+conditions were not entirely to my liking.
+
+While I did not have time to look up the game or rather the
+fur-bearers as thoroughly as I would have liked to, yet I saw
+considerable signs of mink and coon and was told that there were
+quite a number of otter in that section on some of the streams. From
+Pickens I bought a ticket to Columbus, Ohio, where I intended to stop
+over a day and call on the editor of the greatest of sporting
+magazines, _Hunter-Trader-Trapper,_ but when I got to Columbus my
+courage failed. I was afraid that the editor would be too busy
+pushing the quill to bother with a lone trapper, so concluded to
+hasten back to old Potter, where chills, jiggers, ticks, fleas and
+poisonous snakes are unknown, and where the cold, sparkling spring
+water flows from the mountain side to your very door. Say, boys, you
+may think that I am stuck on the water question. Well, I am, and I
+have good cause to me. Only for spring water, I should not have been
+able to have made the journey which I am writing of.
+
+For the past two years, barring the time I was south, I have drank
+from four to six quarts of cold spring water every twenty-four hours.
+I have got more relief from rheumatism than I ever did from all the
+rheumatism remedies that I ever knew of, and I have tried the most of
+them. I used all the salt in my food that I could to aid the desire
+for water, and took six drops of oil of wintergreen three times a
+day. Now, if any of the old trappers have rheumatism and the good
+spring water, I ask you to try it.
+
+Well, after getting back home and resting a few days and the frost
+began to hit the pumpkin vine, I began to feel as I imagined that the
+wild goose does about their migratory time. At least I felt as though
+I should fly if I did not get into the woods. We were having splendid
+weather for camping, and the warm, dry, sunny days afforded splendid
+weather for bee hunting, and after the trap and gun then my delight
+is to trail the honey bee to his den tree.
+
+One day when a young man called on me and said that he would give me
+an interest in a "goose pasture" to go out in the woods and camp, I
+was interested. Smoky Jim (that is his nickname) although his name is
+Charles Earl, and there is nothing smoky about Charley except his
+pipe, which he is very fond of, too much so, I think, for so young a
+man. Well, when Charley said that he would like to go and camp out in
+the woods, I was practically as good as gone. I knew Smoky to be a
+lively kid and all right, although he had never put in any time as a
+trapper or a bee hunter. I said, "Smoky, can you see a bee fly?"
+Smoky said that he thought he could, for he knew that he could tell
+when one stung him, but he had never watched to see how far he could
+see one fly.
+
+I found that Smoky was given to making comical remarks as well as to
+smoking. I said, "Smoky, what day can you go?" He replied, "Any day."
+This was on Tuesday, so I said, "Alright, Smoky, be here Thursday and
+we will start early Friday morning."
+
+Smoky said, "Alright, but we will not get a darn thing while we are
+gone if we go on Friday unless we get drowned, and there will have to
+be more water in the creek than there is now or we won't get that
+much."
+
+I had already made application to the State Tourist Commissioner for
+a permit to camp on state lands. It may be well to state here for the
+benefit of those who wish to so camp in this state (Pennsylvania) that
+the authorities will not give a permit to camp for a longer time than
+14 days. In my case they were very obliging and made out the papers
+for several applicants of 14 days each, so that it would only have
+been necessary to have signed one of the applications and send it on
+a few days before the previous application had expired.
+
+  [Illustration: WOODCOCK FISHING ON THE SINNAMAHONING.]
+
+We were all ready to start Friday morning. Our route lay over the
+mountains a distance of about 20 miles from the head waters of the
+Allegheny to the head water of the west branch of the Susquehana
+waters, known as the East Fork of the Sinnamahoning. We pitched our
+tent just at the point where the Buffalo and Susquehana Railroad
+begins to cross the divide, known as the Hogback, by means of several
+switch backs. It is a splendid sight to see two or three trains
+working their way up the mountain's side on a clear, frosty morning,
+when the steam and smoke show so plain.
+
+We did not get the tent in good shape for the first night, nor did we
+get our bunk up, owing to its being so late when we got to our
+camping ground. The first night in camp we had a sharp frost and in
+the morning Smoky Jim's fever for camping had dropped fully one-half.
+He complained that any one that would go into such a country to camp
+should be reported for trespassing on the rights of the porcupine.
+
+It took until the third day to get our camp in good shape. We built a
+skeleton frame of small poles all over the tent, leaving a space of
+about 18 inches between tent and frame, and thatched it good with
+hemlock boughs. While we were working at the camp we had our bee bait
+out, and the second day after we put out the bait no bees came to it.
+Smoky laughed at me and said that a honey bee was too intelligent to
+stop in a place like that, but Smoky was wrong. The next morning
+after the sun had got well above the top of the hills, so as to warm
+up things down in the valley, I heated a large stone quite hot and
+burned some honey comb on it. It was not long before Smoky called out
+to me and said that there was one fool of a bee. It was not long
+before we had bees a-plenty. We paid no attention to them farther
+than to keep plenty of bait out for them. Every bee hunter knows how
+much steadier a bee flies after they have the bait well located.
+
+After the camp was well completed and a good pile of wood cut we gave
+our attention to the bees. We soon located two lines, one going
+nearly east while the other went nearly south. I told Smoky to take
+his hatchet and go across the creek some 50 rods and make an opening
+or a stand about half way between the two lines, or about southeast
+from the stand, and when he had it ready, to call to me and I would
+bring the bees over and we could get a cross line and locate nearly
+the tree that the bees were in.
+
+We soon got the direction in which the bees flew. I then told Smoky
+to take the line that now flew in a westerly course from the stand
+and in the direction of two or three large maple trees. The other
+line now flew nearly north from the stand and back toward the creek
+where there was considerable large timber still standing.
+
+Leaving the bait on the stand, I took the course of the bees that
+were now flying north and went to a large birch tree that was
+standing on the bank of the creek. I was still several rods from the
+tree when the bees began coming to me and I knew that the tree was
+close by. I was looking the different trees over to see which tree
+the bees were in when Smoky began to halloo as though something
+terrible had happened him.
+
+Guessing at the cause of Smoky's shouting, I continued on in the
+direction in which the line led and soon saw the bees going into the
+large birch tree. I took my knife and cut the letters B T on the tree
+and then went to Smoky, who was still making the woods ring with his
+shouts.
+
+Smoky began guying me, saying that I was an old bee hunter but it
+took Smoky to find the first bee tree. I did not tell him that I had
+found the tree that the other line of bees went to, but agreed with
+him. I told him to mark the tree that he had located and then he
+could go and locate the other tree if he wished while I would go to
+camp and be getting grub ready.
+
+In about three-quarters of an hour Smoky came to camp and began
+washing for dinner and said not a word. When I saw that Smoky would
+not talk, I said, "Well, Smoky, did you find the other bee tree?" He
+said, "Oh! you keep right on baking flapjacks." Well, after Smoky
+regained his speech and told how blamed bright I was, he was going to
+go right to work and take out the honey from one of the trees at
+once. I told him that as we had no screen to put over his face, the
+bees would sting him to death, and that he had better wait until
+early the next morning when it was frosty.
+
+Smoky said that he would not go without honey for the flapjacks when
+we had two bee trees so close to the camp. So he took an old burlap
+and removed every other thread in a space of about ten inches square,
+making a sort of an open-work to cover his face, then pulling the
+sack over his head and buttoning his coat close up about his throat
+Smoky was ready for the fray.
+
+He cut the birch tree, the one that I had located, that tree being a
+little closer to camp. There was over a hundred pounds of honey in
+the tree and we had only one large pail in the camp, and that we had
+to have to use as a water pail. The tree did not break in falling so
+as to break up the honey and waste it. While we cut a large beech
+tree and took a block of about four feet long and split it in half
+and dug out two large troughs to hold the honey, which was very nice,
+being nearly all white honey, and Smoky said, "Old Golden, won't we
+live high now, rabbit, partridge, baked potatoes, buckwheat flapjacks
+and honey to swim in."
+
+It was now the 20th of October. I told Smoky that we would go up the
+creek a mile above camp and put out the bee bait, burn more honey
+comb, and leave the bee box on the stand and await results. In the
+meantime we would take a couple of bear traps and go on to a ridge
+and set them. It might be possible that we would get a bear, although
+we had not seen any bear signs on what ground we had been over. We
+took the traps, Smoky carrying them, while I carried the bait. The
+hill was high and rough and I found it about all that I was able to
+do to climb although I went very slow and rested often. I did not
+complain, for Smoky was doing all the complaining necessary for both
+of us. He said that we would not catch a darn thing unless it was a
+cold, and he didn't think that we would get that much. It proved
+later that Smoky was wrong in his reckonings.
+
+We set the two bear traps in as likely places as we could find for
+bear to travel, and put in the balance of the day traveling through
+the woods in search of bear signs. Not a track or sign could we find,
+and when we reached camp at night I was seemingly more dead than
+alive.
+
+The next morning after we had left the bee bait on the old road bed
+and then climbed the hill to set the two bear traps, Smoky said that
+we would go down to Hull's, a distance of about three miles, and see
+if he could get cans to put the extracted honey in. We had made a
+sack from two towels and had begun to strain or extract the honey
+from the comb and had the water pail nearly full of strained honey,
+and were sorely in need of the pail to carry water in.
+
+When I got to where we had left the bee bait, on the old road bed, I
+found plenty of bees at work. I soon got the line which went up the
+stream and a little to the left of the road and directly toward two
+large soft maple trees, the only trees of any size in that direction
+for a long distance. I said to myself, a quick job for you must be in
+one or the other of those maples. I left the bait and went to look
+for the bees in one of the two trees.
+
+When I came to the trees, bees came to me in great numbers, but I
+could not see a bee going in or out in either. I was satisfied that
+the bees were in one of the trees, but after looking for a long time
+I thought that I must be mistaken, that the bees were farther on and
+up on the side of the hill. I gave it up and moved the bait up the
+road to a point about opposite where the line would strike the
+hillside and where several trees were left standing, making a good
+opening by cutting away the brush. I then released the bees from the
+box. After they had done much circling I was quite sure I saw two or
+three of them swing back in the direction of the soft maple trees.
+
+I left the box and went along the creek in search of mink or coon
+signs, so as to give the bees time to get the bait well located, as
+they will then fly so much steadier and without doing so much
+circling. When I returned to the bait, the bees were flying steadily
+in the direction of the two soft maples and there could be no mistake
+this time. I took the bait down and placed it in the road opposite
+the two soft maples and began the second time to search the trees.
+After looking a long time without seeing bees going to or from the
+trees, I was again compelled to give it up. I began searching among
+the old timber, old stumps and stubs, as it was in the midst of an
+old bark slashing. I would search among the old down trees a while
+and then look over the two soft maples.
+
+I had kept up this search from 9 o'clock in the morning until 2
+o'clock in the afternoon. When I was approaching the two maple trees
+from the southwest side I readily discovered bees going into the tree
+close to and just above a large branch or prong of the tree which
+made it impossible to see them until the sun was just in the right
+position to shine square on the place where the bees entered the
+tree.
+
+In my younger days I always carried a pair of climbers and a rope, so
+that when I found it difficult to locate the particular tree that the
+bees were in, when they were in thick timber, I could climb any tree
+no difference how large and locate the bees. This would often save
+much time in finding a bee tree. I would often climb a tree that
+stood in a favorable place on the bee line and cut off the top of the
+tree and make the bee stand up 30 or 40 feet from the ground. This I
+found a great advantage in lining bees in a thick, bushy section.
+That day is past with me for I am too clumsy to climb any more.
+
+When I got to camp, I found Smoky at work putting the honey that was
+strained into cans and he said that he had concluded to change his
+name from Smoky Jim to Sticky Jim. We concluded to let bee hunting go
+for a day or two and set two more bear traps south of camp, although
+we had seen no signs of bear. Hear I will mention one of Smoky's dry
+remarks.
+
+We took two bear traps and bait for them following up a hollow south
+from camp to the top of a ridge where there was quite a large clump
+of green timber still standing. When we came to the head of the
+hollow and near the top of the ridge where we thought would be a good
+place to set a bear trap, I pointed to a small scraggly beech sapling
+and told Smoky to cut it. Then to cut off a piece six or eight feet
+long for a clog. Also to measure the size of the ring in the trap
+chain and cut the clog off so that when the ring was put down over
+the end of the clog, sixteen or eighteen inches to a prong, it would
+fit the ring fairly close. This would make the ring or chain secure
+to the clog, as it would give the ring no chance to work about, while
+I would make a bed to set the trap in and have the trap set by the
+time that he got the clog ready.
+
+It was now that I found that Smoky had brought a small hatchet
+weighing less than one-half pound instead of the larger belt axe, but
+there was nothing to do only to cut the clog with the little hatchet.
+So Smoky went to work cutting the clog while I went to setting the
+traps. After a while Smoky came with the clog and he had cut it off
+where it was considerably too large for the ring in the chain. I
+said, "Smoky, I guess you did not size that ring or the clog very
+much for you have got it much too large." Smoky replied readily, "Yes
+I did too, the tree has grown that much since I began to chop it."
+
+After a time we managed to get the two traps set and got back to
+camp. That night about 10 o'clock, Smoky woke me with a punch in the
+ribs and at the same time saying, "Get your gun, the whole Siwash
+tribe of Indians are on us." On the impulse of the moment I though
+Smoky was right for I could hear many voices and the barking and
+snarling of dogs. In a moment all that had ever happened to me and
+many things that never did, nor can happen, passed through my mind
+but it was only for a moment when some one called out at the tent
+door saying, "Get up, you have visitors."
+
+We asked who was there and the reply was, "Oh get up, two sleeps is
+better than one any time." I got up and put on my pants and unbuckled
+the tent door and there stood a half dozen men and as many more dogs.
+Two of the men had a large demijohn strung on a pole and they were
+carrying it on their shoulders, two more of the men had coons slung
+over their shoulders. The boys said that they were out coon hunting
+and by chance ran into our camp and thought that they would call on
+us and learn what we were doing. The demijohn contained cider, and
+the barking of the dogs was caused by getting into trouble over
+scraps that had been thrown about camp.
+
+We invited the boy in and asked them to tell what luck they had had
+hunting coon. They said that they had only got the two coons on their
+way up, but thought that they would do better on their way back down
+the creek. The boys lived about six miles down the stream. The creek
+ran close along the wagon road nearly all the way so the boys would
+follow along the road allowing the dogs to hunt along the creek for
+coon. The boys concluded to stay and eat their lunch before starting
+back. We made them a cup of hot coffee and set out a plate of honey
+and the boys ate their lunch, drank cider, and told stories until
+nearly 1 o'clock.
+
+They said that they had had a dandy time hunting coon along the last
+of September while coon were working on the corn and they said that
+they had killed about 30 and one wildcat. I asked if they did not
+think September rather early in the season to kill coon? They said
+that they thought that there was as much sport in it in September as
+at any other time of the year. I asked if there was any more sport in
+coon hunting in September than there was later in the season? They
+said that they did not know that there was. I replied that then they
+were out at least one-half or more on the price of the skins. They
+replied that it would be a queer jay that would put off a coon hunt a
+month for the difference that there might be in the price of a coon
+skin. I saw that I was up against it and that my argument had no
+weight in the matter, so I dropped it.
+
+When told that we were putting in our time mostly hunting bees, the
+boys said that we were losing the best time of our lives by not
+having some good coon dogs along with us, and Smoky quite agreed with
+them. However, I could not see it in that light. After the boys left,
+Smoky and I had to laugh over the boys' jolly time until near
+daybreak before we could get to sleep again and we quite agreed with
+the boys that the second sleep was better than the first.
+
+It was now the first of November and we had not put out any small
+traps, as the weather was still very warm and dry for the season of
+the year. Each day we could see away off to the southwest by the
+black heavy smoke that the forest fires that had been burning in that
+direction were coming nearer and nearer to us. Smoky said that he
+thought that a coon skin in October was worth as much as in November.
+He said by the time that we could get our traps out the forest fires
+would have the whole country burned over and all the game driven out.
+Smoky was not far from the mark in his prophesying.
+
+We now began to put out the small traps at as good a "jag" as I was
+able to stand the travel. We had, while bee hunting at odd times,
+selected and prepared many of the sets so that we were now able to
+set out many more traps in a day than we could have done had we not
+fixed and selected many places for sets. The fourth day of November
+was a very warm day in Potter County, and as we had not tried to get
+any bees west of camp, I told Smoky that we had better let the
+balance of the traps go for a day and try the bees in that direction
+as it was not likely that we would have many more days that bees
+would fly during the season.
+
+We went about one-half mile west of camp and put out the bee bait and
+burned more comb. It was not long before a bee came to the bait and
+then another and another, until we had several at work. As soon as
+the first bee that came was loaded up and began to make preparations
+to go, I told Smoky to keep a good eye on him to see which way he
+went, as the quicker we got a line the quicker we could move on.
+
+When the bee first started from the bait, he jagged off east, then he
+circled so that neither Smoky nor I could tell which way he went. I
+told Smoky that I was afraid that the bee went back up the creek
+toward a tree we had already found. Smoky said that he did not know
+what made me think so, for no one could tell which direction that bee
+went. I told Smoky that I had always noticed that the way that the
+bee first started when leaving the bait was pretty sure to be in the
+direction of the tree and to get in position so that he could see
+well if the bee should fly back up the creek as we had no time to
+spare on bees flying in that direction.
+
+It was not long before we had bees a-plenty and they came from a tree
+that we had already found. I told Smoky that we would leave some bait
+there so that those bees would not follow us, and we would move down
+the creek some distance before we would try for more. We moved nearly
+a mile, and while I was fixing a stand--there was no stump or good
+place to set the box--so I cut a stick about four feet long, an inch
+in diameter and split the top end into four parts, or in other words
+quartered the stick, then with two small sticks the size of a lead
+pencil, pressed down in between these quarters. It spread them so as
+to form plenty of space to set the box on. The other end of the stick
+is sharpened to drive firmly into the ground. As I was about to say,
+while I was fixing the stand, Smoky discovered a bee working on a
+witch-hazel bush close by the stand. Smoky said that he thought that
+the bee must have the rheumatism and was gathering Pond's Extract to
+bathe his joints in (it is with this shrub that Pond's Extract is
+made) and this was the cause of Smoky making the remark, I suppose.
+
+It was necessary to burn comb here as we soon had three or four bees
+at work on the bait and in a short time we had bees a-plenty. They
+flew just to the right of the wagon road in a westerly direction and
+on to the side of a very steep hill where there was considerable
+standing timber. We soon got the course of the bees' flight, but
+there seemed to be two lines, as some of the bees would fly to the
+left of a large tree that stood Just on the bank of the road, while
+others would fly to the right of the tree. This caused Smoky to
+remark that we had another sticky job on our hands, saying that there
+was two different lines. I told Smoky that I thought not. It was all
+the same bees and that the bees would soon all be flying to the left
+or lower side of the tree.
+
+Smoky wished to know how I made that out. I explained that I thought
+the bees were around the point of the hill and up a side draft that
+came into the main hollow some sixty rods below where we were and
+that the bees that were flying to the right of the tree flew in a
+direct line to the tree by flying up over the point of the hill then
+down into the hollow; those that flew to the left of the tree flew
+around the point of the hill and up the hollow to their tree. Smoky
+laughed at my idea and said that bees always flew in a straight
+line--does not everybody say as straight as a bee-line?
+
+I told Smoky that was all very well in a level and open country. That
+a bee knew that it was no farther around the rim of a kettle than up
+over the bail; that a bee was far too wise to carry a load up over a
+hill when he could get there in the same distance on a level; that
+bees in their flight would often vary their course and fly along the
+side of a hill to keep out of a strong wind until they were nearly
+opposite the tree, when they would make nearly a square turn to the
+tree. That they would also vary their flight from a straight line to
+follow an opening as a road cut out through the thick woods.
+
+The flight of the bees, as I suspected, was soon all to the left of
+the tree standing on the bank of the road. We moved the bait down to
+the mouth of the side draft and soon had a line flying nearly up the
+hollow. I told Smoky to take the bees some forty rods up the hollow
+and make a stand while I would follow and inspect the trees that
+looked favorable. Soon Smoky halloed to me and said that the bees had
+nearly all left him. I told him to make the stand where he was. As he
+had passed the tree that was the cause of the bees dropping off all
+at once.
+
+Just below where Smoky was and a little up on the bank from the
+hollow stood a large maple tree. I started to inspect the tree. Bees
+were flying all about me and as soon as I was near enough to the tree
+to see, I could see bees flying all about the tree, some forty feet
+from the ground. I called to Smoky and told him that the bees were
+treed in a large maple.
+
+This was on the fourth day of November and was a very rare thing for
+bees to be working at that time of the year in this section of the
+country. This tree made the sixth bee tree that we had found while in
+camp.
+
+This ended our bee hunting and we now put in the balance of the time,
+while in camp, with the traps. It will now be necessary to go back to
+the 20th of October to a time that Smoky said was the biggest day of
+his life.
+
+On the 20th of October we started out to look at the bear traps with
+little hopes of getting anything more than a porcupine. Up to this
+time we had not seen any signs of bear, only what had been made
+during the summer, where the bear had dug out woodchucks and torn old
+logs to pieces in search of grubs, and where they had dug wild
+turnips. These signs were so old that we had but little hopes of
+getting a bear while in camp and Smoky was continually condemning the
+country.
+
+We went up along a hollow that led to the top of a high ridge where
+we had a bear trap setting and where I thought was the most likely
+place to catch a bear, but found the trap undisturbed.
+
+We next crossed a narrow ridge where we had another trap. The trap
+was set in a spring run and the banks on either side of the run were
+quite thickly grown up with low brush. Smoky was in advance a few
+steps so that when he came to the edge of the thick brush that grew
+on the bank of the run, parted the brush and looked through at the
+trap, he caught a glimpse of some black object moving in the run. He
+quickly stepped back and held up his hand, his eyes sparkling with
+excitement and he whispered to me, "By Moses, we have got him." Smoky
+being given to much joking, I asked, "What have we got?" for I had
+not heard any noise of any kind. Smoky said, "A bear, by long horn
+spoon-handle." I stepped past Smoky and looked through the brush and
+there was a large black porcupine moving about a little in the trap.
+
+I stepped back and said to Smoky, "Well, shoot him." Smoky said, "No,
+I will miss him. You shoot him," at the same time handing me the gun.
+I now saw that Smoky was in earnest and surely thought we had a bear
+and I burst out with laughter. Smoky was amazed and said, "You
+blooming simpleton, what is the matter with you?" The look of anxiety
+and the manner in which Smoky spoke still caused me to laugh the
+harder.
+
+When I could cease laughing long enough to tell Smoky what was in the
+trap, Smoky's change of looks of excitement and anxiety to one of
+disgust was pitiful. Smoky began to condemn the country and tell how
+foolish we were to come to such a forsaken place as that was to trap
+where there was nothing but porcupines.
+
+After resetting the trap we went on to the third trap, which was
+setting about a mile farther north. It was necessary to cross two
+narrow ridges in order to reach the trap. Smoky was in a moody state
+of mind and lagged along behind, hunting partridges, killing two or
+three.
+
+When we reached the top of the second ridge and the trap was in the
+hollow beyond, I heard some sort of a noise where the trap was
+setting, but I was unable to tell what it was. Smoky was behind
+somewhere on the line, but while I stood listening he came on in
+great haste. He had heard the same noise and was hurrying up to
+inquire what it was.
+
+I told him that I was unable to tell just what it was, but was afraid
+that some dog had got caught in the trap as the sound came from the
+direction in which the trap was. Smoky said that it was a different
+noise than he had ever heard a dog make.
+
+I told Smoky that I feared that it was some hound that was in the
+trap and was making the pitiful sort of a howl and that we must hurry
+on and get him out of the trap. When we were half way down the side
+of the hill, the noise ceased, but I could now see that the noise
+came from some distance farther down the run than where the trap had
+been set and I knew that no dog could move the trap and clog. We now
+went a little more quietly. I soon got sight of Bruin rolling and
+tumbling in a bunch of small birch saplings where the trap clog was
+fast, good and stout.
+
+Smoky had not got his eye onto the bear yet, when I stopped and
+pointed in the direction of the bear and said, "Smoky, there is the
+gentleman that you have been so anxious to see." Smoky had not yet
+got his eye onto the bear and he said, "That's no darned dog that
+makes that noise. What is it? I don't see anything." "No, Smoky, it
+is no dog; neither is it a porky; it is a bear this time all right."
+
+I pointed at the clump of yellow birches and said, "Don't you see him
+down in the gulch there?" When Smoky got his eye on the bear, you
+should have seen them sparkle. This was the first bear that Smoky had
+ever seen outside of captivity. When I told Smoky that we would go up
+close to the bear and he (Smoky) should shoot it, he again reached
+the gun to me and again insisted that I should shoot it, saying that
+he would surely miss it, the same as he declared in the case of the
+porcupine. I told Smoky that he had plenty of cartridges and that it
+would be some time before it would be too dark to see to shoot and
+that he must shoot the bear. It took a great deal of urging to get
+Smoky to shoot, he declaring all the time that he knew he would miss
+it.
+
+I said, "Smoky, you must not shoot at the bear but at the base of the
+bear's ear," which he finally did and Bruin was out of his trouble
+almost before the smoke from the rifle had cleared away.
+
+The bear was a large one, measuring seven feet two inches from end to
+end. We were unable to get it out of the woods whole. Smoky insisted
+that he would carry it if it was as large as a mountain. He soon gave
+up that idea and we cut the carcass into pieces and took part to camp
+and returned the next day after the balance. That night after we got
+to camp with the bear we had for supper bear steak, partridge, rabbit
+and bacon with warm biscuits and honey, baked potatoes, butter and
+coffee, with the necessary trimmings, which caused Smoky to remark
+that the country was all right for a living, but thought that society
+was rather limited.
+
+The day after we had brought in the remainder of the bear, we could
+see the smoke from the forest fires that were burning away to the
+southwest, loom up thick and black. It was plainly to be seen that
+the fire was steadily working in the direction of our camp and was
+getting in close proximity to where we had a bear trap setting. I was
+afraid that the fire would burn sufficiently hard to spoil the trap
+unless it was taken up, so Smoky said that if I would "mix the
+muligan" (get supper) that he would go and get the trap, which I
+readily consented to do, telling Smoky to bring the trap down to a
+small creek and put the trap in the water.
+
+Smoky got back about the time I had supper ready. He came in and put
+his gun up and washed ready for supper without saying a word. I saw
+that Smoky was looking down-hearted but thought that he was a little
+tired and homesick, so I did not say much to him, but after a little
+I said, "Charley, did you get anything in the trap?" He answered very
+short, saying, "If I had you would be likely to see something of it,
+wouldn't you?" so I said no more.
+
+After supper was over and the dishes washed, Smoky took a piece of
+paper from his pocket and handed it to me with the remark, "What do
+you know about that?" I unfolded the paper and found that it
+contained a lock of bear's hair. I said, "Smoky, what is it? Another
+one of your jokes?" I thought that Smoky had taken the hair from the
+bear that we had caught two days before. Smoky remarked that he
+thought that the joke was on him as much as anyone, and then
+explained that a bear had been in the trap and he got out.
+
+He described the circumstances, and it was plain to be seen that the
+guide or stepping stick had been placed a little too close to the
+trap which had caused the bear to step his foot partly over on to the
+jaw of the trap and had only been caught by the heel, which was not
+sufficient to hold him, although Smoky said that the bear had put up
+quite a fight before it had got out. Smoky said that when he came to
+where the trap was set and found it gone, he thought he would have
+the biggest time of his life. A bear all by himself, and when he
+found that the bear had got away, he felt like throwing himself into
+the creek along with the trap. I told Charley not to take the matter
+to heart so, for if he followed the trap line and the trail very long
+that he would have many a slip just at the time that he thought he
+had the game bagged.
+
+The next morning the fire was sweeping over the whole country so we
+hustled around and pulled all of the traps that were not setting in
+the water or that were not out of reach of the fire. The fire put an
+end to trapping for everything but a few mink along the stream.
+
+I wish to speak of one of Smoky's dry remarks. Smoky is a strong
+Republican. A few days after the Presidential election we were going
+up a small draft to look after three or four traps that I had set for
+fox. The first trap that we came to was undisturbed. The second one
+was lying at the side of the brook all in a bunch, chain and all.
+Plain to be seen that it had been dropped there by human hands. As
+soon as I saw the trap I said, "Smoky, some one has dropped that trap
+there." "There has been some animal in it and it has gotten out, see,
+there is blood on the jaws." "Very true, Smoky, there has been some
+animal in the trap, but human hands took it out, for no animal leaves
+a trap, clog and all, lying free in that way, with the trap chain
+slack in that way." It only required a glance about to see that there
+had been a coon in the trap and had been fast. Just up on the bank
+there lay the club that they had used to kill the coon with. After
+giving my opinion of the gentleman that had taken the coon, I began
+to reset the trap again where it was before.
+
+Smoky objected to again setting the trap there only for some one else
+to get the game again, but I told Smoky that lightning rarely struck
+twice in the same place so we would set the trap again. We started up
+the hollow and were soon discussing politics again until we came to
+where the next trap was setting. Just before we came to the trap,
+Smoky picked up an empty cartridge shell. A few yards farther on lay
+the second trap which had had a fox in it, as was plain to be seen by
+the tooth marks on the small brush and by the fur on the trap. That
+the fox had been shot was evident by the amount of fur that was lying
+on the ground where the animal had been caught.
+
+This was more than I could stand without giving vent to my feelings.
+After trying for some time to find words to give the case justice,
+and failing, Smoky remarked with all the coolness imaginable, that
+there was one thing certain about it, that it was a Democrat that
+took the fox and coon. I was astonished at the remark and asked what
+he meant. "Well, if it had been a Republican that had taken them, he
+would have taken the traps, too."
+
+We were now getting our trap line down to a few traps along the main
+creek, and we now worked those traps to the best of our skill, as we
+wished to get our share of the mink. We had not put out any mink
+traps until the first of November. The weather had been very dry and
+warm but as it had now turned cold and I found that I could not stand
+the cold as I once could, I told Smoky that we would take what mink
+pelts we could get in a few days and pull stakes. Smoky replied that
+that sort of "chin music" suited him. So after ten or twelve days of
+mink trapping we pulled the rest of the traps and went home, having
+to my idea a pleasant time.
+
+Smoky agreed that the time was all right but he thought that the
+society was a little slow for him, saying that if it had not been for
+the boys on the coon hunt we would not have seen a half dozen persons
+since we had been in camp. We had not made a large catch of furs but
+I thought that we had done fairly well, all things considered (one
+old played-out trapper and a kid who had never set a trap for
+anything greater than a muskrat or a ground hog).
+
+  [Illustration: WOODCOCK AND SOME OF HIS CATCH.]
+
+We had caught while in camp one bear, ten mink, eight coon and some
+other furs as shown in the accompanying picture. After we left I set
+a few traps about home, catching three fox and a few skunk and four
+more mink, making fourteen mink in all. We got $4 and $4.50 for the
+fox, and $4 to $6 for the mink, and from 80 cents to $2.25 for skunk,
+and about the same for coon. We got 30 to 40 cents each for muskrats.
+
+This will about complete the story of my trapping for the season of
+1908. I am sorry that I am no artist, as I could have sent some fine
+pictures, consisting of the bear in trap, as well as many other
+animals in traps, and other pictures that would have been interesting
+had I been able to take them at the right time and place.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Hits and Misses on the Trail.
+
+Many years ago when deer were plenty in this section of the country
+(North Central Pennsylvania) and dogs were allowed to run deer at
+their will, there being no restriction by way of law against hounding
+deer, I started from the house about 10 o'clock in the morning to go
+to some traps that I had set for mink along the creek in a swamp not
+far from our place. There was an old road or path that led from the
+wagon road down through the swamp to the creek. Along this path it
+was thickly grown up with laurel and other underbrush that nearly
+shut out the path.
+
+I was accustomed to follow this path to the creek when going to look
+after my traps. On my way up to the road I heard dogs barking as
+though they were on the trail of something, but thought nothing of it
+as it was a common occurrence to hear hounds running nearly every
+day. I was following this path and had got within a few rods of the
+creek and was just about ready to climb over a fallen tree that lay
+across the path.
+
+The tree lay up from the ground about a foot or so and it was perhaps
+three feet from the ground up to the top of the log. I was just in
+the act of climbing this log when a good-sized buck deer went to jump
+the log also and we met, head on. I had no gun and if I had would
+have had no time to use it. I seized the deer by the horns and forced
+him back from the log with a startled cry at the same time. The deer,
+instead of trying to get away, seemed bound to come over the log to
+where I was, so I held to the deer's horns, not daring to let loose.
+
+I could keep him from raising over the log and after he tried several
+times to jump the log, he then tried to break loose from me, but I
+had the advantage of the deer owing to the log being so high that the
+deer could not pull me over, neither could the deer get in shape to
+strike me with his feet under the log. I think that I was so badly
+frightened at the sudden meeting with the deer, that I did not know
+what to do so I hung tight to the buck's horns and called as loud as
+I could for help, thinking that some one might possibly be passing
+along the road, which was not so far away, hear my call and come to
+my assistance, but no one came. A man by the name of Nelson lived
+about a fourth of a mile away, who had a large bulldog. The dog's
+name was Turk. This dog would follow me at every chance that he could
+get. As no assistance came, I had about made up my mind to release my
+hold on the deer as my strength was fast leaving me, when I thought
+to call for Turk. I began calling as loud as I could and it seemed
+that the dog had heard my calling before I began, for almost before I
+was aware of his presence the dog sprang over the log and seized the
+deer by the hind leg, but the dog had barely grabbed the deer when
+the deer kicked him away from the path into the laurel.
+
+In an instant the dog, with an angry yelp, jumped and seized the deer
+by the throat and in a moment the deer ceased to struggle and began
+to settle to the ground. As soon as I dared to release my hold on the
+deer's horns I got my pocket knife out and sprang over the log and
+ran the knife blade into the deer's throat. The deer did not seem to
+notice the knife. I think that the dog had choked the life out of
+him. The battle was over and it was only a few minutes but it was the
+hardest battle that I ever had and the dog came to my assistance none
+too soon for I could not have held on much longer.
+
+This did not end the fight, for I had hardly begun to dress the deer
+before two dogs that were in pursuit of the deer came up. I was
+compelled to use sticks, stones and clubs to break up a fight between
+the bulldog and the hounds, though I finally got the row broke up and
+drove the hounds off in order to keep peace.
+
+Boys, I am not sure whether the incident just related would be called
+a hit or a miss. I will tell of an incident that I call a hit. A man
+by the name of Wells and a brother of mine were camping near the old
+Jersey Shore turnpike and were trapping, also hunting deer. One day
+they had been off on the west side of the turnpike setting marten
+traps and had built a number of deadfalls and had also set several
+steel traps for foxes. On their way home to camp they had to cross
+several low ridges which were good sections for deer. It was nearly
+sundown and just the right time for deer to be on their feet feeding
+so we spread out along one of the ridges in hopes that some of us
+might get a shot. There was a good tracking snow and deer tracks were
+plenty. We were on the last ridge before we dropped off into the
+hollow to where the camp was and it was beginning to get dark in the
+heavy timber. I had come out onto a short spur of the ridge and was
+standing looking over the ground very carefully to see if I could not
+see a deer feeding, when I heard a shot fired by one of the boys. In
+a few moments a bunch of five or six deer came in sight, making their
+way around the point at breakneck speed.
+
+I opened fire on the bunch without taking aim at any particular deer,
+as it was too dark to get down to real business and the deer were in
+too much of a hurry to change their feeding grounds to give me very
+much of a show. I was not stingy of my ammunition and pumped lead at
+the bunch as long as I could guess where the deer were. As soon as I
+had ceased to waste ammunition I heard my brother calling for me.
+When I got to him he was at work taking the entrails out of a good
+sized buck. We dragged the deer down to where the deer were when I
+began shooting to see if I had chanced to hit one of the bunch. It
+was too dark to see much but we found a little blood on the snow in
+one place but concluded that I had not done much damage.
+
+We dragged the buck that my brother had killed to camp, got our
+supper and made plans for the next day's work. It was agreed that I
+should look after the bunch of deer and see what effect my shots had
+on the deer that we had found that had bled some. I was to work this
+bunch of deer while the other boys went to look after the marten
+traps, being quite sure that there would be a marten or two in the
+traps, for we had built some deadfalls where we saw fresh marten
+signs quite plenty.
+
+The next morning I was up early and had breakfast before daylight and
+ready to start out and carry out the work as already planned. It was
+about one-fourth of a mile from camp to the turnpike and as the deer
+which I was going to look for were making their course, the last I
+had seen them, in the direction of the road, I was going to go to the
+road and then go north along the road to see if they had crossed. The
+boys would take the same path to the road that I did when they would
+go south of camp to look after the marten traps.
+
+I had my gun and stood in the cabin door waiting for my brother and
+Wells to get ready as I would accompany them as far as the road. The
+boys were having some trouble belting their leggins and creepers on
+to their satisfaction. I became tired of waiting and made the remark
+that I could go and kill a deer before they could get their feet
+dressed. My brother said that I had better be going then, so I
+started on up the path to the road. It was thawing a little, just
+enough to make the snow pack. I had gone about a hundred yards from
+camp when I saw a track of a deer where it had stepped into the path,
+then had turned back about forty yards to the left of the path. A
+large birch tree had blown down, knocking one or two smaller trees
+down so that it made a little jam. Seeing that the tracks were so
+fresh I knew that the deer was close by and as the woods were open I
+was quite positive that the deer must be about the jam of trees, when
+a large doe stepped out in sight and it was only the work of a moment
+to let her down in her tracks. When the gun cracked out jumped a
+yearling buck that was lying down just in the edge of the jam and
+bounded over the trunk of a large birch and stopped broadside to me
+and I let him down. Thinking of what I had said on leaving the cabin
+and what my brother had said to me I ran back to camp as quick as I
+could go without even stopping to cut the deer's throat. As I came
+around the corner of the cabin I heard my brother say to Wells, "I
+bet a gander that he has killed a deer all right, for he would not
+shoot twice so quick at anything else."
+
+Well, the boys had not got their feet dressed yet, but chance had
+allowed me to make my word good only I had killed two deer instead of
+one. The boys helped me to hang up the deer and then went to the
+marten traps while I went in search of the deer I had started after.
+Soon I struck the trail of the deer and shortly saw that one of them
+had a broken leg and I did not follow the trail far when the wounded
+deer dropped out and left the others. I began doing the creeping act
+and soon found the deer lying on his trail. I hung the deer up and
+went back to camp thinking that I had enough sport for one day and
+would let well enough alone.
+
+When the boys came in at night they brought in two marten skins.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Lost in the Woods.
+
+One writer contends that the pocket compass is but very little use to
+a man in a dense forest. This, I think, depends largely upon
+circumstances. While the writer has spent a good portion of fifty
+years almost continuously in the woods, he has seldom found it
+necessary to use a compass to guide him out. Now this is due partly
+to the natural faculty of locating any particular place. This faculty
+of locating any certain place or point by giving or knowing the
+proper direction to take after one has traveled all day or for
+several days in the woods, I am inclined to credit to a sort of
+natural instinct.
+
+I have often thought of the story of the Indian who was met by a man
+in the woods who asked the Indian if he was lost. The reply was, "No,
+me ain't lost, wigwam lost, me here." Now I can say without boasting
+that it is seldom that the camp or a given point gets lost with me,
+while it is not an uncommon occurrence for the writer to get lost or
+rather bothered himself in a strange locality. But after a moment's
+thought, I say the camp or the point I wish to reach is in that
+direction, and it is not often that I miss my calculation.
+
+As I have had several occasions to search for parties lost in the
+woods, I wish to relate a particular instance of one man who was
+lost. It was an uncle of mine by the name of Nelson, and the writer
+went in search of him. To illustrate that those who are lost lose
+their heads as soon as they find that they do not know where they
+are.
+
+Now I wish to say that if you lost your course or get bothered in
+your bearings, do not lose your head, for if you do you are lost, but
+keep cool and keep your head. Sit down and fill your pipe, and while
+you smoke draw a map of the country carefully in your mind, and
+almost invariably you will locate yourself and in so doing will
+locate the camp.
+
+To get back to the lost man in question whose name was Amos Fish, and
+at the time, was the proprietor of the Cherry Springs Hotel, in this
+county. This hotel was located in the heart of the largest forest in
+Pennsylvania, and originally was a great resort for hunters from all
+over the state as well as southern and western New York. (The time of
+which I write was somewhere in the 60's--have forgotten exact date.)
+There were several men boarding at this hotel and my uncle and myself
+were among the number boarding with Mr. Fish, hunting, as were other
+boarders. This hotel stood in the center of a field containing
+perhaps eighty acres of cleared land, and there was not another
+clearing or a building within a distance of seven miles.
+
+One morning after there had been a fall of four or five inches of
+snow, which made fine tracking, Mr. Fish thought that he would go out
+that morning and try and kill a deer. He left the house going through
+the field in nearly a due east course. After going about one mile he
+crossed a stream which ran in a north and south direction. Mr. Fish
+had fished this stream for trout many a time. After crossing this
+stream Mr. Fish crossed a broad ridge and went on to a small stream
+known as the Sunken Branch, and a tributary of the stream Mr. Fish
+had previously crossed. Now Mr. Fish was fairly well acquainted with
+the location which he was in, but in his search for deer he had got a
+little mixed in his whereabout and at once lost his head.
+
+My uncle when coming in from hunting that evening crossed Mr. Fish's
+track on the ridge near the head of the Sunken Branch, and had heard
+him shoot several times but supposed that he was shooting at deer.
+When the hunters all got in that night and Mr. Fish failed to appear,
+the matter was discussed by the hunters from all points of view. It
+was generally thought that Mr. Fish had had good luck killing deer
+and had been detained in dressing and hanging them up, or that he had
+wounded a deer and had been led a long way from home in getting it.
+
+When it got well along in the evening and Mr. Fish failed to come
+then it was feared that he had met with some misfortune. No one would
+believe that he was lost, as it was known that he was pretty well
+acquainted with the woods in the direction that he had been known to
+take. But as the time went on and still Mr. Fish did not come, we all
+began to fear for his safety, as the night was very cold, so every
+few minutes some one would go out and fire a gun. This was continued
+all night, though there was no answer.
+
+My uncle and myself had an early breakfast and started some time
+before daybreak for the locality in which uncle had seen Mr. Fish's
+tracks and heard gun shots which were thought to have been fired by
+him. Shortly after daybreak we found the track of a man which we
+could readily see had been made during the night. After following the
+track some distance we were convinced that we were following the
+track of Mr. Fish and he was lost, for his tracks would go in a
+zigzag sort of a circle and crossing his tracks previously made.
+
+After we had followed Mr. Fish's track for an hour or longer we saw
+him coming nearly towards us with his hat in his hand. We stood still
+and he came close to us before he seemed to notice us. He had no gun,
+and when he stopped he stared at us and did not seem to know us.
+Uncle then spoke to him and said, "Amos, what is the matter, are you
+lost?" Mr. Fish replied that he wanted to go to the Cherry Springs
+Hotel. In a few minutes after eating a good lunch which we had
+carried with us for that purpose, he seemed to know us.
+
+When questioned as to what he had done with his gun, he apparently
+had forgotten that he ever had a gun. But after a time seemed to
+remember the gun in a vague sort of way, and said that he must have
+left it by a tree but could not tell in what direction the tree was.
+After a search of a half hour we found the gun standing by a tree
+where apparently Mr. Fish had traveled around for some time.
+
+When we came to the creek on our way to the house and at the place
+where Mr. Fish had crossed it in the morning before, he asked what
+stream it was. When told that it was the place where he had crossed
+the creek the morning before and asked if he did not remember the
+creek as he had fished there many a time, he said that he had no
+recollection of ever seeing the stream before. Shortly we came out
+into the field and Mr. Fish did not know his own house. Asked who
+lived there and did not seem to recognize his own home until he had
+been inside the house for several minutes with his family.
+
+I have related this instance of Mr. Fish to show how necessary it is
+for one who has got slightly mixed in his course to keep cool and not
+allow himself to become excited. If he does he immediately loses his
+head and is at once lost, as in the case of Mr. Fish. He was at no
+time more than four miles from his house, and was quite familiar with
+the ground he was on during the whole time. He was lost while
+following the deer that he was in pursuit of. They led him into a
+windfall perhaps containing one hundred acres, and it was while in
+this that he became bothered as to the right course to go to his
+house. He at once lost his head, or more proper, his reasoning
+faculties, and at once became lost.
+
+Mr. Fish was east of the ridge and road and as he had a compass, all
+there was for him to do was to consult the compass and go west to the
+road, but Mr. Fish declared that his compass would not work, and it
+might have been possible that he held the compass so close to the gun
+barred that the compass did not work properly.
+
+In my more than fifty years' life in the woods as a trapper and
+hunter, it has been my lot to search for several persons lost in the
+woods. Once in these same woods I searched for three weeks for a
+little child four years old. At first the search for days was carried
+on by more than a hundred men, then another man and myself continued,
+then my companion gave it up. I continued alone for days, but there
+has never been a trace of the child seen or heard of, since its
+grandmother last saw the little fellow sitting on the door step
+eating a piece of bread and butter on the morning of its
+disappearance, along in the early 80's.
+
+To speak of the use of the pocket compass, I would say to the trapper
+or hunter that where he can it is best to locate his camp when in a
+section of a country where the woods are very large, and the trapper
+or hunter is not well acquainted with the locality, on a stream or in
+a valley of considerable size, or near a public highway or some
+landmark that is readily recognized by the trapper. Even thought it
+may be after nightfall, for the thrifty trapper or hunter will
+oftener find himself on the trail after the stars are shining than he
+will in camp before dark. Now it is quite necessary that the camper
+should first acquaint himself with these land marks for some distance
+either side of his camp (when I say some distance I mean miles) and
+especially get the general course or direction that the stream runs
+or other landmarks, for this is where the real use of the pocket
+compass comes in play.
+
+Now when you start out place out a line of traps or on the trail of a
+deer or other animal, all that there is to be done is to know whether
+you are on the south, north or other direction, as the case may be,
+from this valley or other landmarks. Now the trapper or hunter soon
+becomes so accustomed to traveling in the woods that when he makes up
+his mind to strike for camp, he can tell about how long it will take
+him to reach this valley that the camp is located in. When the time
+comes to go to camp consult the compass, and as it is known what
+direction to take to hit the camp, or at least the stream or other
+landmark on which the camp is located.
+
+Yes, boys, if any one is in the habit of getting lost the pocket
+compass is a very useful instrument in finding the way, providing it
+is properly used. Let me say, however, that no matter how often "the
+shanty gets lost," don't lose your head, for if you do, the compass
+or the landmarks will do you no good.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Traps and Other Hints for Trappers.
+
+All trappers have their favorite traps--the writer has his. Every boy
+knows that the Newhouse trap is at the top of the ladder, as to
+quality, but as to convenience, well, I prefer the No. 1 1/2 Oneida
+Jump trap, which is superior to all others on the market for small
+game. This trap is now made with jaws much thicker than the original
+"Jump" (Blake & Lamb), and the way the chain is now fastened gives
+the animal a straight draw instead of a twist, as was the case with
+the Blake & Lamb style. The Oneida Jump however, is lacking in
+strength of the springs, being much weaker than the Blake & Lamb of
+the same size but in all other ways I consider it far better than the
+original Blake & Lamb. The spring being so much weaker than the Blake
+& Lamb springs were, is a serious drawback, as the Oneida Jump trap
+of this size will not hold a large raccoon or a large fox.
+
+Now, while many trappers might not seriously object to the trap on
+these grounds as they use many different sizes of traps or a
+different size of trap for each animal. This I never do in trapper
+the smaller animals, for when I make a dry or ground set, I set the
+trap for any animal from the fox to the coon or wildcat, although I
+may be more particular making the set for mink.
+
+It makes a trapper feel sore to go to a trap and find that a fox or
+coon has been in his trap and escaped. This rarely if ever occurs
+when using the Blake & Lamb No. 1 1/2 trap, or as the original was
+called No. 2, though it had the same spread of jaws as the No. 1 1/2
+Oneida Jump. Now the advantages that the Oneida Jump trap has over
+the long spring trap are many. The most desirable are perhaps the
+easy manner in which the "jump" trap can be concealed. In fact, a
+practical set can be made in certain places where it is entirely
+impracticable to make the set with a long spring trap. Another
+advantage that the "jump" trap has over the bow or long spring trap
+is its comparison to the long spring trap in shipping by express.
+This, if going on a long journey, to your trapping grounds, is not
+safe by freight, as the trapping season may be over before your traps
+reach you. Still another advantage is the amount of room saved in
+packing, for you can pack two of the "jump" traps in the same space
+required to pack one long spring trap. The writer has had a good deal
+of experience in this matter and knows the difference in handling the
+two makes of traps.
+
+Now I do not like to use the double spring "jump" trap where I am
+trapping, for I might possibly catch a dog or other domestic animal
+and it is a hard trap to get a live animal out of.
+
+Many, perhaps most trappers use the No. 1 trap for trapping mink,
+muskrat, marten, etc. The No. 1 Newhouse or Victor is sufficiently
+strong for these animals but as I have stated, I do not think this
+the best plan if the trapper is operating on grounds where there are
+larger animals to be taken, as most frequently the one set can be
+made to catch several kinds of animals. I have found also that one is
+more liable to catch the animal by the end of the toes in a No. 1
+trap than in the No. 1 1/2, but where one is trapping for the
+purposes of saving the fox, skunk or other animal alive, then the No.
+1 trap should be used, as the animal is not so liable to break a leg
+or to hurt the foot so badly.
+
+For otter I prefer the single spring Newhouse trap, owing to the fact
+that it is more easily concealed than the double spring trap. I see
+that a number of writers think that the No. 5 bear trap should have a
+larger spread of jaw so as to catch higher on the bear's foot. Now I
+do not intend to dictate to others as to what kind of a trap they
+should use, not in the least, for I have my own ideas as to traps and
+guns as well as the manner of using them. Now as for myself, I think
+the Newhouse No. 5 bear trap could not be improved, as to spread of
+jaws. The grasp is just right to catch the bear through the thick of
+the foot where there is no danger of the bear twisting the foot off.
+In case where the trap has a spread of jaws sufficient to grasp above
+the foot and for more space for the bear to place his foot well
+between the jaws, will say there is plenty of room in the Newhouse
+No. 5 trap, if the trap is properly set. I also see that some
+trappers want the swivel in the trap chain 8 or ten inches from the
+bed piece, or the point of fastening. Now I am somewhat puzzled as to
+an explanation in this matter, as it seems to me that the swivel will
+be far less liable to become useless by being twisted or wound around
+saplings, etc., where the swivel is close to the bed piece than it
+would be if placed eight or ten inches out in the chain. I prefer to
+have the swivel in my trap chain placed as close to the trap as
+possible.
+
+  [Illustration: WOODCOCK AND HIS STEEL TRAPS.]
+
+Another thing that I have but little use for is a trap from which the
+animal must take the bait in order to spring it, for often the animal
+will go up close enough to a trap to inspect the bait but will not
+touch it.
+
+I do not think that there should be a latch on any trap, as I think
+that often the animal's foot is thrown free from the trap, or at
+least causes many catches by the tips of the toes and the animal
+escapes, becoming a hard animal to catch thereafter. The animal
+having a part of the foot resting on the latch and the toes striking
+the treadle sufficient to unlatch the treadle, the released jaw will
+throw the latch with the portion of the animal's foot resting on the
+latch, free from the trap, or at least may often cause a slight catch
+of the toes or other part of the foot. All that is necessary is to
+leave an extension to the arm or heel of the treadle to catch over
+the jaw of the trap. The trap may be made to spring hard or easy by
+simply raising the pan slightly higher or lowering it to catch
+farther on to the jaw of the trap more or less as desired.
+
+Now boys, I have given a few of my ideas as to traps, and if any of
+you have any suggestions to make as to improvements on the animal
+steel traps, let us hear from you through the columns of the H-T-T. I
+believe that manufacturers of animal or game traps would be glad to
+make any improvements on their traps could they be convinced that the
+suggested improvements were really of any value.
+
+* * *
+
+As I get many letters from trappers who are beginners in the business
+making inquiries about camping and the necessary traps, guns, etc., I
+will try to give a few practical hints to those who have had but
+limited experience of trapper's life. While, like the setting of a
+trap, there is no single code of rules that will answer for all
+localities and conditions, I will give a few general rules.
+
+The trapper should first try and inform himself of the nature and
+conditions of the locality where he intends to trap. If the waters
+are of such a size that a boat can be used to advantage, then the
+boat becomes a necessity. Now in regard to traps. If the section
+where you intend to trap has the larger animals like bear, otter,
+beaver, etc., then the trapper should provide himself with a
+sufficient number of traps of different sizes as he may be able to
+tend and do it well.
+
+I would advise to start with, that the trapper has about one-half
+dozen No. 5 bear traps, one dozen No. 4 wolf and about the same of
+No. 3. But the greater number of traps will be Numbers 1 1/2 and 2,
+if of the Jump or Blake & Lamb pattern. If of other patterns would
+say use the Hawley & Norton Nos. 1 1/2 and 2, say 75 No. 1 1/2 and 25
+No. 2. The genuine Newhouse is of course the best long spring trap
+made, but a little more expensive, and we find that the H. & N. fills
+the bill. We prefer the B. & L. on account of its lightness and
+convenience in setting.
+
+Now, if the trapper is trapping where the animals are no larger than
+fox, raccoon, wildcat, etc., then I want no traps larger than the No.
+2 1/2, nor smaller than the No. 1 1/2 Blake & Lamb.
+
+Now about the gun. If you are in a large game country it is quite
+necessary that you carry a good rifle. I like the Winchester and not
+of too large a caliber, but if there is no large game in the locality
+then I think one should have a Stevens pistol, ten-inch barrel, or a
+Stevens Pocket Shotgun, 15-inch barrel, and in either case have a
+good holster to carry it in. As for myself I prefer a Pocket Shotgun.
+It might be well to have a large shotgun in camp. You will also want
+your belt axe or hatchet and a good heavy sharp axe at the camp.
+
+As for bedding, this will largely depend on what kind of a cabin or
+camp you have. If you are in a tent, two persons should have not less
+than six good blankets. If your camp is so situated that you can
+drive to it with a team or pack horses, then you should have a straw
+mattress. But if you are in a locality where you can get cedar or
+hemlock boughs, you should use only the finer boughs. Begin at the
+foot of the berth and push the larger or butt end of the bough into
+the ground and then begin the next row so as to lap or shingle onto
+the first row, and so on until the head of the berth is reached.
+
+If you use a tent, I find that it is a good idea to make a skeleton
+frame of good heavy poles over the tent and about twelve inches above
+and around the tent and shingle it well with boughs, so that the snow
+will not fall directly on the tent. It will be a great help in
+keeping out the cold. But I think it is best to have at least one
+good log cabin well chinked, mudded and banked. Always select a spot
+where it is easy to drain away the surface water on all sides of the
+camp, and if possible have the main camp close to good pure water
+which is a great protection against malaria.
+
+If you are doing a stroke of business so that you will need more than
+one camp, the others need not be quite so tidy as the main camp, for
+it is not likely that you will occupy them more than a night or two
+at a time. Your temporary camps need not be larger than 6 x 8 and
+quite low, as this will save both fuel and bedding. Do not forget to
+get up a good supply of wood at all the camps before the trapping
+season is open, for you will find plenty to do after the trapping
+season opens without cutting wood.
+
+The main camp should be at least 10 x 12 feet inside. A place should
+be provided for curing furs outside. Furs should never be cured by a
+fire or in a warm place, for this will have a tendency to curl the
+ends of the fur and give it a woolly appearance. There can usually be
+a place fixed either on the outer gable or under the eaves of the
+cabin to cure the furs.
+
+Now, as to the commissary part. You will, of course, to a great
+extent select the kind and quantity according to the distance and
+convenience in getting the grub to camp. The camper will find that
+the most convenient as well as better satisfaction, as a rule, will
+be found in taking provisions to camp in a crude state, i.e., wheat
+flour, corn meal, beans, bacon, with the necessary supply of tea,
+coffee, sugar, good baking powder, salt, pepper and a quantity of
+rice. If, as I have before stated, the camp is so located as to be of
+easy access by wagon, then choose a bill-of-fare to your own liking.
+
+The medicine box should contain a box of good cathartic pills and a
+quantity of 2-grain quinine tablets, with any other medicine you may
+wish. Other necessities about the camp are a good supply of strong
+cord, a few feet of small rope, a yard or two of muslin, a yard of
+oilcloth.
+
+It may be well to give a few suggestions about a temporary camp for a
+night, if by chance you should get caught out and unable to reach
+camp. You should select a place before dark. If a large fallen tree
+can be found that lies close to the ground where you wish to build
+the fire it is best. If the log cannot be readily found then select a
+bank or knoll to build the fire against. First, build the fire out
+from the log five or six feet where you will make your bed so as to
+warm the ground. Now set two crotches about four feet high and place
+a pole in these crotches. Then from this pole place three or four
+poles, one end on the ground, the other resting on the pole that
+rests in the crotches. Then place boughs, bark, or anything to break
+the wind. This shelter will, of course, be placed over the spot where
+you will make your bed. Now rake the coals and live embers down
+against the log where you will have the fire for the night. Now place
+some boughs over the spot where the fire has been and where your bed
+will be.
+
+With this kind of a camp you can get along through a rather chilly
+night. You should always carry matches wrapped in waxed paper in
+three or four different places about your person. You may lose your
+match safe.
+
+If convenient, when going into camp, you should take several
+stretching boards for different kinds of fur with you. If not, you
+can usually find a tree that will split good and you can split some
+out. It is usually hard to find withes that are long and straight
+enough to bend so as to form a good shaped stretcher. You should
+always aim to stretch and cure the furs you catch in the best manner.
+In skinning you should rip the animal straight from one heel across
+to the other and close to the roots of the tail on the under side.
+Work the skin loose around the bone at the base until you can grasp
+the bone of the tail with the first two fingers of the right hand
+while you place the bone between the first two fingers of the left
+hand. Then by pulling you will draw the entire bone from the tail
+which you should always do.
+
+Sometimes when the animal has been dead some time the bone will not
+readily draw from the tail. In this case you should cut a stick the
+size of your finger about eight inches long. Cut it away in the
+center until it will readily bend so that the two ends will come
+together. Then cut a notch in each part of the stick just large
+enough to let the bone of the tail in and squeeze it out. It is
+necessary to whittle one side of the stick at the notch so as to form
+a square shoulder.
+
+You should have about three sizes of stretching boards for mink and
+fox. For mink they should be from 4 1/2 inches down to 3 inches and
+for fox from 6 1/4 inches down to 5 inches wide, and in length the
+fox boards may be four feet and the mink boards three feet long. The
+boards should taper slightly down to within 8 inches of the end for
+fox and then rounded up to a point. The mink boards should be rounded
+at 4 or 5 inches from this point. You will vary the shape of the
+board in proportion to the width. Stretching boards should not be
+more than 3/8 inch thick. A belly strip the length, or nearly the
+length, of the boards 1 1/4 inches at the wide end, tapering to a
+point at the other end and about 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick. Have the
+boards smooth and even on the edges. Other stretching boards should
+be made in proportion to the size and shape of the animal whose skin
+is to be stretched.
+
+You should not fail to remove all the fat and flesh from the skin
+immediately after the skin is on the board. If a skin is quite wet
+when taken from the animal it should be drawn lightly on the board
+until the fur is quite dry. Then turn the skin flesh side out and
+stretch.
+
+It is always best if you can go into the country where you intend to
+trap. This is especially important if the ground is a new field to
+you. During the summer or early fall, acquaint yourself with the
+streams and the general surroundings, and prepare some of your best
+sets for the mink and the fox.
+
+If you have a dog of good intelligence take him along, though he may
+not be broken to the business of trapping. It is many a fox and coon
+that my dog has saved for me when they have escaped from footing or a
+broken chain. If the dog is of much intelligence, and you use care in
+training him, you will soon find that a dog will learn more about
+trapping than you supposed possible. If you have long lines of traps
+your dog will inform you more than once that you have passed a trap
+that chanced to be a little off the main line.
+
+* * *
+
+Brother bear trappers, how do you like this style of bear trap (see
+frontispiece) for toting through the woods three or four miles from
+camp and at the same time tote a couple of sheep heads or the head of
+a beef for bait? In times gone by I have carried two or three
+Newhouse bear traps and bait to bait them with from one to five miles
+in the woods to pinch old Bruin's toes. Such is a pleasure to any red
+blooded man, who was born a real lover of the open and the
+stimulating effect of obtaining that $30 or $40, which the hide and
+meat of the bear brought, had on the trapper, was nearly equal to the
+desire to be out in the tall timber.
+
+Now brother bear trappers, these traps that you see on my shoulder
+are of my own make and are made with a half circle bed piece instead
+of a straight bed piece, as the ordinary trap is made. I wish to call
+your attention to how this trap fits the shoulders and how much
+easier it is to carry than the trap with the straight bed piece and
+note how much more readily you can get your gun into shape for
+action. Many a deer has given me the slip before I could drop the
+bear traps and get my gun ready for action when I have been toting
+bear traps in the woods. But with this style of trap your gun can be
+put in operation at once, regardless of the traps.
+
+Boys, another thing that I have learned in the last five years'
+experience in trapping in the south, (this was written Spring of
+1913) is that it requires a trap a size larger to trap small fur
+bearers in the south than it does in the north, owing to the
+difference in conditions of the streams and the soil. Well friend
+Bachelder, there is no use of you and I talking or worrying any more
+over our bear traps or bear trapping. The gentleman sportsman and his
+dog has ordered you and I and all other trappers of Pennsylvania for
+that matter to cast our traps on to the scrap pile and we must
+submit.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Camps and Camping.
+
+I will say that the conditions and location in which one is to camp
+makes a great difference in the preparations. If one is just going
+outside of town to camp for a few days outing, commodities may be to
+your liking as to quality and quantity. In these days, should the
+larder run low, it is only necessary for the camper to step out a
+short distance to a farm house where he is almost sure to find a
+telephone. In such cases all that the camper has to do is to 'phone
+to town, ordering his favorite brands delivered to camp, and soon an
+automobile is on the road laden with supplies, hastening to the
+campers' relief.
+
+Conditions are different when the camper is far from town; or perhaps
+miles from a dwelling or perhaps even a public road and the camper is
+compelled to pack his camp outfit, grub stake and all over miles of
+rough trail, or it may be no trail at all; then the camper must
+curtail his desires to their utmost limit.
+
+If the camper is on strange ground, and the camp is to be permanent
+or for some weeks, it is best for the camper not to be in too big a
+hurry to select the camping ground, and take up with any sort of a
+place. It is even better to make a temporary camp and look the
+locality over and select a place where good water can be had, and
+wood for fuel is plentiful and near camp. If possible, select a spot
+in a thicket of evergreen timber of a second growth and out of the
+way of any large trees that might blow onto the camp.
+
+If the ground is sloping, place your camp parallel with the slope,
+whether tent or log cabin, as the surface water can more readily be
+drained off, and not allowed to soak into the ground and cause
+dampness inside of the tent. A ditch should be dug around the tent to
+drain all surface water, and eaves so the water will not soak inside.
+If a log cabin, the dirt from the drain can be thrown up against the
+logs of the cabin.
+
+If the camper expects to camp through cold and snowy weather, it will
+pay him to place a ridge pole in crotches placed firmly in the
+ground. The pole should be a foot above the ridge of the tent, then
+place poles from the ground, the ends resting on this ridge pole as
+rafters to a building, then nail a few poles to these rafters
+sufficient to keep boughs from dropping down onto the tent. The
+boughs should be of an evergreen variety. This outer covering should
+be well thatched or covered with these boughs. This extra covering
+adds greatly to the warmth and comfort of the camp, as it protects
+from the wind blowing directly on the tent, also keeps the snow from
+falling onto the tent.
+
+It is also a great convenience if this ridge pole is allowed to
+extend out three or four feet, and a strip of canvas run over the
+pole and down to side poles, so as to form a sort of an awning so one
+can step outside to wash when it is raining without getting wet. It
+also makes a convenient place to pile a small amount of wood, and
+will be found useful in many ways such as hanging furs, clothing,
+etc., out to air.
+
+Do not make your bed on the ground. Build a box bedstead by driving
+four posts into the ground, then nail pieces across, up about twelve
+inches from the ground. Lay small poles on these cross pieces, then
+nail one or two small poles entirely around on the posts above the
+bottom pieces forming a sort of crib. This crib may be filled first
+with boughs, then on top of the boughs put a quantity of leaves or
+grass, when the mattress is lacking. There will also be store room
+under the bed, which would be wasted if the bed is made on the
+ground.
+
+Brother camper, when you are going well back into the tall timber
+where you are obliged to pack your outfit over a rough trail or
+perhaps no trail at all, do not waste any energy packing canned "air"
+in the shape of canned fruits. Take your grub in a crude state in the
+way of flour, beans, lard, bacon or pork, and if fruit is taken, take
+it in a dried form. Take the necessary supply of tea, coffee, sugar,
+salt and pepper, also that unavoidable baking powder.
+
+  [Illustration: WOODCOCK FISHING ON PINE CREEK.]
+
+As to preparing an emergency camp for a night, if the weather is
+cold, and there is snow on the ground, the camper should pick a place
+where he will be as much sheltered from the cold winds as
+circumstances will allow and where he can get wood as conveniently as
+possible.
+
+Select a log (if one can be had) that lays close to the ground. Now,
+scrape away the snow about six or eight feet back from this log, and
+where you will have your bed, build a fire, on this space the first
+thing you do. Then build a cover over this space or fire, by first
+setting two crotched stakes about four feet apart and five or six
+feet high, back three feet from the log. Cut a pole, and place it in
+these crotches and then from this pole lay poles long enough to come
+back so as to give room for your bed, covering the space where the
+fire is built; one end of the poles resting on the ground. With
+evergreen boughs, cover this entire framework, top and two
+sides--toward the log open.
+
+Now scrape the fire down against the log and proceed to build your
+fire for the night. Cover the space where the fire was with fine
+boughs; this is your bed. Take off your coat, and spread it over your
+shoulders, rather than wear it on you as usual.
+
+When the camper has plenty of time, and a good axe, in building an
+open campfire the thing to do is to cut two logs six or eight inches
+in diameter and three feet long and place them at right angles with
+the back log, and three or four feet apart; then lay the wood across
+these logs. This will give a draft underneath the wood and cause the
+fire to burn much better than where the wood lays close to the
+ground.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Deer Hunt Turned Into a Bear Hunt.
+
+A friend by the name of Dingman invited me to come to his camp on
+More's Run, a tributary of the Sinnamahoning. This was something like
+forty years ago, when deer were plentiful and several men in this
+section made it a business to hunt for the money that there was in
+it, and Nathan Dingman was one of those men. It was about eight miles
+from my place to Mr. Dingman's camp.
+
+One morning after we had a fall of snow, I packed my knapsack with as
+much grub stake as I was able to carry, with my gun and blanket, and
+started over the hill to Mr. Dingman's camp. After I had crossed the
+divide, I did not go far before I began to see deer tracks. There was
+no road or trail down the run, and the run was pretty well filled
+with timber. I had about all that I could handle without deer tracks,
+but when I was within about a mile of Mr. Dingman's camp, I came onto
+the trail of several deer that had only been gone a few minutes. I
+could not stand it longer, so I hung my pack and blanket up in a tree
+and took my track back up the stream until I was quite sure that I
+was well out of range of the deer, and then climbed the ridge until I
+was near the top of the hill and on advantageous ground.
+
+The direction of the trail of the deer where it crossed the stream
+led me to think that the deer were going south, or down the ridge but
+on the contrary they had turned to the right and up the ridge. I had
+not gone far along the ridge before I began a sharp lookout. I
+suddenly found the deer lying in a thicket of low laurel. They broke
+from cover at a breakneck speed. I fired both barrels at them with
+the best aim that I was able to get, and had the satisfaction of
+seeing one of the deer, a good sized doe, stumble and partly fall,
+then hobble on in the direction that the other had gone.
+
+It was nearly sundown and I only followed the trail a short distance
+when I could plainly see that the deer had a foreleg broken, and she
+soon left the trail of the others, and went down the hill all alone.
+Knowing that the wounded deer would soon lay down if not disturbed. I
+left the trail, went back, got my pack, blanket and went on down the
+creek to Mr. Dingman's camp. I found Mr. Dingman about to sit down to
+a supper of roast potatoes, venison and other good things to be found
+in abundance in the woods in those days.
+
+The next morning we were out at daybreak after the wounded doe. Mr.
+Dingman said that when the doe was started up that she would come to
+water, and that she would stop on the creek below where I had left
+the trail, which led down the hill until in sight of the creek, when
+it turned to the right, then went back up the hill only a few yards
+to the right of her trail where she had gone down.
+
+When I saw what the doe had done, I thought to myself, old lady, you
+are well onto the game, and we will have lots of sport before we get
+you. I was well aware that she had seen me when I passed by on her
+trail where she had gone down the hill, and thinking that she would
+go to the creek below where Mr. Dingman was and told him the game the
+doe was playing. He said that she would come to water at the point
+just below the camp, and that he would go down there and watch, while
+I should follow the track through. I told Mr. Dingman that I was
+afraid that we were too late, and that the doe had already gone out,
+that she had made her bed so that she could watch her trail where she
+went down the hill, and had slipped out after I had gone down the
+hill on her trail.
+
+Mr. Dingman thought that he could get the runway before she would get
+through, even if she had gone out when I came through on her trail
+down the hill. In hopes that the deer had not taken the trail and lit
+out when I came through the hill, I worked my way cautiously back up
+the hill, only occasionally going in sight of the trail so as to keep
+her course, but as I feared, when I was about halfway up the hill, I
+found her bed, but the doe was gone. I took the trail and followed it
+up the hill until she struck the trail of the deer that she was with
+when I first started them, and instead of going down the ridge, she
+took the back trail of the other deer. I followed it back until near
+where I had wounded her, when she again broke down the hill and
+crossed the creek near where I first found their trail, and had gone
+back onto the same ridge that she had come from.
+
+Now the only thing for me to do was to leave the trail and go after
+Mr. Dingman again. When I found him and we got back to camp, it was
+about noon, so we got a warm dinner before continuing the chase. When
+we got up to where I had left the trail, we held council and made our
+plans for the next move, and decided that as the old lady was
+continually doing the unexpected, we would follow her track, one
+going on each side of the trail a few yards from it.
+
+We had only gone a short distance up the hill when we found the old
+lady's bed, where she had laid down, so that she could watch back on
+her trail, where she had come down on the opposite hillside. We did
+not go far when the trail turned to the left and went up the side of
+the ridge toward the head of the creek. We continued along the trail
+one on either side and soon we came to where a large hemlock tree had
+fallen parallel with the side of the hill. Mr. Dingman was on the
+upper side and above the fallen tree, while the deer tracks led away
+below the tree. All of a sudden I heard the report of Mr. Dingman's
+rifle, so I stood still for a minute, and hearing nothing more I went
+to see the cause of the shooting. The doe had gone beyond the fallen
+tree, then turned back and went about midway of the tree, on the
+upper side and lay down. Mr. Dingman caught a glimpse of the old lady
+as she went out, but did not catch her.
+
+We did not follow the doe far from where she lay behind the fallen
+tree, for we crossed the trail of a bear going west, and partly in
+the direction of that of the wounded deer, which continued to work
+her cards on us all afternoon without our getting sight of her. At
+dusk we trailed her into a small thicket at the edge of the farm
+owned by a man by the name of Foster, at the extreme head of the run.
+
+As it was too late in the day to do any more with the old doe, we
+concluded to go to Mr. Foster's and stay over night, and take the
+trail early in the morning. It was snowing a little and we thought
+that the thicket would be an easy place to find our game, should it
+snow enough to cover the tracks. In the morning when we got up, we
+found six or eight inches of snow on the ground, that had fallen
+during the night. We had an early breakfast, and started out to again
+play the game with the broken legged doe.
+
+Before we got to the edge of the woods, we struck the trail of some
+animal, that had gone across the field in the early part of the night
+before it had snowed much. We were not positive what sort of an
+animal it was, whether man or beast. The trail was leading straight
+across the field without a curve in it, and was making straight to a
+laurel patch that was one and a half miles away on the Taggart farm,
+less than a mile below Coudersport.
+
+Mr. Dingman said that it was a bear. I admitted that it was a bear
+all right, but replied that I would say it was making for the
+Adirondack Mountains in New York, rather than the laurel patch on the
+Taggert farm. We did not have far to go to make sure, and a good part
+of the distance was across farms, so we concluded to hunt bear a
+while, and give the old doe a rest for a short time. As Mr. Dingman
+said, the bear made straight for the laurel patch.
+
+There was not more than 15 or 20 acres in the patch, so we thought
+that we would circle it and make sure that the bear was still in the
+laurel. We found that the bear was there all right, so Mr. Dingman
+selected a place where he thought the bear would come out when he was
+routed from his nest, while I was to follow the trail and drive out
+the bear. I followed until near the center of the patch, when I came
+onto a small open place forty or fifty feet square. This open space
+was covered with a heavy growth of wild grass which partly held the
+snow from getting close to the ground, and I could see the trail of
+the bear through this grass and loose snow very plain until nearly
+the opposite side of the open space, and there I could see a bunch of
+snow. I was sure that it was the bear that made the bunch.
+
+I thought the matter over for a minute, then concluded to back out
+and go after Mr. Dingman, and see what he thought would be best in
+order to make a sure thing of Bruin's capture. Mr. Dingman thought
+the best thing to do was to go up town and get plenty of help so as
+to thoroughly surround the laurel, and make sure of Bruin. I
+objected, as I thought it best to try our own luck, and if we failed
+we could still get plenty of help. We followed my track back to where
+I had turned, and concluded to both fire at the bunch at the same
+time, hit or miss as luck would have it. When we fired at the bunch
+there was a shaking of snow, and bruin rolled out but was unable to
+rise to his feet. On examination we found that one ball had entered
+his shoulder. It was a short job to get bruin out to the road, and
+take him up to town where we sold him to Mr. Stebbins, a merchant,
+and then we made tracks back to see if we could find the broken
+legged doe. We found by circling the thicket that she was there, and
+we had the good luck to get her. We drove her out, and thus ended one
+of the liveliest day's sport that we ever had.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+Dog on the Trap Line.
+
+Now, we will say first that there is as much or more difference in
+the man who handles the dog as there is in the different breeds of
+dogs. I have heard men say that they wanted no dog on the trap line
+with them, and that they didn't believe that any one who did want a
+dog on the trap line knew but very little about trapping at best.
+
+Now those are the views and ideas of some trappers, while my
+experience has led me to see altogether different. One who is so
+constituted that they must give a dog the growl or perhaps a kick
+every time they come in reach, will undoubtedly find a dog of but
+little use on the trap line. I have known some dogs to refuse to eat,
+and would lay out where they could watch the direction in which their
+master had gone and piteously howl for hours. I have seen other dogs
+that would take for the barn or any other place to get out of the way
+of the first sight or sound of their master. This man's dog is
+usually more attached to a stranger than to his master. The man who
+cannot treat his dog as a friend and companion will have good cause
+to say that a dog is a nuisance on the trap line.
+
+I have seen men training dogs for bird hunting, who would beat the
+dog most cruelly and claim that a dog could not be trained to work a
+bird successfully under any other treatment. Though I have seen
+others train the same breed of dogs to work a bird to perfection and
+their most harsh treatment that they would use would be a tap or two
+with a little switch. I will say that one who cannot understand the
+wag of a dog's tail, the wistful gaze of the eyes, the quick lifting
+of the ears, the cautious raising of a foot, and above all, treat his
+dog as a friend, need not expect his dog to be but little else than a
+nuisance on the trap line.
+
+Several years ago I had a partner who had a dog--part stag hound and
+the other part just dog, I think. One day he, my partner, asked if I
+would object to his bringing the dog to camp, saying that his wife
+was going on a visit and he had no place to leave the dog. I told him
+that if he had a good dog I would be glad to have the dog in camp. In
+a day or two pard went home and brought in the dog. Well, when he
+came, the dog was following along behind his master with tail and
+ears drooping, and looking as though he had never heard a kind word
+in his life. I asked if the dog was any good and he replied that he
+did not know how good he was. I asked the name of the dog. He said,
+"Oh, I call him Pont." I spoke to the dog, calling him by name. The
+dog looked at me wistfully, wagging his tail. The look that dog gave
+me said as plain as words that that was the first kind word he had
+ever heard.
+
+We went inside and the dog started to follow, when his master in a
+harsh voice said "get out of here." I said, "Where do you expect the
+dog to go?" I then took an old coat that was in the camp, placed it
+in a corner and called gently to Pont, patted the coat and told Pont
+to lay down on the coat which the dog did. I patted the dog, saying,
+"that is a good place for Pont," and I can see that wistful gaze that
+dog gave me now. After we had our supper I asked my partner if he
+wasn't going to fix Pont some supper. "Oh, after awhile I will see if
+I can find something for him." I took a biscuit from the table,
+spread some butter on it, called the dog to me, broke the biscuit in
+pieces and gave it to the dog from my hand, then I found an old basin
+that chanced to be about the camp and fixed the dog a good supper.
+
+After the dog had finished his supper I went to the coat in the
+corner, spoke gently to Pont, patted the coat and told Pont to lay
+down on the coat. That was the end of that, Pont knew his place and
+took it without further trouble.
+
+The next morning when we were about ready to start out on the trap
+line I asked pard what he intended to do with Pont. He said that he
+would tie him to a tree that stood against the shanty close to the
+door. We were going to take different lines of traps. I said, "What
+is the harm of Pont going with me?" "All right, if you want him but I
+don't want any dog with me." I said, "Am (that was pard's given name,
+for short), I do not believe that dog wants to go with you any more
+than you want him." Am's reply was that he guessed he would go all
+right if he wanted him. I said, "Am, just for shucks, say nothing to
+the dog and see which one he will follow." So we stepped outside the
+shack and the dog stood close to me.
+
+I said, "Go on Am, and we will see who the dog will follow." He
+started off and the dog only looked at him. Am stopped and told the
+dog to come on. The dog got around behind me. A said, "If I wanted
+you to come you would come or I would break your neck." I said, "No,
+Am, you won't break Pont's neck when I am around, it would not look
+nice."
+
+I started on my way, Pont following after I had gone a little ways. I
+spoke to Pont, patted him on the head and told him what a good dog he
+was. He jumped about and showed more ways than one how pleased he
+was. He showed plainly the disgust he had for his master.
+
+It so happened that the first trap that I came to was a trap set in a
+spring run, and it had a coon in it. I allowed Pont to help kill the
+coon, and after the coon was dead I patted Pont and told him what
+great things we had done in capturing the coon, and Pont showed what
+pride he took in the hunt, so much so that he did not like to have Am
+go near the pelt. I saw from the very first day out that all Pont
+needed was kind treatment and proper training to make a good help on
+the trap line.
+
+I was careful to let him know what I was doing when setting a trap,
+and when he would go to smell at the bait after a trap had been set,
+I would speak to him in a firm voice and let him know that I did not
+approve of what he was doing. When making blind sets, I took the same
+pains to show and give him to understand what I was doing. I would
+sometimes, after giving him fair warning, let him put his foot into a
+trap. I would scold him in a moderate manner and release him. Then
+all the time when I was resetting the trap I would talk trap to him,
+and by action and word, teach him the nature of the trap. Mr.
+Trapper, please do not persuade yourself to believe that the
+intelligent dog cannot understand if you go about it right.
+
+In two weeks Pont had advanced so far in his training that I no
+longer had to pay any attention to him on account of the traps and
+the third day that Pont was with me he found a coon that had escaped
+with a trap nearly two weeks before. My route called me up a little
+draw from the main stream, and I had not gone far up this when Pont
+took the trail of some animal and began working it up the side of a
+hill. I stood and watched him until the trail took him to an old log,
+when Pont began to snuff at a hole in the log, and he soon raised his
+head and gave a long howl, as much as to say "he is here and I want
+help." After running a stick in the hole I soon discovered that the
+log was hollow. I took my belt axe and pounded along on the log until
+I thought I was at the right point and then chopped a hole in the
+log. As good luck would have it, I made the opening right on the
+coon, and almost the first thing I saw on looking into the log was
+the trap. Pont soon had the coon out, and when I saw that it was the
+coon that had escaped with our trap, I gave Pont praise for what he
+had done, petting him and telling him of his good deed, and he seemed
+to understand it all.
+
+Not long after this Am came into camp at night and reported that a
+fox had broken the chain on a certain trap and gone off with the
+trap, saying that he would take Pont in the morning and see if he
+could find the fox. In the morning when we were ready to go Am tried
+to have Pont follow him but it was no go, Pont would not go with him.
+Then Am put a rope onto him and tried to lead him but Pont would sulk
+and would not be led. Then Am lost his temper and wanted to break
+Pont's neck again. I said that I did not like to have Pont abused and
+that I would go along with him. When we came to the place where the
+fox had escaped with the trap Am at once began to slap his hands and
+hiss Pont on. Pont only crouched behind me for protection. I
+persuaded Am to go on down the run and look at the traps down that
+way while Pont and I would look after the escaped fox.
+
+As soon as Am was gone I began to look about where the fox had been
+caught and search for his trail, and soon Pont began to wag his tail.
+I began to work Pont's way and said, "has he gone that way?" Pont
+gave me to understand that the fox had gone that way and that he knew
+what was wanted. The trail soon left the main hollow and took up a
+little draw. A little way up this we found where the fox had been
+fast in some bushes but had freed himself and he had left and gone up
+the hillside. Pont soon began to get uneasy, and when I said, "hunt
+him out," away he went, and in a few minutes I heard Pont give a long
+howl and I knew that he had holed his game. When I came up to Pont he
+was working at a hole in some shell rocks. I pulled away some loose
+rocks and could see the fox, and we soon had him out and Pont seemed
+more pleased over the hunt than I was. There was scarcely a week that
+Pont did not help us out on the trap line.
+
+Not infrequently did Pont show me a coon den. I had some difficulty
+in teaching Pont to let the porcupines alone, but after a time he
+learned that they were not the kind of game that we wanted, and he
+paid no more attention to them.
+
+I have had many different dogs on the trap line with me. I can say
+that to any one who can understand "dog's language," has a liking for
+a dog and has a reasonable amount of patience and is willing to use
+it, will find a well trained dog of much benefit on the trap line,
+and often a more genial companion than some partners. But if one is
+so constituted that he must give his dog a growl or a kick every time
+he comes in reach, and perhaps only give his dog half enough to eat
+and cannot treat a dog as his friend, then I say, leave the dog off
+the trap line.
+
+  [Illustration: WOODCOCK AND HIS OLD TRAPPING DOG PRINCE.]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Two Cases of Buck Fever.
+
+I have heard many hunters say that they had never had a case of buck
+fever, and that they could shoot at a deer with as little emotion
+under all circumstances as they could at a target. Now this is not
+the case with me, for the conditions under which I am working makes
+all the difference imaginable with my nervous system. I never saw but
+one place that I did not get the buck fever when deer hunting and
+that was in Trinity and Humboldt counties, California. There I saw
+deer so thick and tame that it was no more exciting than it would be
+to go into a drove of sheep in a pasture and shoot sheep. If by
+chance you failed to hit the deer the first shot it was only a matter
+of a few minutes when you would have another opportunity to kill your
+deer. So there was no cause to get the fever, but such has not been
+the case in Eastern States, for many years at least.
+
+About 1880, a man by the name of Corwin and I were camping on the
+Jersey Shore turnpike in Pennsylvania. We had just gone into camp and
+as I usually make it a point to first get plenty of wood cut for the
+camp at night, so that when I come home in the evening I will not
+have to go out and cut wood, I had been cutting wood and fixing up
+all day until four o'clock in the afternoon, when I suggested to Mr.
+Corwin that we go out and see if we could find some signs and locate
+the deer so that we would know where to look for them early the next
+morning. We followed down a ridge for some distance without seeing
+any signs of deer but about the time that it was getting dark so that
+we could not see very good and we were about to go to camp, we came
+onto a trail of a number of deer. As it was so dark we left the trail
+and went to camp being careful not to start or alarm the deer. The
+next morning when we got up we found that a snow had fallen of some 8
+or 10 inches and knowing that this snow would cover the trail of the
+deer so deep that there would be no following it until we could start
+them out of their beds, we concluded that one of us should go down
+the ridge opposite or west of the ridge where we had found the trail
+of the deer. It was decided that I should take the ridge opposite
+where the deer were thought to be, and Mr. Corwin was to warn me by
+firing two shots in rapid succession if he started the deer without
+getting a shot at them.
+
+I was familiar with the woods and knew about where the deer would run
+when started up from any particular point. I had gone down the ridge
+until I thought that I was below the point where the deer would have
+crossed had they done so during the night, or if Mr. Corwin should
+start them. I had neither heard anything from Mr. Corwin nor seen
+anything of the deer trail. I had given up hope of Mr. Corwin
+starting the deer so they would be likely to come my way.
+
+I had struck the trail of a single deer that was going down a short
+sawtooth point or a short spur of the main ridge. The track had been
+made during the night when it was still snowing and in some places it
+was hard to follow the trail owing to so much snow falling. The track
+led down this spur in the direction of low hemlocks. I was working my
+way very carefully thinking that the deer had gone down into those
+low hemlocks to get shelter from the storm and were lying down in the
+thicket. The thicket was just over a little cone or ridge so that I
+could not see the surface of the ground and I was dead sure that I
+would catch my game lying in his bed.
+
+In a moment a dozen deer came into sight as suddenly as though they
+had come up out of the ground and I was suddenly taken with one of
+the worst fevers that any man ever had. I at once began firing into
+the bunch. The deer seemingly did not notice the report of the gun
+but kept steadily on their trail. I knew the condition I was in and
+that I was shooting wide of the mark. I then singled out one of the
+largest deer, a good sized buck, and tried to pick out a spot on the
+back of his shoulders as though I was shooting at a target. I could
+not keep the gun within range of the deer by ten feet, so when I
+thought the gun had jumped into line, I pulled the trigger. The deer
+made no alteration in its course or speed but kept steadily bounding
+along. The deer were not more than forty yards from me. I dropped on
+one knee and leaned the gun across my knee, grabbed a handful of snow
+and jammed it into my face, then placed the gun to my face and began
+firing at the deer again with no better results.
+
+When the bunch of deer were nearly a hundred yards away and they had
+all passed over the brow of the hill, except one large doe that was a
+little behind the rest, the fever left me as suddenly as it came on.
+I pulled the gun onto her and fired. She staggered, gave a lunge down
+the hill and fell dead. I could have told within an inch of where the
+ball struck her before I went to the deer. I could not have told
+within fifty feet of where my other shots went.
+
+I followed my drove of deer a short distance to make sure that I had
+not wounded any of them and then I dragged the doe down into the
+hollow to dress and hang up. Pretty soon Mr. Corwin came to me and
+seeing only the one deer asked me if that was the only one I had
+killed with all that shooting. Mr. Corwin said that he had counted
+nine shots that I had fired. When I told him the story he had a
+hearty laugh of half an hour and said that I was lucky that I did not
+die in a fit.
+
+Now boys, you who have never had the buck fever can laugh at me all
+you like, but those who are over fond of the chase and get the buck
+fever will sympathize with me. Had I been expecting and looking for
+this drove of deer at the time instead of only one deer I should not
+have been attacked with this case of buck fever.
+
+Now, I will tell you of another case of buck fever from a cause
+entirely different from that just related. I was following the trail
+and there was just enough snow on the ground to make the best of
+still hunting. The wind was blowing just strong enough to make a
+noise in the tree tops overhead to drown any noise that the hunter
+might make by stepping on a dry limb, and every once in a while there
+would come a snow squall that would be so dense that you could see
+scarcely fifty feet.
+
+I had trailed the doe along the side of the hill for some distance.
+She was feeding alone and I was working along very carefully, keeping
+along the ridge several yards above the trail, to always be on
+advantage ground. I had not seen the trail of any other deer during
+the morning although it was in the height of the mating season, or as
+us common folks call it, the running season. I was trailing the doe
+along through a small basin where the timber was nearly all hardwood,
+beech and maple, and the woods were very open. I was quite positive
+that the doe was not far in advance for she had just been feeding on
+some moss from a limb that had blown down from a tree and the tracks
+were very fresh. About this time one of those snow squalls had come
+up. I was standing by a large maple tree waiting for the squall to
+pass by so that I could look the ground over well before I went any
+farther.
+
+After the squall had passed I looked the ground over closely but
+could see nothing of my deer. Forty or fifty yards farther along the
+side of the hill and below me there was a very large maple tree which
+had turned up by the roots. This tree hid from view a piece of ground
+close to the log. I could see that the trail led directly up to the
+tree. I could see a slight break in the snow on top of the log that I
+took to be made by the leg of the deer in jumping the log. I could
+see nothing of the trail beyond the tree so I worked very cautiously
+along until I could see past the root of the tree and as I suspected,
+there stood my game with head down, apparently asleep and standing
+broadside to me. I drew the gun onto a point just back of her
+shoulders and let go and the deer dropped almost in her tracks.
+
+I cut the deer's throat and began to skin out the foreparts. I had
+only partly gotten my work done when another one of those snow
+squalls came along. I was bending over the deer, busy at work when I
+heard a slight noise, and straightened up to see what had caused it.
+I looked none too soon to save myself from a terrible thrust from the
+horns of a large buck deer, for as I straightened up the deer shot
+past me like a shot from a gun, barely missing me and landed some six
+or eight feet beyond me. I had stood my gun against the log 8 or 10
+feet from me. I sprang for my gun but I was trembling so that I could
+do nothing and I could scarcely stand on my feet. The buck stood for
+a moment looking back over his shoulders. Every hair on his back
+stood up like the hair on the back of an angry dog and I well
+remember the color of his eyes which were as green as grass.
+
+The deer stood and gazed at me for a moment then slowly walked off.
+The deer had gone some distance before I could control myself
+sufficiently to shoot. The buck had followed the trail of the doe up
+to the fallen tree and had caught me skinning her and it angered him.
+Instead of running off he was determined to attack me and the only
+thing that saved me from being severely hurt was my straightening up
+just at the right time to miss the thrust of the buck and the deer's
+missing me was what caused him to leave me.
+
+This was the worst case of buck fever that I have ever had and I do
+not care to ever experience a case of that kind again.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+Partner a Necessity.
+
+As I promised to give some reasons why a partner is necessary, and as
+I have trapped many seasons both with and without a partner, I should
+know something about the subject. A writer, some time ago, in
+Hunter-Trader-Trapper said that it took some trappers fifty years to learn
+what others learned in a week. Now, I fully agree with this writer,
+for it only took me about three seconds to learn that a partner was
+necessary, and it came about in this way.
+
+I had several bear traps set near what is known as the Hogsback on
+the old Jersey Turnpike Road in Pennsylvania. The traps were strung
+along the ridge that divides the waters of the East Fork and the West
+Fork, which are tributaries of the west branch of the Susquehanna
+River and were setting from one and a half miles to four miles of the
+wagon road, and about nine miles from any house.
+
+The time in question was the last days of October or the first of
+November, and the day a very warm one for that time of the year. I
+had been walking very fast, in fact where the ground was favorable, I
+would take a dog trot. I wished to make the rounds of the traps and
+get out of the woods that day. When I came to where the second trap
+had been set, I found it gone, clog and all. The place where the trap
+was setting was in the head of a small ravine and near the edge of a
+windfall, just on the lower side of the bait pen, and but a few feet
+from it lay the partly decayed trunk of a large tree. I jumped on to
+this tree to get a good look down into the windfall to see if bruin
+was anywhere in sight. I had scarcely got on the log when I received
+a reception which I think was something equal to that the Russian
+Naval Fleet met with in the Corean Straits. I had jumped square into
+a colony of large black hornets, and they did punish me terribly in
+three minutes' time. My feet were swollen so that I was obliged to
+remove my shoes and my entire body was spotted as a leopard with
+great purple blotches and the internal fever which I had was most
+terrible. I thought that every breath that I drew was my last. I was
+two miles from the wagon road and nine or ten miles in the
+wilderness. No one knew where I was, nor where the traps were set.
+
+I thought no more of the bear. I only thought of reaching the wagon
+road. I began one of the worst battles of my life, but after a
+struggle of three hours I got to the road more dead than alive. But
+here fortune favored me for soon after a man by the name of White
+(one of the county commissioners who had been in the southern part of
+the county on business) came along. He took me home where the doctor
+soon got me on my feet again.
+
+I told my oldest brother where he would find the trap, so he took a
+man and team and went early the next morning and got the bear all
+right. It was four or five days before I felt able again to go into
+the woods and look at the traps, but when I did, I found a small
+bear, (a cub) dead and the skin nearly worthless. This was 45 years
+ago, but I am still working at the same old trade, in a small way.
+
+At another time and previous to the time mentioned, I, with a
+partner, was trapping on the headwaters of Pine Creek. We had been in
+camp about a week, when one day we had been setting a line of traps
+about three miles from camp. It was in November and the weather was
+very disagreeable, yet we were hustling for we knew that the snow
+would soon be on us, and then we wished to put in all the time we
+could hunting deer.
+
+On the day in question Orlando (that was my partner's name) long
+before noon was complaining of a bad headache, and said that it
+seemed as though every bone in his body ached. I tried to persuade
+him to go to camp but he insisted on setting more traps. About three
+o'clock in the afternoon he was obliged to give up, and said he would
+sit down where he was and wait until I could go further up the stream
+and set a couple more traps. I said no, we will go to camp, so we
+started. We were about three miles from camp, but Orlando could only
+go a few steps when he would be obliged to rest. He soon became so
+weak that I could only get him along by partly carrying him. He was
+several years younger than I, but he was somewhat heavier, so he was
+rather more of a load than I could well manage.
+
+I kept tugging away with him, and about 9 o'clock in the evening I
+got him to camp, where I fixed him as comfortable as I could, then I
+began a race of about eleven miles to Orlando's father's house. The
+distance was about one-half of the way through the woods and it took
+me until 12 o'clock to make it, but we soon had a team hitched to the
+wagon and were on the way back to the camp where we arrived about 3
+o'clock in the morning. We could only get within about one and a
+fourth miles of the camp with a wagon, so we had to leave it there
+and go on with only the horses. When we got to the camp we found
+Orlando no better, so we got him on to one of the horses and by
+steadying him the best we could, managed to work our way back home.
+We arrived there about 8 o'clock in the morning and found a doctor
+already waiting.
+
+To make a long story short, it is sufficient to say that Pard had a
+long run of typhoid fever, and if he had been in the woods alone he
+would have surely died. I could relate other incidents where a pard
+did come in very acceptable.
+
+As it is a necessity to have a partner, it is also necessary to have
+a good one, for the successful trapper has no idler's job on his
+hands. You should always have a partner who is able to read and write
+and should have a pencil and paper in your pocket, for it often
+happens that you wish to leave a message at a certain place where
+Pard and you expect to meet on the trap line. Then each one takes a
+different line of traps, and circumstances has happened since you
+left camp in the morning that it changes the entire program. It also
+often happens that you get into camp at a different time than what
+you expected and wish to go out again and take up another line of
+traps, and you should try to keep one another informed as to about
+what section you are working in.
+
+Always endeavor to carry out the plans as near as possible the way
+they were planned before leaving camp in the morning. Of all things,
+do not accept of a man who is lazy or void of manly principles as a
+partner, for sooner or later you will drop him. Then it will make no
+difference how much you have done for him or how much you have
+befriended him in times past, he will do you all the dirt he is
+capable of doing.
+
+If you want to know all about a man, go camping with him. Probably
+you think you know him already, but if you have never camped on the
+trail with him, you do not. It may be that he is your near neighbor
+or he may have been a partner in business, but if you have not camped
+with him, you have yet to learn him. It is not a hard job to believe
+a man a good fellow when at home, but when you have camped with him
+on the trail, then you will know him. When your companion wishes to
+annoy any game, which you may find in your traps for the mere purpose
+of hearing the animal moan with pain; will shoot birds and animals
+just for the purpose of killing if you have a team with you, and your
+companion will ride up the steep hills where other men would walk;
+will neglect his beasts of burden in any way, this man you should
+never choose as your camping or trapping partner. But when you find
+one who will never wantonly torture a dumb animal and is kind to his
+beasts of burden, always giving it all the advantages and kind
+treatment possible, this man you needn't fear to accept as a trapping
+partner for in this man you will find "a friend indeed when in need."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+A Few Words on Deadfalls.
+
+Comrades, as I have been asked to give my idea on the deadfall as a
+practical trap in taking the fur bearing animals, will say that I do
+not consider it a useless contrivance as some of the boys of the trap
+line claim. On the contrary, I consider it to be a very successful
+trap in taking many of the fur bearers such as will readily take bait
+including the skunk, mink, coon, opossum, rabbit, muskrat, etc.
+
+It is not to be supposed that the fox, coyote, wolf, etc., can be
+taken in the deadfall; neither is it supposed to be as convenient or
+as successful a trap as the steel trap. Yet, under favorable
+conditions I prefer it to the steel trap in trapping some animals,
+and it is certainly a little more humane in its operation as it
+usually kills its prey almost instantly, therefore it saves the
+animal much suffering.
+
+Now there are many kinds of deadfalls, the most of which have been
+shown from time to time in Hunter-Trader-Trapper. Were I up on
+drawing, I would illustrate some of the deadfalls which I consider
+the most successful, but I am not, so enclose photo. I will mention
+some of the deadfalls which I have seen in use in different parts of
+the country, some of which were good, but the majority I have seen in
+general use I did not like mostly on account of the length of time
+that it took to construct them, and the manner in which it was
+necessary to place the bait.
+
+I prefer a deadfall so constructed that several different kinds of
+bait can be used at the same time, therefore the trap is ready for
+more than one kind of an animal and also a trap that is readily
+constructed. In the South we see many deadfalls. The most common
+deadfalls used are those made by placing a bottom log about six or
+eight inches in diameter and five or six feet long. The drop was
+about the same size as the bottom log, only much longer and stakes
+were split from the pine logs and driven into the ground the entire
+length of the bottom log on both sides of the log. These stakes or
+boards were long enough to come above the drop log when the trap was
+set. The drop log was placed between the two rows of stakes and above
+the bottom log. The common figure 4 trigger was used and placed about
+midway of the bottom log and raising the drop log six or eight inches
+from the bottom log. This made a runway that enabled the animal to
+enter from either end of the run and the animal necessarily was on
+top of the bottom log and directly under the drop log. The bait was
+fastened to the spindle. This deadfall may work well on mink, skunk
+and opossum, but I hardly think it a good trap for other animals and
+it requires too much time to construct it.
+
+  [Illustration: GOOD SMALL ANIMAL DEADFALL.]
+
+Another deadfall that I saw in common use on the Pacific Coast as
+well as in other sections of the country was the ordinary string
+deadfall. It is hardly necessary to describe this trap for every boy
+who works a trap line knows how to make them. The trap is made by
+using a bottom log three or four feet long and a drop log of the same
+size, but much longer. If the trap is not heavy enough of its own
+weight, place logs on the drop log until it is sufficiently heavy to
+kill the animal. Four stakes are driven, two on either side of the
+log and close to the bottom log and about two feet apart and driven
+so that the top or drop log will work easily between the stakes. Two
+of the stakes, the ones driven on the side where the bait pen is, had
+a crotch or fork and a stick was placed in these crotches. A string
+was tied to the drop log and to a stick of the proper length so that
+when the drop log was raised up eight or ten inches from the bottom
+log and the string passed over the stick in the crotches, one end of
+the trigger stick would rest against the stick placed in the
+crotches. The other end would slightly catch onto another stick, laid
+directly under the one that rests in the crotches and resting against
+the forked stakes and about two inches from the bottom log. This
+stick is called the treadle, as the animal going into the bait pen to
+get the bait must step on this treadle, pushing it down, which will
+release the trigger spindle and allow the drop log to fall.
+
+The bait pen is usually made by driving stakes in a circle from one
+of the trap stakes to the other stake on the same side of the bottom
+log. This style of a deadfall is alright as to handling bait, but I
+do not consider it a sure trap, as often the animal will set off the
+trap before it is far enough under the drop to make a sure catch. I
+prefer a trigger that will cause the animal to get at least one fore
+leg over the bottom piece before the trap is sprung.
+
+In making this style of a deadfall it is not necessary to use a
+string and the forked stakes with the cross stick in the forks; all
+that is necessary is to have two upright standards, one locked on to
+the other by just a notch cut in the standard that the drop rest on
+and catch the other end of the standard resting on the bed place.
+This standard is made slightly wedge shape so as to rest firmly in
+the notch in the upper standard. The notch should be about two-thirds
+the distance from the lower end of the stick up and just long enough
+to come down and rest against the side of the crossbar or treadle,
+which, as before stated, should be about two inches above the bed
+piece.
+
+The stone deadfall with the figure 4 trigger, I have found in common
+use in nearly all sections where large flat rocks were to be had to
+use in making the trap. This stone deadfall is alright in mink
+trapping and smaller animals but it is not favored much in coon
+trapping. There are many other styles of deadfalls which I will try
+to describe later.
+
+As to animals taking bait, will say, I have never had much trouble in
+getting meat or carnivorous animals to take bait, but sometimes it is
+necessary to use a different bait than what they will take at other
+times. This, undoubtedly, is owing to what the animals have been
+accustomed to feeding on. If the animal is fed on a certain kind of
+food and will no longer take readily to it as a bait, then use
+something different. For instance, I found it difficult on the
+Pacific Coast in the vicinity of Vancouver to get mink to take flesh
+as a bait, while they readily took other baits. When the mink will
+not take bait readily, then of course the deadfall does not make a
+successful mink trap. While the deadfall cannot take the place of the
+steel trap, yet a well constructed deadfall under some conditions has
+advantages over the steel trap. Often a deadfall can be set in a
+thicket of evergreen trees or under a single pine, hemlock or other
+evergreen tree, or it may be protected by building a frame of poles
+above the trap and cover with boughs to partly protect the trap from
+the heavy snows. Now you have a trap that will work alright, where a
+steel trap would freeze down from sleet or other causes and would not
+spring; nor will Johnny Graball carry off a deadfall.
+
+No, boys, do not shun the deadfall when trapping skunk in a section
+where material is convenient to build it with, and especially if you
+are near your trapping grounds so that you can go out at times and
+put up a trap or two so as to have a good line of deadfalls ready
+when the trapping season arrives.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+Advice from a Veteran.
+
+In trapping, cultivate the habit of taking great care in making sets.
+Always leave the surface level. As you cannot tell what particular
+animal may come your way, prepare for the most cunning. Note the
+surroundings of your set and use such material for covering as may be
+found there so that all may appear natural. Never stake the traps
+down for a dry land set, but select for a drag an old limb or root;
+not one fresh cut if avoidable. Obliterate your tracks; John Sneakem
+will not then catch on so quick. Above all things, never molest
+another's traps.
+
+The jump-trap as now made by the Oneida Community has thicker jaws
+than the old style and therefore it is not so liable to foot the
+animal. I find it a good trap to use.
+
+For mink, a good set is close to a bank and near the edge of the
+water. The bait if any is used, should be fresh muskrat, rabbit or
+chicken. All are good. If you wish for scent, the musk from the
+animal you are trapping is preferable.
+
+One famous trapper says, "any fool knows enough to catch a muskrat."
+I doubt whether this man himself, knows how to trap them
+successfully. Of course, everyone knows that muskrats should be
+trapped along streams or swails where you find their works. For bait
+use carrots, cabbage or sweet apples. I like sweet apples best, and
+so do the muskrats. Set the trap in about two inches of water, fasten
+the chain at full length to a sunken limb, drive a stake on either
+side of the chain near where it is fastened and you need not fear
+that the rat will "foot" himself. He will soon become entangled and
+drown.
+
+Another good set for rats is by scooping a piece out of a sod and
+placing it on a stone or root just under the water. Set trap on sod,
+fasten the chain as before and scatter bits of apple on the sod.
+
+* * *
+
+Now, boys, as many of you are about to seek new trapping locations,
+and as I have had more or less experience in trapping from the
+Atlantic to the Pacific, and as I get many letters from brother
+trappers as to different trapping locations, I thought perhaps that
+it would not come amiss to give you a little of my experience in
+regard to this matter. I would advise that before you go to a new
+location in other states from those in which you are familiar with
+the game laws, that you first write to the State Game Commissioner of
+the state that you intend to trap in, enclosing 10 or 15 cents in
+stamps, and ask for a copy of the game laws, or for the information
+that you desire. The address of the Game Commissioner is usually at
+the capital of the different states. Advice on game laws is generally
+so meager that it is often misleading, and one relying on newspaper
+information, often runs up against problems that he would not have
+undertaken had he known the exact truth of the matter. The game laws
+of the different states are changed so often that the only way to get
+reliable information is to go direct to headquarters. Now, some
+states have local laws, county laws, and some states have even
+township laws.
+
+I will also speak of writing to trappers for information as to the
+quantity of the fur bearing animals and game in their locality as
+another way to get posted.
+
+Now, while I hope that the average trapper is as truthful as mankind
+generally, I am aware that a trapper will sometimes exaggerate as to
+the amount of game in his locality. If the person whom you make the
+inquiry of, is not particularly interested in trapping, or knows but
+little about trapping and wild life, he is liable to think there is
+much more game in his county than there really is. And on the other
+hand, if the party makes a business of trapping, he is quite liable
+to think that game is less plentiful than it really is. It is a good
+plan to write to two or more parties in the same neighborhood, on
+this matter, if you can, and then draw your own conclusion as to the
+scarcity or plentifulness of the game in that section. But the better
+way is to go and prospect the country and acquaint yourself with the
+locality, for you remember the old adage, "If you would have your
+business done, go and attend to it yourself; if not, send some one."
+
+* * *
+
+I have read with interest the discussion of the many different makes
+of guns, the different calibers for large game hunting, etc., and as
+I am not well up on "gunology," I have listened and wondered why
+there was so much agitation on the gun question. I believe that
+nearly all of the modern guns that are manufactured today are
+good--at least sufficiently good shooters for all practical purposes.
+Shotguns can be bought at $3.00 or $4.00 that do good work. Perhaps
+there is not a man in the country who has carried a gun as many days
+as the writer, but what has done more target shooting than I have.
+
+Back in the 70's when men hunted deer in this section for the money
+that was in it, I often did not take my rifle down to shoot from one
+season's hunting to the next, unless by chance something in the way
+of game came into fields near the house. I was always in love with my
+gun and if I did not like it I would get rid of it at the first
+opportunity. I am still of the opinion that a gun is similar to a
+man's wife, you must love them in order to get the best results.
+
+I always wanted as good a gun as there was on the market. By this I
+do not mean the highest priced, nor the highest power gun, but the
+gun that would do the business. A man by the name of Orlando Reese
+and I were the first to buy Winchester rifles in this section, and I
+think in this county. The guns were the common round barrel .44
+caliber and we paid $60.00 apiece for them. The same kind of a gun
+can now, I think, be bought for $12.00 or $14.00. Previous to the
+time I bought the Winchester, I had been using a Henry rifle for a
+time, but it was not a good gun for hunting purposes. A few years
+later the .45-75 Winchester came into use, so I sold my .44 and
+bought a .45-75. I did not like it so I sold it and bought a Colts,
+which was a good gun, but one day I was doing some fast work on a
+bunch of deer and in my haste I did not work the lever just as I
+should and it jammed. This made me rather angry, so I sold it and got
+another .44 Winchester, which I used for a long time, but I disposed
+of it very unexpectedly.
+
+I was coming out from camp after a new stock of provisions. My
+partner, Amersley Ball, was with me. We had not gone far after
+getting in the wagon road when we met a man by the name of Lyman who
+was on his way to the Cross Fork of Kettle Creek, for the purpose of
+inspecting the timber lands and wanted a gun to carry with him.
+Before Mr. Lyman was hardly in speaking distance he yelled at me and
+asked what I would take for my gun. Thinking that he was only joking
+I said $40.00.
+
+Mr. Lyman came up to me, took my gun from my shoulders, looked at it
+and asked me if it was alright. I replied that if it was not I would
+not be carrying it.
+
+Mr. Lyman replied, "I guess that is right," and taking a check from
+his pocket dropped down on one knee, filled it out for forty dollars
+and handed it to me, so I was without a gun right in the midst of the
+hunting season.
+
+My protest was of no use, as Mr. Lyman took the gun and went his way,
+laughing at me. I received a little more for the gun than the usual
+price at the time, but there was no dealer at our place who kept the
+Winchester in stock. The dealers were always obliging and would take
+your order and get you a gun for a small profit of about sixteen
+dollars. I had no time to wait for a gun to be ordered, so I began to
+look about to find some one who had a gun for sale. Mr. Wm. Thompson,
+the publisher of a local newspaper in our place had bought a new .38
+caliber Winchester to use in his annual outing and said that he would
+have no further use for a gun until another season that if I would
+give him $35.00, I could have his gun. I gave Mr. Thompson the money
+and the next morning we went back to camp.
+
+After we had arrived at camp, I crossed the divide from the
+Sinnemahoning side of the Pine Creek side to hunt. I had not gone far
+after reaching Pine Creek before I struck the trail of five or six
+deer. After following the trail a ways I concluded that the deer
+would pass around the point of the ridge and pass through a hardwood
+balsam on the other side of the ridge.
+
+I climbed the hill and made for the balsam in hope to head the deer
+off. I had only reached the brow of the hill so that I could look
+into the basin when I saw the deer. I thought to myself, there is a
+good chance to try my new gun, for I had not yet shot it. I drew on a
+large doe that was in the lead of the bunch and cut loose. The doe
+made a leap into the air, made a jump or two down the hill and went
+down, while the rest of the deer made two or three jumps up the hill
+towards me and stopped and looked back down the hill in the direction
+of the doe that I had shot. I pulled onto the shoulders of a buck,
+the largest deer of the bunch, who gave his tail a switch or two,
+wheeled, made a few jumps down the hill and fell, while the rest of
+the bunch made a lively break for other parts. I continued to scatter
+lead as long as I could see them.
+
+I ran down to the deer that I had killed, cut their throats, removed
+their entrails, climbed some saplings, bent them down, cut off the
+tops and hung the deer on them. Getting a pole with a crotch at the
+end to place under the sapling, I pulled the deer up the best that I
+could and started on the trail of the others. I did not follow the
+trail long when I saw one of them had a broken leg. The deer with the
+broken leg soon dropped out from the others and went down the hill,
+crossed the hollow and went into a thick hemlock timber and laurel.
+
+As it was nearly night, I left the trail and went home to camp. The
+next morning, Mr. Ball went with me to help get the wounded deer. We
+did not follow the trail far until we saw the deer fixing to lie
+down. I backed up and went up the hill above where we thought the
+deer might be lying. While Mr. Ball waited for me to give the signal
+to come. Mr. Ball had not gone far after I had howled, letting him
+know that I was ready, when out of the laurel came the deer. Mr. Ball
+was close, so that we both got a shot, killing the deer almost before
+it was on its feet.
+
+Now I was so infatuated with my new gun, that it was a case of love
+at first sight. This was in the late 70's. I have used several
+different makes of guns. I also had a .30-30 Savage, which I
+considered a good gun for big game, and in fact, I can say that the
+most of the guns that I have tried were all good. I however am still
+married to my little .38 Winchester. I can say that in all these,
+considerable more than thirty years, I have never run up against a
+subject but that this little Winchester was equal to the emergency.
+
+Now I wish to ask, why it is that a hunter cares for a high power gun
+that will shoot into the next township and kill a man or a horse that
+the hunter was not aware of existing, when a gun of less power will
+do just as good execution in deer hunting? The ammunition for the gun
+of lower power costs much less and there is far less danger in
+killing a man or beast a mile away. We hear men talk of shooting deer
+200 and even 300 yards. In the many years that I have hunted deer, I
+believe that I have killed two deer at a distance of from 50 to 75
+yards, to one a distance of 100 or 150. I believe most deer hunters
+will agree that there are far more deer killed at a distance of 50 or
+60 yards than over that distance. I think that if those hunters who
+kill deer at a distance of 100 or 200 yards will take the trouble to
+step off the distance of their long shots, instead of estimating
+them, they will find that 100 yards in timber is a long ways. Yes,
+boys, 20 rods through the timber is a long ways to shoot a deer. Why?
+Because the deer can not often be seen at a greater distance, where
+there would be any use of shooting at all, and the little .38 will do
+all of that and more too.
+
+* * *
+
+Perhaps the average beginner at trapping makes his greatest
+mistake in listening to those who have had more experience in
+handling the pen than the trap. For instance, someone advised readers
+to use a No. 2 or 3 Newhouse trap to catch marten and said that
+marten frequented marshy places. Now if they had asked the editor of
+Hunter-Trader-Trapper, he would have told you that the Pine Marten
+frequented the higher and dry grounds in dark, thick woods and that
+it was their nature to run on old down trees and to run into hollow
+stubs, trees, etc., and that these were the places to set your traps.
+Unless you were in a country where the snow fell very deep, then you
+should use the shelf set. He would have also told you that the No. 1
+and 1 1/2 Newhouse trap was plenty strong enough for the marten, that
+many use No. 0.
+
+  [Illustration: SPRING SET FOR FOX.]
+
+The average trapper also makes a mistake in listening to some one's
+ideas about scents in trapping the animal, instead of going to the
+forest, the field and the stream and there learn its nature, its
+habits and ways, and its favorite food. He also makes a mistake by
+spending his time in looking after scents, rubber gloves to handle
+traps with and wooden pincers to handle bait, instead of spending his
+time in learning the right way and the right place to set his traps.
+For one little slip and the game is gone if the trap is not properly
+set. It is like hunting in the days of the percussion cap gun. I have
+tramped all day long over hills and through valleys to get a shot at
+a deer, and just at night get the coveted opportunity, taking every
+precaution to see that there was no bush or obstruction in line. I
+would take deliberate aim, holding my breath that my aim might be
+sure. I trick the trigger, flick went the hammer, up goes the deer's
+tail and away he bounds beckoning me to come on. Come on, and my
+day's tramp has been in vain all on account of a damp gun cap. Now in
+these days of fixed ammunition, such mishaps rarely occur.
+
+It is so in setting the trap, one little misfit and the game is gone.
+In the Hunter-Trader-Trapper, I read, undoubtedly written by a
+trapper of many years experience, telling the true way of setting the
+trap in front of a V shaped pen. He said that the trap should always
+be set so that the animal had to pass over the jaws of the trap and
+not between them. Now mark my mistakes, for of late years I have been
+very particular to set the traps so that the animal passed between
+the jaws, not over them for I reasoned like this: I thought that the
+animal might step on one of the jaws and turn the trap up without
+springing it. In so doing be frightened away, or that the animal
+might have ball of foot resting on the jaw of the trap, while it set
+the trap off with its toes, or the ball of the foot might rest on the
+latch, while the trap was sprung with the toes on the pan. In either
+case, the animal's foot would be thrown entirely from the trap or so
+that it would only get slightly pinched, which would put a flea into
+the animal's ear that he would never forget.
+
+In days long since past, I was not particular how I set the trap,
+just so I got it planted, but in those days I also made the mistake
+of running after scents. We make a mistake in thinking that the fox
+is more sly in some states than in others.
+
+Not long ago, I received a letter from a friend in Maine, asking if I
+did not think that the fox was harder to trap in some states than
+others. Now the states that I have trapped in are rather limited, but
+I have trapped in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, mostly in
+Pennsylvania. I have also trapped in one or two other states, and
+wherever I found the fox, I found him the same sly fox. In order to
+trap this animal successfully it was necessary to comply with the
+natural conditions.
+
+We make mistakes in not handling our fur properly; in not removing
+all fat and flesh from the skin in not stretching the skin on the
+proper shaped stretchers. Stretchers for most fur that we case should
+not taper more than 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch from shoulder to hind legs.
+
+We make mistakes in setting our traps too early, for one prime skin
+is worth more than three early caught ones. We make mistakes in not
+having one, and only one, responsible and honorable party in each
+large city to ship our furs to; by giving one party a large trade
+should give the trapper the full market price for his furs. It would
+also have a tendency to make the buyer honest and honorable, even
+though he was not built strictly that way in making. All trappers
+should know the address of the party agreed upon in each city. This
+would give the trapper a chance to ship to the party most convenient
+to the trapper.
+
+The worst mistake of all mistakes is in one who uses poison to kill
+with. Let me tell of an instance that came under my observation the
+spring of 1900, I believe it was. I had an occasion to go into the
+southern part of this country, my road lay over the divide between
+the waters of the Alleghany and Susquehanna, about five miles of the
+road lay over a mountain that was thickly wooded and no settlers.
+While crossing this mountain I saw the carcasses of four foxes lying
+in the road. On making inquiries I learned that a man living in that
+neighborhood was making a practice each winter of driving over the
+roads in that section and putting out poisoned meat to kill the
+foxes. I chanced to meet this man not long ago. I said, "Charley,
+what luck did you have trapping last winter." His reply was, not much
+only got one or two foxes. Old Shaw has dogged them out of the
+country (referring to a man who hunted with dogs). I said, "Charley,
+don't you think that poison business had something to do with it. He
+replied, "Oh, h--l there will be foxes after I am dead." This man
+called himself a trapper, and is quite an extensive fur buyer. Thomas
+Pope says, "Man's inhumanity to man, makes countless thousands
+mourn." But, in this case, I think it is the dumb animal that mourns
+and not the man. The trapper who makes the greatest mistake of his
+life is the one who does not subscribe for the Hunter-Trader-Trapper.
+
+* * *
+
+In a former article I undertook to give the most practical way of
+killing a skunk, as I have found it, but owing to a mistake, it left
+the method of killing rather hard to be understood, so I will try
+again. I do this, owing to the many requests that I have from
+trappers to give a method for killing skunks, without the skunk
+scenting themselves as well as the trapper. Practically, there is no
+way of killing a skunk without causing the skunk to discharge his
+scent. Their scent is a skunk defense, and they will use it when in
+danger.
+
+Now my way of doing the job is to go at it without hesitation. We
+have an old adage, "If you would grasp a nettle, grasp it as a man of
+mettle." Now my plan is to wear clothes on the trap line to be
+discarded as soon as the day's work on the trap line is finished.
+When I come to a trap that has a skunk in it, I approach the skunk,
+advancing a single step at a time, with a good strong stick about
+four feet long, with the stick drawn up in readiness to strike as
+soon as close enough. Now when I am close enough to make the blow
+sure I strike the skunk a hard blow across the back, and immediately
+after, I place my foot on the skunk's back, holding the animal tight
+to the ground. At the same time giving the skunk a sharp rap or two
+on the head with the stick to make sure that it is dead. Then pick up
+the skunk and remove it a little to one side of the place where it
+was killed. Rip the skunk across from one leg to the other close to
+roots of tail, skinning around the scent glands at the roots of tail,
+so that the glands can be easily cut out and thrown away or saved for
+bait, as the trapper wishes. Now proceed to skin the skunk. By
+following these directions, the trapper will not suffer any great
+inconvenience from the animal's scent.
+
+Now if the trapper is a little timid, he can carry some kind of a gun
+of small caliber and shoot the skunk in the head. But if the skunk
+does not use his weapon of defense, then it is a different skunk than
+I have been accustomed to meet with. If the trapper uses a clog
+instead of a stake to fasten his trap with, and his traps are close
+to water, he can use a long pole or a hook and gently drag the skunk
+to the water and drown it. Then the water will carry the fluid or
+scent as discharged, away.
+
+Now if the trapper is very timid and has plenty of time, I would
+advise that he provide himself with a light pole ten or twelve feet
+long, split at one end and take a quart tin can with sockets or
+brackets soldered onto the sides of the can, so that the can may be
+placed in between the split at the end of the pole. The two prongs
+placed into the sockets on the can so as to hold the can firm. Now
+fill the can part full of cotton and prepare yourself with a bottle
+of chloroform (not brandy). Now with this outfit the trapper will
+proceed to follow along his trap line, and when he finds a skunk in
+his trap he will cautiously approach the skunk after he, the trapper
+(not the skunk) has well saturated the cotton in the can from the
+chloroform from the bottle. Then gently work the can up to the
+skunk's nose and over its head, when the chloroform will soon do its
+deadly work. After the skunk is dead, the trapper should remove the
+scent glands as before described, lest the scent may be squeezed from
+the glands in skinning the skunk.
+
+Another reader asks what kind of a gun he shall take with him to hunt
+deer, as he is contemplating going on a deer hunting trip next fall.
+Now I would say any kind of a rifle that suits you. But if you should
+ask me what kind of a gun I use, I would not hesitate to say that I
+prefer the 38-40 and black powder. This gun shoots plenty strong to
+do all the shooting as to distance or penetrations that the deer
+hunter will require, and there is not near so much danger of shooting
+a man or domestic animal a mile away that the hunter knows nothing
+of, as is the case with a high power gun. Besides, from an economical
+point, the ammunition for the 38-40 black powder gun costs only about
+one-half that of the smokeless or high power guns. However, if the
+hunter thinks that he must have a high power gun in order to be a
+successful deer hunter, he will find the 30-30 or similar calibers
+good for large game, and it is not heavy to handle.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+The Screech of the Panther.
+
+Some time ago, a writer to the H-T-T, whose name I have forgotten,
+gave his views in regard to this subject, and requested that the
+readers give their experiences and ideas on the matter. A year or so
+ago, I wrote to a sporting magazine (now defunct) giving my views on
+this horrible screech of the panther.
+
+I have camped in the wilds of California, Oregon, Idaho and
+Washington. Sixty years ago, in my childhood days, it was an everyday
+occurrence to hear some one tell of having a panther follow them
+through a certain piece of woods, and tell of the horrible screams
+that the panther gave while following them. And still to this day,
+there is, occasionally a person who reports of hearing that terrible
+screech of the panther here in old Potter, notwithstanding that there
+has not been a panther killed in the county for upwards of fifty
+years, though twice within fifty years, I have been frightened nearly
+out of my boots by that terrible screech.
+
+On one occasion I was watching a salt lick for deer; I was on a
+scaffold built up in a tree thirty or forty feet from the ground. The
+lick was in a dense hemlock forest. It was well along into the
+night--I was listening with all my energy, expecting to hear the tread of a
+deer, but, so far I had heard nothing but the rustle of the porcupine
+and the hop of the deer-mouse and the jump of the rabbit on the dry
+leaves. Still, I was listening intently for that tread of a deer
+which sounds different from that of any other animal, when, with the
+suddenness of a flash of lightning that terrible screech of the
+panther came within six feet of my head.
+
+Was I frightened? I guess yes. And had not my gun been tied to a limb
+of the tree to keep it in place it would have gone tumbling down the
+tree to the ground.
+
+Glancing up in the direction from whence that terrible scream came, I
+could plainly see the outline of a screech owl.
+
+On another occasion I had started about midnight from home to go to
+my hunting camp. About five miles of the distance was along a road
+with heavy timber on each side. The night was warm for the time of
+the year, with a slight mist of rain. I was hustling along the best I
+could to reach camp by the time it was daylight. I had my rifle and a
+pack-sack with a grub stake to last for a week, on my back. When
+again, with great suddenness that terrible screech of the panther
+sounded in the trees over my head. The screech was so sudden and so
+sharp that I came near dropping right through to China. After
+recovering my breath and gazing into the timber for a moment, I again
+discovered one of those frightful owls.
+
+Every close observer, who has put in a great deal of time in the
+woods in the night, away from a fire and noise, knows that an owl
+will alight within a few feet of them, and they will not be aware of
+the presence of the owl when it approaches them. This noiseless
+movement of the owl is said to be from the large amount of down that
+grows on the wings of the bird.
+
+As I stated, I have camped in several states west of the Rockies, and
+have from childhood until late years almost continually been in the
+woods, and the only screech of the panther I ever heard came from the
+owl.
+
+My father moved from Washington County, York State, into this county
+about a hundred years ago, when northern Pennsylvania was an unbroken
+wilderness, and the few settlers who lived in these parts were
+compelled to go sixty miles to Jersey Shore to mill. This trip was
+made down Pine Creek, and usually with an ox team, and those who made
+the trip were obliged to camp out every night while making the trip
+for there were no settlers living along the whole route. The road was
+merely a trail cut through the woods.
+
+Father often made this trip down Pine Creek to Jersey Shore, camping
+out each night. I have often heard him say that he never head any
+kind of a noise that he thought came from a panther--and panthers
+were plentiful in this section in those days. Father laughed at the
+idea of the panther screaming, when he heard people telling of
+hearing them.
+
+However, regardless of what my father and other early settlers of
+this section, who were not possessed of strong imaginary minds have
+told me, as well as my own experience, I have evidence that the
+panther does scream and scream terribly, too.
+
+A neighbor of mine, by the name of Mr. Mike Green, a man about fifty
+years old, after reading the article which I mentioned at the
+beginning, came to me and said that I was away off in regard to the
+panther not screaming. He told of two occasions where he had had
+adventures with panthers and they screamed fearfully. One of Mr.
+Green's adventures happened in Clearfield County, this state, the
+other in West Virginia.
+
+Mr. Green stated that he was driving a team, hauling supplies for a
+lumber camp, when on two occasions he was out on the road until late
+at night with his load of supplies some of which consisted of several
+quarters of fresh beef. He heard the panther scream out in the woods
+and narrowly escaped the panther by whipping the team and driving
+rapidly into camp, the panther following him, screaming at every
+jump.
+
+A few nights later the panther again attacked Mr. Green near camp. He
+heard it scream and again made haste to reach the camp. When near
+camp the panther made several attempts to leap onto the wagon, but
+owing to Mr. Green's rapid driving the panther failed to reach the
+load.
+
+Later, Mr. Green was lumbering in West Virginia. The teamster who was
+hauling camp supplies the same as Mr. Green had in Clearfield County,
+was killed by a panther. Mr. Green heard the panther scream and when
+the teamster did not come, he with others from the camp went in
+search of the man, and found him dead. The men in camp made up a
+purse to pay the burial expenses, Mr. Green contributing to the fund.
+
+I have often been going along the road at dusk through the woods and
+had an owl follow along for some distance, flying from tree to tree,
+alighting on trees near me, and would often give one of those
+screeches, which no doubt has often been mistaken for the scream of a
+panther, when this trick of the owl occurred when too dark to be
+seen.
+
+* * *
+
+The screech of the panther I believe to be all imagination. Years ago
+it was an everyday occurrence to hear some one tell of a panther
+screaming in a certain locality and tell how it (the panther) had
+followed them and how they escaped by running their horses, and how
+the panther screamed in a tree right over their head, and how they
+could see the panther's eyes shine.
+
+Now I know that one cannot see an animal's eyes shine unless the
+animal is in the dark and a light shines directly in their eyes.
+
+It is not always these stories are told to misrepresent facts, but it
+is often the case of imagination or being mistaken. One of the large
+owls has another cry or call besides the well known hoo-hoo-hoo,
+which the deer still-hunter often imitates when he wishes to inform a
+companion just where he is without fear of alarming the deer. The
+writer has often seen, just at twilight, or nearly break of day, one
+of those large owls follow along some distance in the woods, flying
+from tree to tree, lighting on the lower branches of the trees, only
+a few feet above my head, apparently doing this from curiosity.
+Frequently the owl would give a screech which was similar to that
+given by a woman who has been suddenly frightened. Undoubtedly this
+screech of the owl has often been taken for that of the panther.
+Owing to the great abundance of down or fine feathers on the quills
+of the wings of the owl, the owl can light within six feet of a
+person's head, and if the owl was not seen, you would not know of its
+presence, for you could not hear the flight of the owl.
+
+While I have not had as much experience in the haunts of the panther
+as some, yet I have been all through the Pacific Coast States and a
+good part of the mountains, and have never heard what I thought was
+the cry of a panther, or a mountain lion.
+
+My father often told me that he had never heard anything that he
+called a screech of panther and did not think that a panther ever
+made any such screeching noise as is claimed, yet in my younger days
+it was a frequent occurrence to hear some one tell of hearing a
+panther and how a panther had followed them through a certain piece
+of woods. Even to this day we occasionally hear of some one being
+followed by a panther and how they had heard a panther screeching on
+a certain hill.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+Handling Raw Furs and Other Notes.
+
+Boys, as you are nearly all in from the trap line and the trail,
+(May, 1910), I am going to take the opportunity to give the younger
+trappers (and some of the older ones, too) a drubbing. I would like
+to see every trapper get all that his furs are worth and I would not
+like to see one-half the value of your furs go, simply because you
+neglected to skin and stretch your catch as it should be.
+
+During the past winter I was in town one day and met a fur buyer and
+he asked me to go over and see his bunch of furs, saying, "I am going
+to ship the furs tomorrow." I went with the fur dealer and found that
+he had a lot of stuff, several hundred dollars worth of furs,
+consisting of fox, coon, skunk, mink, and muskrat, some wildcat. A
+good part of this bunch of furs had been caught at least a month
+before it should have been. Of this unprime fur I will have but
+little to say. I am sorry to know that any trapper will throw away
+his time and money by trapping furs before the fur is in reasonably
+prime condition.
+
+This dealer had many coon and skunk that had from one-half to a pound
+of grease left on the skin. I asked the dealer if he was going to
+ship those pelts with all that grease on. His reply was, that he was
+going to ship the furs just as they were and added that he did not
+pay anything for that fat, and only half what the skins were worth if
+they had been handled right. I suggested that he would have to pay
+express charges on that grease. The dealer said that he could not
+help that, signifying that he had made that up in buying the furs. I
+called the dealer's attention to a very good black skunk skin, that
+had been badly skinned and stretched and asked what he paid for such
+a pelt. He said that he did not remember, but he knew that he did not
+pay $3 for a hide that looked like that. Now this skunk skin was
+spoiled so far as the looks went, if not in real value, and it at
+least gave the dealer a good excuse to put that pelt in the third or
+fourth grade. The trapper, in skinning this skunk, had ripped down on
+the inside of the forelegs and across the belly three or four inches
+up from the tail. The proper way being to begin at the heel, ripping
+straight down the leg and close to the under side of the tail. Then
+carefully cut around the roots of the tail and work the skin loose
+from the tail bone until the bone can be taken between the fingers on
+one hand and with the other hand draw the tail bone clear from the
+tail.
+
+In this pelt the tail bone had been cut off close to the body and
+left in the tail. In stretching this skin the trapper had made a
+wedge-shaped board. The board was at least four inches wider at the
+broad end than it should have been and then sharpened off to a point.
+I think it best to make the stretching board in width and length in
+proportion to the animal, slightly tapering the board up to where the
+neck of the animal joined to the shoulders, then taper and round up
+the board to fit the neck and head of the animal. The tapering from
+the shoulders to the point of the nose of course would necessarily be
+longer on a board for a fox or mink than that of a muskrat or coon,
+which would need to be more rounding. There are some good printed
+patterns for stretching boards for sale.
+
+I have noticed that some trappers have holes in the broad end of
+their stretching boards and hang up their furs while drying with the
+head of the animal hanging down. Now I think that is a wrong idea. It
+is not a natural way for the fur on the animal to lay, pitching
+towards the head of the animal, and especially if there is any
+grease, blood, or other matter that would dry, causing the fur to
+stick out like the quills on a fretful porcupine.
+
+Now, boys, let us get into the habit of getting more money out of our
+catch of furs by removing the greater part of the fat from the skins;
+also by taking a little more time to skin and stretch the furs that
+we catch; also by doing less early and late trapping, when the fur is
+not in a fairly prime condition. I am pleased to see so many of the
+trappers in Pennsylvania advocating a closed season on the furbearers
+of this state, though I think that they seem to be in favor of a
+longer open season than will be to the trapper's advantage.
+
+* * *
+
+Comrades of the trap line, are you awake to the conditions under
+which we must work? The dog man has no use for the trapper and his
+traps. Now comrades, while I am a lover of the dog, and have used him
+on the trap line and trail, I have, nevertheless used the dog for a
+different purpose than it is ordinarily used by the average
+sportsman. I hope the trappers throughout the country will arouse
+themselves to the conditions and not allow the legislation of their
+respective states to pass laws to put the trapper in the hole, at the
+pleasure of the dog man, as has been done here in Pennsylvania. (This
+was written Spring of 1912.)
+
+I believe that the dog man and the trapper, are each entitled to
+equal privileges--the dog has no better friend than the writer.
+Though we do not blame our brother trapper, who will not put up as
+good a scrap in defense of his traps and his sport and occupation, as
+does the dog man in defense of his dog, and his way of enjoying an
+outdoor life. But comrades, we are all men and sportsmen in our way,
+and let us be reasonable in this matter; but brother trappers, let us
+not take a back seat because we may not be possessed with as large an
+amount of worldly goods as some of the dog men may be.
+
+Express your views upon this matter of the trappers' rights through
+the columns of Hunter-Trader-Trapper. Also with our respective
+representatives that they may not pass game laws that the trapper is
+compelled to ignore, as is the case here in Pennsylvania. Here they
+ask for a bounty on noxious animals, yet, the law forbids the setting
+of a trap in a manner that would take anything more wary or greater
+than the weasel. Was this law enacted wholly for the benefit and
+pleasure of the dog man?
+
+Now I wish to speak of another matter that I think is greatly to the
+interest of the trapper, and that is, early and late trapping.
+
+No, no, I do not mean morning and evening--I refer to trapping early
+and late in the season. And while I do not approve of putting out
+traps too early in the season, it is far better that we begin
+trapping in October, than it is to continue trapping until into
+March, for such animals as mink, fox and skunk begin to fade, or
+become rubbed, while the mink that is caught in October, has nearly
+its full amount of fur. Still, the flesh side of the skin is a little
+dark, which gives the dealer a chance to quote the skins as unprime,
+notwithstanding the pelt has its full value as to fur purpose. And as
+to furs caught in March, the dealer has a chance to quote "springy."
+
+And brother trappers of the States, do not put off your shipments of
+furs until late in March. It has been my experience where furs are
+shipped late in the spring, the returns are marked "springy,"
+"rubbed," etc., notwithstanding the skins, or at least part of them,
+may have been caught in December or January.
+
+Comrades, let us work for our own interest, for no one will do it for
+us. And, Comrades, you are certainly aware that the dog man is
+playing every card to put the trapper in the hole.
+
+* * *
+
+Comrades of the trap line and trail, I wish to ask your ideas as to
+whether it is advisable to stick to the taking of the fur and game
+late and early, all the year around. We know that we all like the
+sport, and the trapper is a little greedy, as well as people of other
+occupations. But, is it wise to take a mink, fox or other fur bearing
+animal so late or early in the season that the skin is not worth more
+than one-third of what the same skin would have brought in a prime
+condition?
+
+On the 18th day of March, 1912, a neighbor, who had put in many a day
+on the trap line with the writer, a man who with his three younger
+brothers makes a business of trapping every season and makes good
+money, came to my house with a female fox skin that he had just
+caught. I glanced at the skin and remarked that the skin was of but
+little value. My friend replied in an angry tone, "No. It ain't!" And
+that is not the worst of it--she would have soon had five young
+foxes. I said, "You will keep it right up, won't you, Fred." "No, I
+am done now," he answered. But I said, "Fred, that is what you say
+every year."
+
+The skin was large for a female fox, and had it been caught any time
+from November to the last of January, it would have brought five or
+six dollars; but the best that he could get for the skin was three
+dollars. This is only one case of many, which came under my
+observation, and especially in the case of taking skunks after they
+are so badly rubbed that they will not bring more than half the price
+of prime skins.
+
+Now in the case mentioned above, of the female fox, the loss in the
+price of the skin was small compared to that of the young foxes whose
+skins would have been worth, next November, or December, in the
+neighborhood of twenty dollars. In this particular case, my friend
+would have got the most of those young foxes if not all of them, for
+the fox den was on his premises, and not far from his house.
+
+Now, comrades, let us stop this catching of unprime furs--it is our
+bread and butter. Let us stop wasting it, for there are but few
+trappers, who have any more of this world's goods than he needs. Let
+every trapper do all that he can to put a stop to this waste of fur
+by catching the fur bearers, when their skins are not more than
+one-half their value--and many are taken that are practically worthless.
+We must do all that is in our power to stop a wasteful slaughter of
+the fur bearing animals, for they are already becoming far too
+scarce; both for the trappers' benefit, as well as those who wear the
+finished goods.
+
+Comrades, instead of slaughtering the fur bearers during the season
+of unprime furs, let us look up our trapping grounds, for the coming
+season, and have all preparations made, and our plans well laid. Then
+when the season of prime furs arrives, let us take to the trap line
+and follow it diligently for two or three months, then drop the fox,
+skunk, mink, coon and opossum and put in more time on beavers,
+otters, and muskrats.
+
+This applies to the middle, northern and southern states, while those
+in the far north, can, of course, continue to take the fox, mink,
+etc., longer, but it is not good policy for the northern trapper,
+even to keep up the good work so long as to "kill the goose that lays
+the golden egg."
+
+* * *
+
+I notice that some of the comrades are complaining that they do not
+get a square deal from some of the fur buyers. Shame! shame!
+brothers. Do you not know that the Fur Dealer is not even making a
+living profit out of your pelts? That is the reason why there are so
+many in the business. And do they not always urge the trapper to send
+in his furs early for fear there will be a drop in the price, and the
+poor trapper will lose on the price of his furs? Now, boys, can't you
+see that the average fur buyer is awfully good to the poor trapper?
+But comrades, are not we, the trappers, partly to blame for this
+unfair deal? Are we careful that our furs are at least fairly prime
+and carefully cured and handled? Are we always careful when making
+our estimate to give a fair grade ourselves?
+
+This, comrades, we should always be careful to do, and then we should
+never ship our furs only to parties who are willing to hold them
+until they have quoted what price they can pay for the bunch. If the
+prices are not satisfactory, the fur dealer should have agreed with
+the shipper before the furs were shipped to him to pay one-half of
+all express charges, and either return the furs to the shipper or to
+any house in their city that the shipper may designate.
+
+Now, comrades, make some such bargain with your dealer, and if you do
+not get a square deal do not be shy in giving the transaction with
+the dealer's name.
+
+* * *
+
+Comrades of the trap line, come down to camp and let us talk over
+this question of the fast disappearance of the furbearing animals.
+The fact of timber becoming scarce has made nearly every one
+timber-mad--no, that is not right, I mean money-mad--and they wish to
+secure this money through the fast increasing value of timber. In the
+late sixties, right here in sight of where I am sitting, I saw as
+nice white pine cut and put into log heaps, burned up for the purpose
+of clearing the land, as ever grew.
+
+Now, boys, I liken the trapper and the dig-'em-out and the dog-hunter
+to our ancestors in the wasting of timber, only our ancestors at that
+time could not see the value of the timber that they were wasting.
+The trapper, the dig 'em-out and the dog-hunter are all money-mad,
+made so by the high prices of fur. But unlike our ancestors, the
+trapper, dig'em-out and dog-hunter should be able to see the folly in
+taking the furbearers when in an unprime condition, because we all
+know the difference in the value of a fox, a skunk, a mink, or the
+skin of any other fur-bearing animal taken in September or late in
+the spring when unprime, than the same skins would be worth if taken
+in November or any month during the winter.
+
+I trapped in three different states in the South last season (1912)
+and I met with trappers and dog-hunters who admitted that they
+trapped and hunted in September. We saw one trapper who had four
+large mink also quite a bunch of other furs, consisting of coon,
+muskrats, civet and skunk; the trapper said that the mink were caught
+last September or the first of October. He wanted six dollars for the
+four mink. Just think of those four large mink being offered for six
+dollars and he could not get a buyer at that price. The rest of his
+early caught furs ranked with the same grade as the mink. Comrades,
+just think that over and see how foolish we are to begin trapping so
+early in the season. These same mink, had they been caught the last
+of November or in December, would have been worth, easily, six or
+seven dollars apiece. This same party had two mink that he had caught
+the first of November and he asked five dollars apiece for them and
+they were not near as large as those caught in September.
+
+Now, brothers of the trap line, the most of us will admit that we are
+not overstocked with worldly goods and we are not to be blamed for
+getting a little money-mad; but when we get so money-mad that it
+makes us so blind that we not only destroy our pleasure but we throw
+away from twenty-five cents on a muskrat and four to six dollars on a
+fox or mink we should stop and think!
+
+While out in camp on our fishing trips this summer, let us invite all
+of the boys of the neighborhood to come and let us talk this matter
+over with them and show them how lame we are to indulge in this early
+and late trapping and hunting of the furbearing animals. Let us
+induce the boys to become readers of the H-T-T, one of the greatest
+sporting magazines of the world, and through the columns of this
+magazine, put up their fight for the protection of the furbearer and
+the song birds. Unless the trapper puts up his own fight for the
+protection of the furbearers, they will soon be exterminated. The
+dog-man is now trying to place a tariff on the trappers' bread and
+butter in placing a bounty on the furbearer to induce the money-mad
+trapper to destroy the furbearer during the summer when their fur is
+worthless.
+
+Also, let us have a little chat with the dig 'em-outs or
+den-destroyers. Boys, what is the difference how the skunk or coon is
+caught, whether by the steel trap or by dig'em-outs or by the dog; if
+the animal is caught is it gone, isn't it all the same? Well, it
+looks to the fellow up the tree as though there was quite a
+difference. Now comrades, if we dig out a skunk, that den, that
+habitation is gone, is it not, and there is nothing left to induce
+other skunks to frequent that location. Now, as to hunting the coon
+and possum with the dog, two-thirds of the time the coon or possum is
+treed in a den tree or rock and the tree is cut down and the rock or
+other den is destroyed and you will get no more coon or possum at
+that place. If this work of destroying the dens of the skunk and the
+coon is thoroughly practiced, the dens will soon be gone and with the
+disappearance of the dens the skunk and the coon also disappear. If
+the dig'em-out or dog hunter, when he found that he must destroy a
+den in order to get his game, would leave it or get the animals in
+some other way without destroying the den, then there could be no
+objection to the dig'em-outs or to dog-hunting.
+
+Now, comrades, I will give some of my own experience in regard to
+this destroying of den trees. I trapped for a short time around a
+slough or pond in Alabama two years ago. The large timber in the
+vicinity of this pond was mostly oak and lumbermen were cutting this
+timber and taking it out. Coon were quite plentiful around this pond
+when I first began trapping there but I soon noticed that signs were
+fast disappearing and I could not think what the cause was. I went to
+another pond or rather a swamp about two miles from this pond where I
+again found coon quite plentiful.
+
+Not long after I had moved my traps to this other slough a party of
+negroes came to my camp; they had five dogs. I inquired what luck
+they were having and they complained that since the timber had been
+cut around Swan Pond there were no den trees for coon or possum and
+they were all gone. When these colored people told me what the
+trouble was I could readily account for the fast disappearance of the
+coon signs about the pond. I went to the same pond again this past
+season and while I found a few signs I did not consider it worthwhile
+to put out a line of traps so I went on to the swamp and put out my
+traps. It made me two miles further travel in that direction but it
+paid me just the same.
+
+Comrades, let us induce all the boys to come to camp where we can
+consult with them and let us get a move on us and locate our trapping
+grounds and make all preparations for the trapping season. This will
+enable us when the fur is prime to make more money in two months than
+we do in four months when we indulge in this September and unprime
+fur trapping. At the same time we will be able to lift our traps
+while there is still some of the furbearers left and we have not
+"killed the goose that lays the golden egg."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+The Passing of the Fur bearer.
+
+Well, boys, I suppose you are well pleased with the bounty law in
+this state, (Pennsylvania) as it now is? While it is doubtful if I
+shall ever again be able to follow the trap line, I am nevertheless
+as much, and perhaps more, interested in the welfare of the trapper,
+than when I was able to follow a line of traps.
+
+I am inclined to think that the present bounty law (1907) will not
+only be a damage to the trapper but also to the state. People who
+never thought of trapping before are now preparing to trap, and some
+are already at it, and their cry is, Bounty! Bounty! It reminds me of
+John Chinaman when gold was discovered at Cripple Creek, Colorado.
+All John could say in his rush for gold, was Cripple Creek, Cripple
+Creek! Fortunately the greater part of this class of trappers will
+catch but few of the shyer animals (and the best fur bearers).
+
+It was the Game Clubs that asked for and received the Bounty Law. Now
+if the bird hunter will leave his trained bird dog at home, and walk
+up to the birds he shoots, he will get plenty of exercise, and the
+game birds will soon be more plentiful--but I suppose this would not
+be sportsmanlike.
+
+I am well acquainted with a man who is a member of a Game Club; also
+a game warden. A neighbor of mine who is a good trapper was visiting
+me a few days ago and he told me of a little matter that took place
+between the game warden and sportsman in question, and himself. My
+neighbor said that he was at the place of business of the Game Warden
+----, and he said to my neighbor, "There are three traps you can have
+for I have no use for them. My dog got in one of them, and I brought
+the things home with me. I should have thrown them in the river."
+
+When my neighbor came to look at the traps he found his own private
+mark on the traps, so he said to the warden that they were his traps,
+for there was his own private mark. The warden replied that he
+couldn't help that, and that there were three more over at the house
+that he could get if he wanted to. When my neighbor went to get the
+other traps he found that they were not his traps, but he knew by the
+mark on them the traps belonged to his neighbor, so he told the
+warden about it.
+
+Now the intention of the true sportsman is to kill two birds with one
+stone through the Bounty Law; destroy the fur bearer, and by so
+doing, do away with what I have heard many a true sportsman call a
+nuisance--the trapper and his traps. Apparently this state or its
+lawmakers, look upon the game business and the fur industry in a very
+different light from what many do.
+
+Many states throughout the Union are enacting laws to protect the fur
+bearing animals of their respective states, and are only placing
+bounties on such animals as are of little use as fur bearers, and are
+destructive to stock. No doubt but that these states look upon the
+hundreds of thousands of dollars put into the pockets of their
+citizens through the trapper and his products, the same as they would
+upon equal amount of money brought into their respective
+commonwealths through any other industry. I believe it would have
+been well to have had a bounty of $2.00 on a wild cat, and 50 cents
+or $1.00 on a weasel, and the same on hawks.
+
+I would like to have a little private talk with the trappers of
+Pennsylvania. I do not wish to go away from home to give advice, for
+usually unsought-for advice will reach about the same distance that
+the giver's hat rim does. Boys, remember that this is private--just
+between you and I. When we get ready to set our traps about the first
+of November, let's try to--Oh, well, you kick, do you? You say that
+the bounty trapper will have everything caught before the first of
+November. That is true to a certain extent, but we can't help that,
+for you know we are not true sportsmen, so all we can do is to stick
+to common sense.
+
+What I was about to say, boys, when we set our traps about the first
+of November, was, let's try to set our traps so as to avoid catching
+our neighbor's cats and dogs. If by mistake we should catch a
+neighbor's cat, in freezing weather, and the cat's foot is frozen,
+kill the poor thing at once and don't let it out to remain a poor
+cripple the remainder of its life. And say, boys, don't you think it
+would be a good idea to get the consent of the farmers to allow you
+to set traps on their premises, wherever you can do so? And don't you
+think it would be best to be very careful to not break down the
+farmer's fences and leave their bars and gates open when we pass
+through them tending our traps? In fact, we should be very careful
+and do as little damage as possible, for you know we trappers are not
+true sportsmen. The true sportsman can buy or lease lands and have
+their private game preserves, so let us try to keep on the right side
+of the farmer or there will soon be a time when we will have no place
+to set our traps.
+
+* * *
+
+Certain game club men who are headed by a certain M. D. are
+circulating a petition to both branches of the Legislature and the
+Governor, to have a law passed to abolish bear trapping in
+Pennsylvania. This M. D.'s excuse is a plea of humanity, claiming
+that many bear are caught and allowed to remain in the trap until the
+bear gnaws or twists off his foot and often the bear is caught the
+second time and another is taken off, when the bear is destined to go
+through life on two feet. Now in all of my more than fifty years of
+bear trapping, I have never known a bear to gnaw his foot in the
+least degree. Neither have I had a bear twist off his foot when
+caught in a trap that has a spread of jaws no larger than 12 inches,
+which will catch a bear through the thick of a foot. The Newhouse No.
+5 bear trap which is the most common trap used in bear trapping, has
+a spread of jaws of 11 1/4 inches.
+
+The law which is now (1910) in force in this state provided that a
+bear trap must be looked to at least every forty-eight hours. Under
+these conditions, there is no danger of a bear twisting off a foot.
+It is true that if a trap is used with a grasp high enough to catch
+above the foot and the bear is allowed to remain in the trap for a
+long time, they will sometimes twist off a foot.
+
+But this sympathetic M. D. makes no mention of the bear that is
+wounded by a gunshot, escapes and lies for weeks, and then dies or
+recovers as the case may be. The wounding of a bear from a gunshot is
+far more liable to occur than it is to take a bear's foot by being
+caught in a trap.
+
+This sympathetic doctor makes no mention of the farmer who has a
+number of sheep killed by bears, which is almost an every day
+occurrence during the summer season in any section where bear
+frequent.
+
+Now, Brother Trappers, it is not the great sympathy that these
+gentlemen club men have for the bear. No, not in the least. What
+these gentlemen want is to drive the lowly bear trapper out of
+business, so that those very sympathetic gentlemen may more easily
+kill a bear without losing too much of their precious sweat, and not
+be compelled to get too far from camp and the champagne bottle.
+
+Now, Brother Bear Trappers, my object in writing these few lines is
+to ask you and each of you to write your respective representative at
+once, advising him that you are opposed to any law to abolish the
+trapping of the bear.
+
+I believe that I was the first to advocate some remedy against the
+wasteful slaughter of the fur bearing animals through the medium of
+our favorite magazine, the Hunter-Trader-Trapper. I urged that the
+remedy was with the large raw fur dealers by refusing to accept skins
+that were not in a reasonably prime condition. Since my writing,
+other more capable writers have taken up the matter and have
+advocated a remedy from the same standpoint.
+
+Now by close observation I have become satisfied that there is no use
+of looking further in that direction for a remedy of this wasteful
+slaughter of the fur bearing animals. The city fur dealers receive
+the goods which consist of all manner of skins and all grades from
+good to poor and worthless. In most cases the dealer received the
+goods from local dealers who have gathered the furs up from among the
+trappers, paying such prices as he thought would leave a fair profit
+on the whole bunch. In most cases paying more for the poorer grade
+than it was really worth, while paying far less than the prime skins
+were worth.
+
+  [Illustration: WOODCOCK ON THE TRAP LINE 1912.]
+
+Now the dealer was hardly to be blamed for this sort of transaction,
+for it was the only way that he could make a deal with the trapper.
+The city dealer is in the same fix as the local dealer. He quotes
+furs from number one down to number four and trash, making up on the
+better grades what he may have lost on the poorer. Thus you see there
+is no one out anything except the trapper, who will insist on
+trapping too early in the season, as well as too late in the spring
+of the year.
+
+Now we will say to the brother trappers of Pennsylvania and other
+states as well, that we are at the parting of the ways, allowing us
+to use the term. We must do something desperate if we wish to save
+the fur bearers from becoming extinct and save the trappers' pleasure
+and what profit he may derive from the business.
+
+Now the only remedy is a closed season on all fur bearing animals. If
+we are to derive any special benefit from a closed season, the open
+season must be made short, for every trapper of much experience knows
+that the fur bearers of Pennsylvania have become extremely scarce in
+the past few years. In fact in some parts there is but little stock
+left to build on. I would say that not more than two months of open
+season should be allowed, if we get real benefit from a closed
+season, and taking the whole state into consideration, I believe that
+November and December would give the best general satisfaction.
+
+Now, brother trappers, do not be hard on me because I advocate a
+shorter season to be open than some trappers seem to be in favor of.
+Well, we had the bounty law and we all have seen the results. I would
+like to say here that the bounty law is still doing its work of
+annihilation. The law is still in force as it appears on the face of
+it, but nevertheless there has been no appropriation made by the
+legislature to pay the bounty. Some trappers do not know but what
+they will get the bounty until they present these certificates for
+payment, then to learn that there is no bounty for them. Other
+persons and would-be trappers are getting the certificates and
+holding them, thinking that there will be an appropriation made to
+pay this bounty. In this they will also find their mistake.
+
+Now, brother trappers, we all know that the Lord helps him, who helps
+himself and if we would save the fur bearing animals from complete
+annihilation we must each of us do our part and not depend on some
+one else doing the work. Let us all who would have a closed season on
+mink, fox, skunk and muskrat get a petition to that effect and
+circulate it. Get your merchant, doctor, and every other business man
+in your neighborhood to sign the petition and as many others as we
+possibly can.
+
+Now, my dear friends, let us remember that the gentleman sportsman
+will not help us in this matter and if we would have a closed season
+we must push this matter ourselves. In my upwards of fifty years on
+the trap line and the trail, I have always done my part (as I saw it)
+to stop wasteful slaughter of game and the fur bearers and I will do
+the very best that I am able in this matter, although I realize that
+my days on the trap line are few.
+
+Now, comrades, on the fourth of July (1910), the primaries to
+nominate candidates to represent the people of the commonwealth of
+Pennsylvania, will be held. Let every trapper of the state, who is
+interested in the matter of a closed season on our fur bearing
+animals get out and talk with their candidates whom they wish to
+represent them at the next assembly. Let him know that you wish a law
+passed at the next legislature giving a closed season on fur bearing
+animals. We should bear in mind, that writing and talking without
+action will not do. We must get busy at once if we would accomplish
+anything.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+Destruction of Game and Game Birds.
+
+Of late (1908) there has been much writing and law making in an
+attempt to preserve the game of this commonwealth, and it reminds one
+of the old adage of "Locking the Barn Door, after the Horse was
+Stolen." At the last Assembly of the Pennsylvania Legislature, there
+was a Bounty Law passed with an appropriation of $50,000 to pay the
+bounty on the different animals. The appropriation was exhausted
+almost before the trapping season had begun, or at least should have
+begun, so far as the trapper's interest was concerned. Now, I wish to
+speak of the bounty as to fox and mink, and I wish to speak of an
+incident that came under my observation.
+
+A neighbor of mine makes a business of trapping each fall; there were
+three in the family, who trapped last fall. They caught 11 fox, 4
+mink, 8 coon, 2 weasel and 1 wildcat. This catch was all made before
+the 20th of October and sold for $34.45, or including bounty, $66.45.
+Now, had this same fur been caught in November or December, the fur
+alone would have brought at least $68.00, and the taxpayers would
+have been $32.00 ahead.
+
+I also know of another party who dug out two nests of young mink and
+got nine young ones. The old mink escaped. I asked this man why he
+did not let them go until fall or winter, as these dens were near his
+mill? He informed me that he never fooled away any time trapping and
+had he left them go until fall the mink would have been gone and now
+he was $6.50 ahead. Now, this man had actually destroyed at least $30
+worth of furs to get $6.50 in bounty.
+
+While I think that the bounty on wildcats and weasel is all right, I
+do not think a bounty on fox and mink at all necessary. The high
+price their fur brings will induce the trapper to take all that the
+bounty would induce him to do, and at a time when the fur will bring
+more than a great deal of early caught furs would bring, including
+the bounty.
+
+It is quite doubtful as to mink being very destructive to birds or
+their nests, and as to the destruction of poultry, it is a very easy
+and inexpensive matter for any poultry raiser to arrange his poultry
+house so as to take any prowling mink that should come about his
+premises.
+
+Now, I would suggest to the bird hunter, or as he prefers to be
+called, "sportsman," that if he will leave his automatic gun and his
+bird dog at home, and merely take a good double-barrel breechloader
+and go into the bush, and "walk up" his birds, instead of having a
+dog to show the bird to him, he will do far more to protect the game
+bird than any bounty law will do! This the sportsman must do, or the
+game birds of this state will soon be a thing of the past.
+
+About 1870, there was a move begun to check the slaughter of the deer
+in this state, but it was only in a half-hearted way. The writer
+circulated the first petition to get the law enacted prohibiting the
+hounding of deer. After some years the law prohibited the chasing of
+deer with dogs, but the law could not be enforced for the very reason
+that these same sportsmen wished to hound deer. He would go on to the
+streams where there were but few inhabitants, and hire all of the
+people living in the neighborhood to take their dogs to the hills and
+start them on the trail of deer. The "sportsman" would lay in ambush
+and shoot the deer when they came to water, providing they were able
+to see the sights on their guns sufficiently clear to get a bead on
+the deer.
+
+These "sportsmen" would pay the natives a good sum for their services
+and would often buy hounds at high prices and bring them to the
+locality where they intended to hound deer and pay some one living in
+the neighborhood a good price to keep their dogs from one season to
+another. These "sportsmen" were sure to make the constable, whose
+duty it was to report this violation of the deer law, a present of a
+fine fishing rod or some other article which might be a ten or twenty
+dollar bill.
+
+Now, under these conditions it was next to impossible to get any one
+who knew anything about the transaction to make a complaint, or even
+be a witness against those transgressors of the deer or hounding law.
+But in time the law was made sufficiently stringent as to virtually
+put a stop to this most cruel practice of deer hunting.
+
+But now another bad thing came into vogue. Non-residents were allowed
+to go into the woods where they would camp from the first day of the
+open season for deer until the close and often some days after. Now,
+"the horse has been stolen." The deer in this state are virtually
+gone. "The door has been strongly locked, but it is now too late."
+This game rule applies to the game fish of the state and unless there
+are laws enacted which will apply more closely to the preservation of
+the game birds, than a closed season and a bounty or scalp law, the
+game birds will soon go the way of the deer and the game fish too.
+
+I wish to say a word to our friends on the Pacific Coast as to the
+slaughter of game and especially that of deer. I saw a slaughter of
+deer in nearly all of the states west of the Rocky Mountains that was
+cruel. In California, in 1904, I saw men kill deer seemingly for no
+other purpose than the desire to kill, or as I put it, the desire to
+murder. I saw deer killed when the slayer positively knew that there
+could not be any use made of the carcass. I saw deer killed when only
+a fry would be taken from the ham, the remainder of the carcass left
+to lay without even the pretense of dressing. It was a common
+occurrence to kill deer for no other purpose than to feed dogs.
+
+One day I was standing by a man on a sand bar on the bank of a river
+when we noticed a doe a few rods away looking at us. The man drew his
+gun to his shoulder in the act of shooting and I exclaimed, "My God,
+man, you are not going to shoot that deer, are you?" My words were
+not out of my mouth when the gun cracked. The deer was mortally
+wounded and ran directly towards us, making desperate efforts to keep
+its feet. It fell dead within ten feet of where we were standing. I
+walked away. The slayer of the innocent creature stood and gazed at
+it a moment and then with his foot he pushed it off the bar into the
+river. I hope I may never see another such sight. It was June and the
+doe was heavy with fawn and this man knew that he could make no use
+of this deer whatever.
+
+I saw much wasteful slaughter of deer but none quite so inhuman as
+the one mentioned. The game laws of the Pacific Coast were not
+enforced. When well back in the mountains it was a rare thing to hear
+the game laws spoken of, not even by the game wardens. Now I think
+that all who are lovers of the woods and fields should join in a
+general move to protect this wasteful slaughter of all game and game
+birds, no matter whether we are the so-called "pot hunter" or the
+"gentleman sportsman," but none will regret this unreasonable waste
+of game more than those who are living back in the mountains, where
+game is most plentiful, when it is gone. Nor none will get more
+benefit and pleasure from the very fact that they are living in a
+game section, yet these are the ones who do not seem to care how
+great the slaughter, apparently never taking it into consideration
+that the present rate of slaughter will soon leave their game laden
+section as bare of game as that of the older settled countries.
+
+Comrades, let us all join in the preservation of what game and fish
+there is left, whether we may be called pot hunters or gentlemen
+sportsmen. I would be the last one to wish to deprive any trapper or
+camper from making good use of game at any time when in camp, but let
+us be careful about the waste of it.
+
+* * *
+
+Comrades of the trap line, you of course are aware that a trapper is
+considered of small account by those who make or cause to be made,
+the game laws of this state (Pennsylvania), and brother trapper, are
+we not as much to blame as the ones who concoct the game laws to
+their own liking? The accompanying picture will show a part of the
+confiscation from the writer by the game laws of Pennsylvania and
+this same confiscation applies to every trapper in the state to a
+more or less extent. Had we presented our side of this question to
+our respective representatives in a clear and reasonable light would
+we not get a square deal? If not, then why not? We are aware that the
+man with the dollar has a great influence in comparison with the poor
+trapper, but are there not ten of the poor trappers to one of the
+dollar men and have we not the just and reasonable side of the
+question? Do not our representatives know that the raw fur industry
+of the state is of greater importance, financially, than the wheat
+crop of the state, for which the legislature does all it can in the
+way of appropriations to help the farmer to increase the yield of
+wheat? Had this been shown to the assembly, would it not have passed
+laws to protect the fur-bearers of the state, instead of bounty laws
+to exterminate the fur-bearer, and this act at the expense of the
+public?
+
+Every dollar that is appropriated by the House of Representatives in
+the way of bounty on so-called noxious animals, must come from the
+pockets of the taxpayers, and is not a dollar saved in the way of
+protecting the fur-bearers of the state equivalent to a dollar
+produced from a bushel of wheat? Now, the dollar man will tell us
+that the fox and mink are very destructive to game and game birds.
+This, to a great extent, is a mere bugaboo, or an excuse to knock out
+the trapper. There is little doubt but that a fox occasionally kills
+a grouse or partridge or a rabbit. Admitting this to be the case, is
+not a good fox or mink skin worth ten times as much to the trapper as
+a partridge or rabbit is to the dollar man?
+
+But that is not all, if it is the pleasure of an individual to amuse
+himself with the traps, why should he be deprived of that pleasure?
+It is certain that the trap will not cause any more harm in the way
+of damage or in a cruel manner, than a dog will. While the dollar man
+makes a plea in defense of game, it is generally known that his plea
+is in reality in defense of his manner of sporting, regardless of any
+desires that the poor trapper may have and there are certainly but
+few trappers but wish to see the game and game birds preserved as
+well as the dollar man does.
+
+I doubt if there is a man in the State of Pennsylvania who has worked
+longer, or done more according to his ability, to protect and
+preserve game than the writer has, and as to the dog, he has no
+greater friend than the writer. As to the preservation of game and
+game birds, I believe in preserving it in a substantial way and not
+in a mythical manner, under the pretext of a bounty on noxious
+animals and then pass laws that do away with the trap, the most
+effective implement there is in taking that noxious animal. As the
+game and bounty laws of Pennsylvania stand today, it reminds one of
+the old lady who told the boy that he could go in swimming, but he
+must not go near the water.
+
+Now, I believe in a bounty on wildcats, hawks and weasel, sufficient
+to induce the poor man to spend the time necessary to exterminate
+these animals when an opportunity comes to him, for the dollar man
+will not take the trouble to do so. But the only effective bounty law
+must be placed on the game man, in the way of cutting his bag limit
+of birds for a single day and the season in two, and placing a closed
+season of five years on deer. There is much said as to the rapid
+decrease of game. Now, so far as this applies to deer, and my
+observation extends over four counties of the state, at the present
+decrease (1913) of the deer, there will not be a deer left in these
+four counties at the end of five years and the deer law is being
+continually violated. In order to enforce the game laws of the state,
+the laws should be as near equal as possible, in giving each man his
+way of enjoying his manner of out-door sport, either in fishing,
+hunting or trapping. We are aware that there must be a limit to man's
+idea of sport. There are plenty of men, for instance, who enjoy the
+use of dynamite in fishing, in killing all the fish in the stream,
+small fish along with the large ones, also all kinds of fish that
+happen to be in the pool where the dynamite is used. It may be the
+pleasure of other sportsmen to kill birds of all kinds and also deer
+at any and all times of the year. This kind of work can not be
+allowed. In order to enforce the game laws, the laws must be in
+harmony with the greatest number of people possible, and not enact
+game laws that deprives a goodly portion of the people (I refer to
+the trapper) of their pleasure simply to gratify a certain class of
+sportsmen.
+
+The game wardens will then find it hard enough to enforce the law.
+Say, comrades, I wish to call your attention to an article in the
+December number of H-T-T, 1912, by Mr. J. R. Bachelder. Mr. Bachelder
+is an old and respected man and one of the rural mail carriers of
+Cameron County. Mr. Bachelder describes how the trap law of
+Pennsylvania has deprived him of the only pleasure that he was able
+to enjoy in the open, that of tending a few traps.
+
+And comrades, we of the trap line and trail, who are not blessed with
+the dollar and the automobile, will soon find that our pleasures in
+the open, like Mr. Bachelder's, are laid by for all time. If the club
+man, through his leasing policies and the trespass law that he has
+before the House of Representatives, becomes a law, we can go away
+back and sit down.
+
+But, comrades, I consider that we are to blame to a large extent for
+these "one man" game laws. Had we come out at the right time and
+fought for our rights in the open instead of slinking back in the
+dark, whining, I believe that the law, as applied to the trap, would
+be different and I should not violate the game laws after passed, no
+matter if they are not wholly to my liking.
+
+The professional sportsman makes a great talk about the amount of
+birds that the fox destroys. Now, the facts are, one weasel or snake
+will destroy more rabbits or birds and birds' eggs than a dozen
+foxes. The fox gets the greater part of his food from the field
+mouse. This fact any close observer knows.
+
+* * *
+
+Brother trappers, you are aware that the nations--the United States,
+Great Britain, Japan and Russia, have taken the fur seal under their
+protection, and will protect the seal and sell their skins. I wish to
+ask you, brother trapper, if your wife, daughter or sweetheart wears
+furs made of the seal skin. No? Well, your wife, daughter or
+sweetheart does wear furs made from the fur bearer that runs on the
+hillside back of your house. Then, why do you stand for a bounty on
+these animals from which the furs are made for your wife, daughter or
+sweetheart to wear, to hasten the extinction of these fur-bearers,
+while the millionaire gives the word to the government, and the
+fur-bearer of the millionaire is protected at the expense of the people?
+Say, you wives, daughters or sweethearts of the trapper, do you stand
+for this kind of a deal?
+
+A few words in regard to the protection of the game and game birds: I
+think that every lover of outdoor life should be willing to have a
+reasonable number to the bag limit of either game birds or game
+animals, and lend a hand in protecting the game to the amount of the
+bag limit.
+
+Oh, you find fault with the game laws--you say that the laws are not
+just to all alike. Well, in one sense of the word this is true. The
+state law confiscated your traps, then placed a bounty on noxious
+animals, and then fines you heavily if you set a trap in a way so as
+to be able to catch one of these noxious animals (queer laws); but,
+nevertheless, we should try to protect our game if we are to have any
+left. At the rate the game is being slaughtered at the present time,
+there will not be a deer left in the State of Pennsylvania, and but
+very little game of any kind.
+
+You say that it is a hard matter to protect the game--that is true;
+for it is hard to get local game wardens that are of much account. A
+man of much principle and business qualifications will not accept the
+position, as he does not like to arrest a neighbor for fear of
+hurting his regular line of business. The State Game Wardens are not
+acquainted with the different game localities, and with the people
+who have but little or no regard for the game laws of the state.
+
+I will give an instance which came under my observation the past
+season: The game laws of Pennsylvania prohibit the use of buckshot in
+deer hunting, and the law also prohibits the killing of does. Now, a
+man who was hunting deer with a shotgun loaded with buckshot, was
+looking at another hunter's gun, which was a .32 Special Winchester;
+the shotgun man noticed the small caliber of the Winchester, asked
+the party who had the rifle (knowing nothing of the shooting power of
+the Winchester), if he expected to kill anything with that little
+thing, and at the same time stating that good buckshot gun was the
+thing to hunt deer with. When asked if he did not know that the law
+forbade the use of buckshot in deer hunting, he replied, "Oh to
+---- with the law!" They knocked me out of my bear traps, and the next
+thing they will do is to pass a law to prohibit hunting with a gun
+that costs less than $500.00.
+
+At the same time, and in this same place, a party killed a large doe
+that had its tail entirely shot away and several buckshot were found
+in its body.
+
+I will tell a little joke that was got off on one of the State Game
+Wardens as told by himself in the hotel at this place, which is a
+fact, and took place in these same woods: The Warden was telling a
+crowd at the hotel how his attention had been called to a doe that
+some one had killed and hung up in a certain place in the woods. The
+Warden said he went and found the deer and watched for ten days, but
+no one came for the deer. A party standing by said to the Warden,
+"Oh, that is a way we have of fixing you fellows--we kill a doe, hang
+it up on the outskirts of the deer hunting grounds, then give you
+notice of it, and while you are watching the dead deer, we are
+killing the live ones." The Warden, after listening to the man's
+story, remarked, "Well by Jonathan! that is one on me--come on."
+
+The above joke was actually got off here at the hotel in this town.
+
+The number of bears killed in this part, fall of 1911,
+notwithstanding that the use of steel traps is prohibited, was larger
+than has been in years. A party of thirteen from this place went into
+the woods on the Trout River, and during the ten or twelve days they
+were there, they killed seven bears--five in one day. And there were
+several deer killed.
+
+Now comrades, while we can't all agree on the justification of the
+game laws, we should all join hands and try to protect what little
+game we have left by getting the bag limit materially cut down, and
+give fifteen days more time to the hunter. Then stand by the law,
+or soon the game will all be gone with the exception of a few
+cotton-tails and what game is on private reserves, and posted lands.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+Southern Experiences on the Trap Line.
+
+Comrades of the trap line, I am not able to report a large catch of
+furs the past season, 1910. I did not catch much fur, but say, boys,
+I had a good deal of experience nevertheless. I will try to tell of
+conditions as I found them in North Carolina.
+
+I first stopped in Lee County, where I met Mr. A. L. Lawrence, one of
+the _Hunter-Trader-Trapper's_ most ardent friends. After stopping
+here a few days and seeing some of the sights in Lee and Moore
+Counties, Mr. Lawrence, now my friend and partner, a gentleman whom I
+had never known before, started for Bladen Co., N. C., where we
+expected to be kept up a good portion of the night in order to keep
+up with the skinning and stretching of the numerous furbearing
+animals caught during the day. Well boys, I will say that we were not
+troubled in this matter at least.
+
+While there is more fur in that section than in the north, there are
+also more disadvantages to be met with, than we have here. The
+majority of people that one meets with in the South are very kind and
+obliging. Nevertheless you will find it somewhat difficult to find
+suitable grounds to set your camp, providing the parties are aware
+that your intentions are to put out a line of traps. Remember that
+nearly every farmer has a drove of hogs that run in the woods, and
+the feeding grounds of the razorback is in the bottoms along the
+creeks and rivers. Naturally the farmer is a little fearful of his
+pigs being caught, so he says that the better way is to keep "shet"
+of the trappers, especially those that are strangers to the
+neighborhood. This is not the only way that the razorback gets in his
+work, and a good bit of work they get in too. The razorback is a
+powerful hunter, and it does not require a powerful animal scent to
+draw the razorback to the trap. To avoid the porker the trap must be
+set three inches below the water or six feet above the ground. As
+foxes are not given to tree climbing as a usual thing the trapper is
+sorely tried to devise schemes to take the fox in a section where the
+razorback is getting in his work. He is found in most places in the
+South, although there are some counties and even townships that have
+a stock law.
+
+The great difficulty with a non-resident or a stranger in getting a
+site to camp on, is that he must be where he can use the water from
+some one's well, as springs are not very plenty. The water in the
+branches, small streams or rivers are not such that a trapper should
+use; there is such a heavy drainage from swamps that are full of
+decayed vegetation, so that the trapper would soon be looking for a
+doctor rather than for opossum and coon.
+
+On South River near Parkersburg, we got a good place to camp, and the
+people were very kind and neighborly. Mr. Green, the postmaster at
+Parkersburg, and his family, with whom we stopped a short time before
+going into camp, were very kind and generous. The young ladies,
+daughters of Mr. Green, gave us some fine music on the piano,
+accompanied with singing during the evenings.
+
+About eighteen or twenty miles from Parkersburg on Turnbull Creek
+where we expected to do the greater part of our trapping, and where
+mink and coon were quite plentiful with considerable otter signs, we
+were unable to get a place to camp. The people objected to outside
+trappers infringing on what they apparently looked upon as their
+individual right.
+
+At the junction of Cape Fear and Black Rivers in Bladen and Pender
+counties, there is a section of low swampy country, which is a wild
+country where there is deer and bear as well as furbearers such as
+otter, mink, muskrats and coon. The latter are quite numerous. There
+is also wild turkey, quail and ducks on the river. Now this section
+of the country had a colony of mixed whites and colored people
+(Mulatto) who lived in these swamps, other people rarely going into
+that locality.
+
+We were informed that there was a good deal of illicit or Blockade
+Whiskey as the natives call it, made in these swamps. It is said that
+it is not safe for strangers to be caught in their domain too often.
+I found that one needs nearly double the number of traps to trap in
+the swamps or bays, as these swamps are called by the natives. There
+is so much ground that is covered with water so near alike that the
+animal has no regular place to travel, as is the case along the open
+streams. Instead the animals have vast areas of ground to travel over
+that is partially covered with water, so that the mink or raccoon
+travels anywhere and everywhere, as it is all alike to the mink and
+coon. Consequently the trapper needs more traps in order to make the
+same number of catches as would be possible in a locality where the
+streams did not spread over such a large scope of land.
+
+While the trapper in the South has but little snow or ice to contend
+with, he will not find it all milk and honey, for the swamps are not
+a paradise with the gall berry brush, the bamboo briers, saffron
+sprouts and holly brush. As for game birds, they are not so
+plentiful, but quail in places are found in good numbers. Wild
+turkeys are found in small lots scattered all over the country, but
+by no means plenty: doves are quite plentiful.
+
+As for fur bearers there are quite a number of opossum. Coons are not
+found late in the season to any great extent only in the swamps where
+they are quite plentiful. Grey foxes are plenty. There are many
+hunters in the South who hunt with dogs, and they do not take kindly
+to any other way of taking the furbearers. Otter signs are seen on
+nearly all of the streams but by no means are they plenty, and every
+slide is closely watched by trappers living nearby. The ever present
+razorback is an obstacle in the way of otter trapping, for the trap
+must be set under the water, and this is not always practical in
+otter trapping.
+
+We must not close this short letter without stating that our friend
+and partner, Mr. A. L. Lawrence, who was a native of Randolph County,
+N. C, was an expert trapper, and especially on mink. Mr. Lawrence was
+a good cook as well as a good trapper. Mr. Lawrence was hard to beat
+on baking opossum and bread making, but when it came to boiling water
+without burning it, your humble servant could hold him a close
+second.
+
+Say boys, I forgot to say that you will find Billy the Sneakum just
+as numerous in Dixie as he is in Pennsylvania.
+
+* * *
+
+Comrades of the trap line, I am not in condition to write much at
+this time owing to my health, but, later I hope to be able to give a
+fuller account of my trapping experiences of 1912 in Alabama,
+northern Georgia, northwestern North Carolina and southeastern
+Tennessee. And Comrades, right here I wish to say that through the
+above mentioned sections of the south, I found nearly every trapper a
+reader and lover of the _Hunter-Trader-Trapper,_ and many of these
+readers seemed like old neighbors to the writer, when he met them.
+
+Well boys, during all of last year, my health was such that I never
+again expected to hit the trap line, but as the frost began to turn
+the leaves of the timber on the hillsides, the trap fever became so
+high that I was compelled to take a half dozen traps and take to the
+brush. The first night I got two foxes, the second night I got
+another fox, three skunk and wife's pet cat. The catching of Timy
+(the cat) caused wife to put up such a fight, that I was compelled to
+pull the traps, pack my outfit and start for Alabama.
+
+Now boys, I am not going to tell you entirely of my own experience,
+but of the experiences of other trappers and hunters as told me by
+them. One trapper told of the killing of a bear in the thick cane
+brakes in the swamps of the Mississippi. It was against the game laws
+of Mississippi to kill bear at that time of the year, and as these
+hunters could not resist the taking of this bear, they put up a job
+on the bear. There were four of the hunters going through the thick
+cane brake, when they saw the bear coming toward them. The head man
+pulled his hunting knife, and told the other hunters to lie down, he
+dropping to his knees, knife in hand. When the bear was close up to
+him he sprang up and shouted "boo". The bear raised up on its hind
+feet and the hunter seized the bear and plunged the knife into it.
+The other hunters sprang to their feet, gun in hand and shot the
+bear. The party who told me this bear story, said it was a put up
+job, so as to make it appear that the bear was killed in self
+defense.
+
+  [Illustration: A PARTY OF VISITORS AT E. N. WOODCOCK'S CAMP ON THE
+BANKS OF THE ETAWAH RIVER AT DIKES CREEK, GA.]
+
+I know of many excuses to avoid game laws, but this one beats them
+all. I have had a good deal of experience in game hunting, but never
+had the luck to have a bear run on to me in this manner.
+
+I will tell a panther story, which a man told me that happened some
+year ago, in North Carolina, near the Tennessee line. The man was in
+a small shack, and he often heard panthers screaming about the shack,
+and finally one night when he had some fresh deer meat in the shack,
+the man was awakened by some animal trying to pull up a roof board.
+The roof of the shack was not more than six or eight feet from the
+ground floor, and soon the panther raised up a board sufficient to
+run a foot down through the crack. The man stood watching the game,
+and when the foot came through the crack, the man seized the panther
+by the foot, and a terrible fight began. The hunter finally cut a
+foot of the panther off, and stabbed it with his knife until he
+killed it. The hunter had a rug made of the skin of this panther,
+which he intends to keep in the family for all time to come. I think
+that this hunter is doing the right thing in so doing.
+
+I will now give a little of my own experience, but it is not in the
+way of an adventure with either a bear or panther, but, no doubt, I
+was just as nervous for a time as those who had the reported
+adventure with the bear and the panther.
+
+The last days of December, 1912, I went into camp about twelve or
+fourteen miles from Crandel, near the Tennessee line. Early the next
+morning after going into camp, a man came to the camp and asked many
+questions as to what I was doing. How long I was going to be there?
+Where I was from? Also many other similar questions, and then went
+away. That evening four or five men came to my tent, and asked about
+the same questions that the man in the morning had asked.
+
+When I stepped outside of the tent next morning, there were three or
+four bunches of hickory withes standing against the guy ropes of the
+tent. I did not know what those hickory withes meant, but surmised
+that some jealous trapper had put them there as a warning for me to
+get out. But it was not long after daylight, when a man came to camp,
+and said that I was suspicioned of being a spy in search of
+blockaders. I told this man that there could be nothing farther from
+it, that that would be the last thing I would mix up in, even if I
+knew of any such business, that I was simply a trapper and had no
+other business there.
+
+The man, said that he knew that as soon as he heard my name for he
+had known of me for the past four years, ever since he had been a
+reader of the _H-T-T._ This gentleman told me not to worry, but to
+stay in my tent a day or two before going out to set my traps, and
+everything would be all right. I hardly knew what to do, but as it
+was raining I could not well break camp that night. Five or six men
+came to camp. Some were those who had been there before, and
+questioned me as to my business there. But now they were acting
+entirely different. Now these gentlemen rushed in with hands extended
+to shake hands and welcome me and offer me any assistance that they
+were able to give, and nearly all of them offered me a drachm of corn
+juice. I stayed a few days longer in camp there, and each day friends
+grew more numerous and corn juice more plentiful. I stayed a day or
+two and saw that friends were going to be so numerous that it would
+be next to impossible for me to get out on the trap line for some
+days at least, so broke camp and pulled for Pennsylvania.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+On the Trap and Trot Line in the South--Fall of 1912.
+
+Well, comrades of the trap line, as I see so many interesting letters
+from trappers in the H-T-T, the best of all sporting magazines, I
+will relate some of my experiences in the South, season of 1912.
+During the latter part of the winter and the greater part of the
+summer, my health was so poor that I never again expected to be able
+to enjoy the pleasures of the trap line. But as time passed and I was
+able to get out into the fields and wander about, I became stronger
+from day to day until in the last days of October, when the frost
+began to crisp the air and the leaves on the trees on the hillsides
+became a golden hue, it drove the trapping fever into me to such a
+degree that I was unable to resist the temptation any longer.
+
+I took six or eight traps and went to the brush within sight of the
+house. I was obliged to use a good, strong staff to climb the hill
+with and could only take a few steps at a time, without stopping to
+take my breath. But, boys, I found this sort of exercise better for
+me than the doctor's medicine that I was taking. My first night's
+catch was two fox. Many of the readers of the H-T-T will remember of
+seeing my picture with the two fox in the December, 1912, number. The
+next two nights I got another fox and three skunk and wife's pet cat.
+The cat business put it up to me and I was compelled to lift my traps
+and take for other fields. Had I been able to traverse the hills and
+woods of old Potter County, I could have done far better than I did
+in the South.
+
+My trapping fever had now reached such a high mark that I could no
+longer stave it off and not being able to travel the hills and
+streams of this section, hit my feet for Alabama, where I could do
+the greater part of my work from a boat. After reaching Tryanna, I
+made a trip up Indian Creek every day by boat to a fish trap dam,
+which I was unable to get the boat over so was compelled to leave it
+at the dam and hoof it up the creek to the end of the line. On the
+way back down the creek each day I would gather up a boat load of
+drift wood to last for the day. The water being at a very low stage,
+it caused several rapids, which made it tight nipping to paddle the
+boat over. I had occasion to stop paddling often as I was continually
+making sets for mink, rats, coon and opossum, first on one side of
+the stream and then on the other, so that I had abundance of time to
+rest. But, comrades of the trap line, this kind of work is much
+better for an old played-out trapper than pills.
+
+While I found trapping conditions here in Alabama different than they
+were a year ago, I nevertheless got a mink, rat, 'possum or coon
+nearly every day, but two mink at a single round of traps was the
+best that I did at any time. There was no otter or beaver in this
+part of Alabama and but very few fox or skunk, and I found far more
+trappers than there were a year ago. Many of the trappers were from
+other states, and last season I did not see or hear of a colored man
+trapping, but this fall I heard of the dark man and his works daily.
+One of the worst and most foolish things that the trappers did was
+their early trapping before furs were any where near in a prime
+condition. This unwise work was indulged in by the white trappers as
+well as the negroes.
+
+I was unable to get out into the swamps or sloughs to any great
+extent and it is in the swamps that the coon are found more
+plentifully. The mink does not take to the swamps as readily as the
+coon, nevertheless he is found in the swamps as well as along the
+rivers and smaller streams. If we could only keep down the trapping
+fever and the desire to get that mink before the other fellow did, it
+would help us out in a financial way. We saw many mink that were
+offered for sale here that were over three feet from tip to tip, from
+75 cents to $2.00, and the skins went a-begging at that price. Now,
+comrades, just think of the difference in what those skins would have
+brought when in a prime condition. The price then would have been
+from $3.00 to $7.00, and this same rule applied to the coon and
+muskrats and other fur bearers, and you are aware that the fur
+bearers throughout the country are rapidly becoming scarcer each
+year. While I found more mink, coon and muskrats here in Alabama than
+I did in either Georgia or North Carolina, yet I did not see mink,
+coon or rat signs in comparison to what they were a year ago, and I
+do not believe that there was one-third as many mink, coon or
+muskrats as there was last season. Opossum seem to hold their own
+fairly well.
+
+Well, comrades, the picture here shows the greater part of our
+Alabama catch of furs. I trapped in Alabama about three weeks when I
+went to Georgia, where I expected, from what I was told, to find far
+better trapping than was to be had here in Alabama, but I was sadly
+disappointed.
+
+* * *
+
+Leaving Tryanna, Alabama, by wagon, I went to Farley, eighteen miles.
+There I took a train to Huntsville, then by the Southern R. R. by the
+way of Chattanooga to Dikes Creek, Georgia, where I went into camp. I
+camped at this place about two weeks, building two boats, one a good
+large boat, sufficient to move my whole outfit from point to point,
+as I moved down the Etowah River, then the Coosa River. The other
+boat was much smaller, being suited to the trap and trot line. Boys,
+you who have trapped on the rivers and large streams of the South,
+know that the traps and the trot line go hand in hand and with only
+two or three trot lines, to one who is onto the job, you will find
+them quite profitable as well as a pleasure. In most places you will
+find ready sale for the fish you catch at 10 to 12 cents a pound. If
+one runs his trot lines two or three times a day and takes in from 20
+to 100 pounds of fish, it is a little item along the financial trail.
+But, boys, there is a knack in running a trot line in a successful
+manner as well as a trap line. Where the trot line is run in
+connection with the trap line, it makes quite an addition to the
+trapper's job, for he will be out as late as 9 or 10 o'clock before
+going to bed to run the trot lines, take off the fish and rebait the
+lines. It is also necessary to put in any spare time that happens
+your way in digging wigglers, hunting crawfish and other bait.
+
+  [Illustration: E.N. WOODCOCK AND SOME OF HIS 1912 CATCH OF ALABAMA
+FURS.]
+
+The boat is an absolute necessity in trapping in the South, as the
+most of the fur-bearers are found along the rivers and large streams.
+It is next to an impossibility to make a successful set for mink and
+coon along the soft, slippery and sloping banks without the boat. And
+boys, the conditions on the trap line in the South are altogether
+different from what it is in the North on the clear, gravelly and
+rocky streams of the North and East sections. It requires a trap one
+size larger in the South in successful trapping than it does in the
+North and East. This is owing to the soft, muddy, clay banks and
+streams. Another thing that is a necessity along the rivers and
+streams of the South is the trap stake, while on most streams of the
+North the clog or drag is far better than a stake.
+
+I did not find the fur-bearers in Georgia as plentiful as I expected,
+from what I had been told and trappers were numerous, many of them in
+house boats. I expected to find some beaver on Pumpkin Vine Creek, a
+branch of the Etowah River, but they failed to show up on
+investigation. There is but very few otter in northern and central
+Georgia and in Georgia, as in Alabama, many trappers began trapping
+in September. The best catch in one night at our camp was while we
+were camping at Coosa, on the Coosa River, but it was nothing in
+comparison to what we did in Alabama last season in a single night's
+catch. The catch at Coosa in one night was two mink, three coon,
+three rats and two opossum. This was done with about 20 traps. It was
+raining at this time, so we kept this bunch of furs three days and
+until there had been several more pieces added to the bunch. We
+wanted to get a picture of this bunch of furs and the camp at this
+place but it continued to rain and we were compelled to skin the
+animals and let the pictures go.
+
+The steamboats are a serious drawback to the trappers on the river in
+the South. The average trapper plans to get out on his line and fix
+up as many of his traps as he can after the steamboat passes. On most
+rivers there is not more than one or two boats passing daily and on
+some of the rivers, boats do not make more than one or two trips a
+week. It was the intention of the writer when going to Georgia, to
+work the trap line all winter, going nearly the entire length of the
+Alabama River, to the Mississippi line, but met with unexpected
+conditions that I was unable to endure and was compelled to give up
+the greater part of the trip, which was a sad disappointment. But
+comrades, you know that there are but few trappers but what meet with
+disappointments at times.
+
+The game laws of Georgia are a little hard on the trapper and
+fisherman. The non-resident trapper has to pay a license of fifteen
+dollars and the local trapper a license of three dollars. (This
+alludes to the laws of 1912.) That is not the worst part of it. In
+fact, the license fund, if justly used in the protection of game and
+game birds and the propagation of game and birds, I would not object
+to the license.
+
+The hard part of the game law of Georgia is the trespass part of it.
+The trapper must have a written permission from the land owner to
+trap or fish on any man's land and where the river is the dividing
+line between different parties owning the land, the trapper or
+fisherman must have the written permit from both land owners, even
+though he does not leave his boat to set a trap or place a trot line.
+Now it is a very difficult thing for a stranger to learn who owns the
+land and often the owner of the land lives in some city of the North,
+or elsewhere. Now here is where the shoe pinches the hardest. The
+fine for trespassing on a man's land is $40.00 and it is the duty of
+the game warden to arrest any one he finds hunting, trapping or
+fishing on any man's land without a written permit. Here is the worst
+of all. The game warden must make the arrest without any notice from
+the land owner and if the game warden fails to make the arrest, he is
+liable to the same fine as the one who is doing the trespassing. This
+is a law that the average land owner never asked for.
+
+I had men come to me every day and offer me the privilege of trapping
+or hunting on their land without any request on my part. I found the
+majority of the people of Georgia very kind in regard to this
+trespass matter as well as other matters. It was only a few sporting
+"Nabobs" that concocted this stringent part in the trespass law,
+contained in the game laws of Georgia.
+
+Most other states of the south have as trespass laws, that the land
+owner must order the arrest. The laws of Alabama allow or at least
+can not stop the trapper or fisherman from trapping or fishing so
+long as he keeps within the boundary limits of the river, which is
+sufficient to give the trapper or fisherman ample ground to camp on.
+
+After leaving the Coosa River I went into the extreme northern part
+of Georgia where I camped for about three weeks and never met a more
+friendly class of people than within the vicinity of Oakman and
+Ranger. After leaving this section, I went into camp near Crandel,
+Ga. From there I went into the Fog Mountains, where I found game
+fairly plentiful but owing to bad weather and the condition of my
+health, did not hit the trap line very heavy.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+Trapping in Alabama.
+
+Well, comrades of the trap line, as I am getting well up to the
+seventy notch, and as the chills of zero weather chases one after the
+other up and down my spinal column, like a dog after a rabbit in a
+briar patch, and as I am unable to shake off that desire for the trap
+line, I concluded to go south again to trap. I began an inquiry in
+several different sections, in states of the South, and finally
+decided upon Alabama, where a gentleman and a brother trapper by the
+name of Ford had invited me to come. On the last days of October,
+1911, I arrived in Alabama where I met Mr. Ford, whom I found to be a
+gentleman in all respects, and a member of the M. E. Church.
+
+My first day's outing after reaching Mr. Ford's place was on the
+Tennessee River, raising fish nets, and putting out a few mink traps
+to ascertain what the complexion of the inner side of a mink's coat
+was. I got a mink the first night, which I found to be of fairly
+light color, but not quite light enough to my liking. The setting of
+more traps was delayed for a few days and we spent the time in
+tending the fish nets.
+
+I have whipped the streams and drowned earthworms for brook trout and
+other fish, from my childhood days to the present time. I had never
+done any fishing in large rivers with nets, so you can imagine my
+feelings when one net after another was raised which contained many
+fish of different kinds, such as yellow cat, channel cat, buffalo,
+pickerel, pike, carp, suckers, black bass (called trout in the South)
+and many other kinds. These fish ran in weight all the way from
+one-fourth pound up to twenty pounds each, and occasionally a buffalo or
+yellow catfish much larger. Mr. Ford informed me that often on trot
+lines they got sturgeon, weighing more than one hundred pounds.
+
+We intended to put out a trot line and catch a sturgeon that I might
+get some oil. It is said that the oil from a sturgeon is a sure cure
+for rheumatism in the joints, but it rained so much, keeping us busy
+adjusting our traps, that we did not get any time to get the bait and
+put out the trot line. So I did not get to see one of those large
+fellows.
+
+Mr. Ford pointed out corn and cotton fields where the corn and cotton
+was still ungathered and told me that he had trot lines set out all
+through these fields last spring and caught hundreds of pounds of
+fish--it hardly seemed possible as the water was then fifteen of
+twenty feet below the banks of these fields. But in December when it
+began raining nearly every day, and the water rose so suddenly that I
+was obliged to leave many of my traps where I had set them around
+ponds and banks of streams and in the swamps, I could then readily
+see that it was perfectly possible for the fish to get out into the
+corn and cotton fields to feed.
+
+The rainy season set in nearly a month earlier this season than
+usual, causing the rivers and streams to rise so as to flood the
+whole bottoms (it is called the tide by the people in Alabama).
+
+I will not give my views of the country and conditions in northern
+Alabama--it would not look well; it is sufficient to say that the
+greater part of the land is owned in large tracts by a few men and
+leased out at from $3.00 to $4.00 per acre. Corn and Cotton are the
+main crops. Any land lying above the overflowing sections requires
+heavy fertilizing in order to make a crop. The fertilizer is the
+commercial sort, and all the crop will sell for is put onto the land
+in the way of fertilizers. These lands are mostly leased to colored
+people--in fact, I was told that the landlords did not care to lease
+to white men.
+
+The poor white man in northern Alabama is worse off than the colored
+man, for he is looked upon as neither white nor black. In this
+section the population is largely of the colored class. All of the
+landlords have a store, so as to furnish their tenants with goods of
+an inferior quality at exorbitant prices.
+
+There is no good water to be found in that part of Alabama. The water
+that the people use is something fearful--of course the wealthy class
+have cisterns. The soil is mostly red clay, and terrible to get about
+in when the least damp. The roads are only names for roads.
+
+South of the Tennessee River is what is called the Sand Mountains;
+the soil is of a sandy nature, freestone water, and the people are
+all white--in fact, it is said that they will not allow a colored man
+to live there. I heard it stated that they would not even allow a
+negro to stop over night in that section.
+
+The Sand Mountain region is a piney country with a sandy soil. The
+land is not as fertile as the bottom lands along the Tennessee River,
+but they produce a finer grade of cotton, which brings a cent or two
+a pound more than that of the bottom lands.
+
+As to game in north Alabama, there is but little large game to be
+found. In the extreme northern part of Madison county, well up to the
+Tennessee line, there are a few deer and wild hogs; it was said that
+there were some bear, also plenty of wild turkeys. There were plenty
+of ducks, and a good many quail.
+
+There is still some lumbering being done, mostly in oak of different
+kinds, though a good part is white oak. The logs are cut and hauled
+to the Tennessee River and taken by steamboat to Decatur in Limestone
+County, and worked up into lumber and manufactured articles. There is
+still quite large bodies of cugalo gum left in the swamps, though
+this timber is not yet used to any great extent.
+
+I wish to say that if the trapper expects to ship his camp outfit by
+freight to any part of the South, he should start it from four to six
+weeks in advance of the time that he will arrive at the place where
+he will use it. The trapper, as a usual thing, is too shallow in the
+region of the pocket book to afford to ship an outfit of camp stove,
+cooking utensils, tent and a hundred traps or more of various sizes,
+by express. Of course, he can take his bed blanket and extra clothing
+as baggage in his trunk.
+
+Now to make this matter plainer, I will give my experience of the
+last two seasons. In 1910 I trapped here in Pennsylvania the first
+two weeks of November before going south. So shipped my camp chest by
+express to Cameron, N. C, started it four days before I started so as
+to be sure that it would be there by the time I arrived. But when I
+got to Cameron there was no express matter for Woodcock.
+
+Five days later while I was standing on the depot platform at Cameron
+waiting for the eleven o'clock express train, along came a freight
+train, stopped and put off my camp chest. Now, the express charges on
+this chest was something over ten dollars on 180 pounds.
+
+The next season I concluded that I would not give the express company
+another rake-off, so started my camp outfit by freight for Madison,
+Alabama, four weeks before I started, so as to again be sure that it
+would be there when I arrived. Mr. Ford met me at the station nine
+miles from his place with a conveyance to take baggage and camp
+outfit to his place. And boys, imagine my feelings when I was again
+told by the station agent that there was nothing there for Woodcock.
+About a week later, I got the goods. So boys, take the hint and start
+the outfit well ahead if you wish to get it on time. I have had other
+similar experiences.
+
+On our way back to Mr. Ford's place the day he met me at the station,
+he called my attention to several different places along the road to
+mink tracks in the ditches and in the road. I thought that it would
+be no trick at all to take three or four mink each night, but I was
+not reckoning on the disadvantages I had to contend with.
+
+This section of the country is very thickly settled with colored
+people, and each family keeps from one to three dogs, which are out
+searching for food all the time. These people never think of feeding
+their dogs. Nearly every night these colored people are out hunting
+in droves of five or six, and with six or eight dogs. They think it
+no more of a crime to steal a trap, and anything found in the trap,
+than they would consider it a crime to eat a baked 'possum. A trapper
+must keep a good lookout when setting his traps to see that there is
+no "dark object" anywhere in sight. If there is, you may expect that
+that particular trap will be missing the next time you come that way.
+
+In setting a trap, the first thing to do is to select a place where
+the trap is to be set, then look carefully around to see that no
+"dark object" is in sight; then go into the bush and get the trap,
+stake and everything that you will use in making the set. Then you
+will again look carefully for that "dark object," and will proceed to
+make the set, provided that yourself is the only human being in
+sight, stopping your work often to look about you. Do not think that
+this caution is not necessary, for it sure is. The writer had nine
+traps taken at one time within an hour after he had been over the
+line.
+
+We went into our first camp, I think, on the 5th of November, at a
+place called Blackwell's Pond or Blackwell's bottom, I am not sure
+which. The first day after we got to camp, Mr. Ford went out and put
+out a few traps, while I stayed in camp and fixed up things.
+
+The next morning we went out to look over the ground a little while.
+Mr. Ford went to the opposite side of the pond to set a few more
+traps, and see parties who owned land along the pond, for we found
+that the land had been posted "No Trespassing." When Mr. Ford came in
+that evening I think he brought in five rats. We set nine traps that
+day and went south along the pond to look over the grounds.
+
+The next morning we had one mink and one coon in the nine traps. I
+think Mr. Ford brought in four rats and had one coon foot. That
+evening Mr. Ford went home to raise his nets, and when he came back
+he brought in two mink; I got two coon. Mr. Ford went home again and
+made arrangements for a team to come in and move us out to "pastures
+new." He also brought another mink, and I believe that we got two or
+three coons that night. I think we got nine rats, four mink and eight
+coons in the three nights with about twenty traps.
+
+The land about this pond had been leased by Mr. Edmon Toney, a
+wealthy young man living near the place. While Mr. Toney is wealthy,
+he insists in indulging in the meek and lowly occupation of the
+trapper. We know Mr. Toney to be a successful trapper, for he caught,
+while we were in camp at that place, one of the wealthiest and most
+beautiful young ladies in that section. Mr. Toney is a reader of the
+H-T-T.
+
+Our next camp was on Little Indian creek, at the edge of a large
+cugalo swamp not the pleasantest place that one could wish for a
+camp.
+
+  [Illustration: E. N. WOODCOCK AND SOME OF HIS ALABAMA FURS.]
+
+The next day after we went into Camp No. 2. I set a few traps near
+camp. Mr. Ford went down the creek toward his place and set a few
+traps, and went home to look after his fish nets, returning to camp
+that evening. Mr. Ford had warned me that the mink in that section
+would foot themselves equally as bad as muskrats, but as I had never
+been bothered with mink footing themselves, I paid no attention to
+his warning.
+
+The next morning Mr. Ford stepped outside of the tent--it was about
+five o'clock and called to me, asking where I had set my first trap
+on the creek, and being told, he replied, "Well, you have caught a
+mink." When asked how he knew, he said, "Come out and hear him
+squall." I ate breakfast and hastened down to release the mink, but
+my haste was unnecessary for the mink did not propose to wait for me,
+I found only the mink's foot--the mink had gone.
+
+I had never had a mink foot itself in this way before and did not
+think that the mink did, although here in Alabama, we had two mink to
+foot themselves in one night. Had I heeded Mr. Ford's warning, I
+would have been several mink pelts ahead.
+
+While there was considerable fur to be found in the vicinity of Camp
+No. 2, it was a hard place to camp, owing to the scarcity of camp
+wood and the inconvenience of getting water, so we moved on to Beaver
+Dam creek, in Limestone county, where we were in hopes of finding a
+few beaver and quite a plenty of mink and coon. But we were sadly
+disappointed; we found but little to trap, but found trappers and
+trap-lifters in abundance, so made haste to get out of that country
+while we had our boats left. Our catch was only two mink, twelve
+rats, five coon and one or two 'possum.
+
+We moved from this place back into Madison County and pitched our
+camp at a point known as the Sinks, where we did a better business.
+But the rainy season soon set in, so we were compelled to break camp
+and get out, leaving a good part of our traps where we had set them,
+now under several feet of water. We shall never see them again.
+
+Well boys, you will excuse me from telling just how many coon we got
+in an hour and seven minutes. I can only state that during the
+five weeks that Mr. Ford and the writer were in camp that we got
+twenty-six mink. I do not remember the number of coons, opossums and rats
+caught.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+Some Early Experiences.
+
+Comrades of the trap line and trail, as I have gotten too old, March
+1913, and too nigh played out to longer get far out into the tall
+timber, I will, with the consent of the editor of the H-T-T, relate
+some of my experiences on the trap line and trail of some years ago.
+
+A young man by the name of Frank Wright was hunting and trapping on
+the Crossfork waters of Kettle Creek. Frank was a young man barely
+out of his teens, and had been in the woods but little, but Frank was
+a hustler and was not afraid of the screech of the owl; the days were
+altogether too short for him.
+
+We went into camp early in October as we had to do a good deal of
+repairing on the camp as the cabin had not been used in two or three
+years, and the porcupines got in their work in good shape. The cabin
+was built of logs and the "porces" had gnawed nearly all of the
+chinking out from between the logs and the mud was all gone from
+around the chinking. Some of the shakes were gone from the roof and
+the door which was made of split shakes.
+
+First, we split out shakes and repaired the roof and the door. We
+then split chinking block out of a basswood tree to renew the
+chinkings that had been gnawed and eaten up by the porcupines. After
+the chinking was all replaced and fastened in place by making wedges
+and driving them into the logs, one at each end of each chinking
+block, we gathered moss from old logs and calked every crack,
+pressing the moss into the cracks with a wedge-shape stick made for
+the purpose. The calking was all done from the inside.
+
+After the chinking and calking was done, we dug into a clay bank and
+got clay, which we mixed with ashes taken from the fire then added
+sufficient water to make a rather stiff mortar. We filled the spaces
+between the logs, going over every crack on the outside of the shack.
+
+Now and again Frank would notice a mink or coon track along the
+creek, while he was gathering moss from the old logs. These tracks
+would drive Frank nearly wild, and he would double his energy so as
+to get the shack finished so we could hit the trap line.
+
+After we got the shack in good shape, we went to work getting up a
+good supply of wood, sufficient to last through the season. We had an
+open fireplace, so we cut the wood about three feet long. The wood
+was now up near the camp door, ranked up in good snug piles. We then
+cut crotched stakes and drove them in the ground on each side of the
+ranks, and laid poles in, then placed cross poles on and covered with
+hemlock boughs.
+
+Frank was so anxious to get to work on the trap line, that he at
+first objected to putting in so much time in getting up the wood,
+saying that we could get the wood at odd times. But when told that
+there are no odd times on the trap line, he then worked the harder to
+get the supply of wood, including a good supply of dry pine for
+kindling fires, which we got by cutting a dry pine stub.
+
+The camp now being in good shape, we hit the trap line and began
+building deadfalls for marten. We went onto the ridges into the thick
+heavy timber, where the marten were most likely to be found. We would
+select a low hemlock to build the deadfalls under, so the trap would
+be protected from heavy falls of snow, as much as possible. Some of
+the traps we would drive crotched stakes and lay poles in them and
+then cover with hemlock boughs to keep the snow off.
+
+After we had several lines of marten traps built, we went onto the
+stream and branches and built deadfalls for mink and coon.
+
+Nearly every day we saw deer, but the weather was still too warm to
+keep venison any length of time, so we did not carry our guns with
+us. When Frank would see a deer he would make grave threats that he
+would carry his gun the next day. We were about two miles from the
+stage road. The stage made only one trip a week, so there was no way
+of disposing of a deer as long as the weather was so warm. It took
+but little persuasion to convince Frank that it would be poor policy
+to kill deer as long as we could make use of but a small part of a
+single deer.
+
+After we had gotten out a good line of deadfalls for marten, mink and
+coon, and as it was now about the first of November and time to bait
+up the deadfalls, and set out what steel traps we had for fox, I told
+Frank that we would carry our guns with us and try to kill a deer for
+bait and camp use. Frank could hardly sleep that night; he was so
+delighted to think that the time had come to quit the monkey
+business, as he called it, and begin business.
+
+We climbed the ridge where we knew there were some deer, following
+down the ridge, one on each side, along the brow of the hill. We put
+in the entire day without getting a shot at a deer. That night it
+snowed about an inch, so that in the wooded timber, one could see the
+trail of the deer in the snow; but in hemlock timber there was not
+enough snow on the ground, so a track could be followed. We had
+killed a squirrel or two, and had a little prepared bait, so we
+concluded to bait a few traps until we struck a deer trail.
+
+We did not succeed in finding the tracks of any deer until well along
+in the afternoon. It so happened that I got a shot at a deer that was
+nearly hidden from sight behind a large tree. I shot the deer
+through, just forward of the hips. We followed it only a short
+distance when we found the bed of the deer, and there was blood in
+it, so it was plain to be seen in what manner the deer was wounded.
+All still-hunters (excuse the word still-hunt; the word stalking does
+not sound good to a backwoodsman) of deer know that when a deer is
+shot well back through the small intestines, that if conditions will
+allow, the right thing to do is to leave the trail for a time and the
+deer will lie down. If left alone for an hour or two the hunter will
+have but little trouble in getting his deer. So in this case, as we
+were not far from camp and it was nearly sundown, I told Frank that
+we had better let the deer go until morning, when we would have more
+daylight ahead of us, and we would get the deer with less trouble.
+
+We started for camp and had gone only a short distance when Frank
+said he would work along the ridge a little and see if he could not
+kill a partridge.
+
+  [Illustration: FOOT OF TREE SET.]
+
+I went on to camp and when dark came I couldn't see nor hear anything
+of Frank. I ate my supper, and as I could get no word from Frank
+either by shouting or firing my gun, I climbed to the top of the
+ridge so I could be heard for a greater distance, but still I could
+get no answer. It had turned warmer and what little snow was on the
+ground had melted. I could not follow his trail in the dark, so went
+back to camp and built a good big fire outside of the camp in case
+Frank should come in sight, he might see the light and come in. At
+intervals of half an hour, I would call as loud as I could. I kept
+this up until midnight, when I lay down to get a little sleep,
+knowing that I could not help matters by staying up.
+
+At daylight the next morning I was on the ridge at the place where I
+last saw Frank, and by close watch managed to follow his trail while
+he was in the hardwood timber, where there was a heavy fall of
+leaves; but when he struck into the heavy hemlock timber, I could no
+longer track him. However, I had tracked him sufficiently far enough
+to see that he had gone back to look for the wounded deer. I made
+tracks in the direction I expected the wounded deer would be likely
+to lie down. After some searching I found the bed of the deer, also
+tracks of a man, which I knew to be Frank. But I could only follow
+the trail a short distance from where he had driven the deer out of
+its bed. There were plenty of deer tracks all around, but knowing
+that the wounded deer would naturally work down the draw, I worked my
+way along the hollow, keeping a close lookout for any signs of the
+wounded deer that I might chance to cross. At different times, I
+found a few drops of blood, but no signs of Frank.
+
+I had worked down the hollow some ways, when I ran onto the wounded
+deer; it staggered to its feet, but was too near gone to keep its
+feet. I finished it by shooting it in its head. I removed the
+entrails as quickly as I could, bent down a sapling and hung the deer
+up, and then made tracks down the stream the best I could shouting
+and occasionally firing off my gun.
+
+We were in a big wilderness. No roads or inhabitants west of us for
+many miles, and this was the course I feared Frank was most likely to
+take.
+
+I now began to think that I had a serious job on hands. I kept up the
+search all day without getting the least trace of Frank and returned
+to camp late that night.
+
+Starting early the next morning, and taking a good lunch with me, I
+crossed the head of Winfall Run and over the divide onto the waters
+of the Hamersley, continuing to shout and occasionally firing my gun.
+I had worked down the run some six or eight miles, when I heard some
+one hollow two or three times in quick succession. I was quite
+positive it was Frank. It was miles from any inhabitants in a dense
+wilderness, and hunters were not common on those parts in those days.
+I immediately answered the call, and soon I could hear Frank coming
+down the hill at breakneck speed, giving tongue at every jump.
+
+We at once started for camp, Frank eating the lunch I had brought in
+my knapsack, and telling of his trials, as we made tracks the best we
+were able to for camp. Frank, in telling his story, would cry like a
+baby, and then laugh like a boy with a pair of new boots. But he cut
+no more boy tricks.
+
+We finished the season's hunt, catching a goodly bunch of fox,
+marten, mink and coon, as well as killing a good bunch of deer. Had
+fur and venison brought as much in those days, as at the present
+time, we would have bought an automobile, and put an end to this
+hoofing it.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+The White Deer.
+
+I do not remember whether I have told the boys of the H-T-T the story
+of the white deer, which I had the good luck to get, and the picture
+of which was shown in one of the sporting magazines a few years ago.
+The picture was sent to the magazine by Mrs. Prudence Boyington,
+Roulett, Pa., who was the owner of the deer at the time, and I
+believe a daughter of Mrs. Boyington still has the deer.
+
+It was in the spring of 1878 or 1879 that a doe and a white fawn were
+seen on the hill just south of Lymansville. The fawn and its mother
+were seen almost daily in some of the fields near the village, and
+often were seen in some one of the pastures with the cows. The fawn
+would run and play about like a lamb.
+
+It was plain to be seen from week to week that the fawn was rapidly
+growing, and as the open season for hunting of deer drew near it was
+generally understood that the white fawn and its mother should not be
+killed. When the winter came on, the fawn and its mother were all at
+once missing. The general supposition was that they had been killed,
+but when spring came the doe and the white fawn (now a yearling deer)
+again appeared on its old haunts of the year before. They had merely
+gone back into the more dense woods to winter.
+
+Along in June it was noticed that there were three deer instead of
+two. Another fawn had appeared on the scene, this time an ordinary
+spotted fawn. They were again daily seen during the summer the same
+as they were the year before. Now it had been strongly urged by the
+people all about the country that these deer should not be killed,
+and there was none that was more strongly in favor of this than I
+was. The deer were regularly seen again all summer and up to the last
+days of October, when they again disappeared and all were anxious for
+spring to come to see if they would return as usual. When spring came
+the deer came back as before, but in June "the whole bunch came up
+missing," and it was generally thought that they had changed their
+haunts or they had been killed. The latter was strongly suspected.
+
+I had taken a scout through the woods on the hills back of the
+locality where these deer had been frequenting and had seen signs
+that convinced me that the white deer, at least, was still alive,
+although it had not been seen for a number of weeks. Here I wish to
+explain that Coudersport is two miles from Lymansville and it is on
+the hill between the two places that the white deer had been seen
+most, and it was in the former place that the loudest cry for the
+protection of this white deer came from.
+
+Now about this time I had killed a deer in the big woods where
+several of us had been on a fishing trip and I took a piece of this
+venison to a friend in town. It so happened that one of the side
+judges of our court (Stebens by name) was at the house of my friend.
+A few days later I was in a store belonging to a brother of the
+Judge, when the Judge came in and accused me of killing the white
+deer. Of course I denied, and told the Judge that I would wager two
+dollars that the white deer was still living. The Judge said "Very
+well," and at the same time handed a two dollar bill to a man
+standing by, by the name of Abison, who was listening to our
+conversation, which was quite heated. I told the Judge at the very
+first opportunity I would kill the white deer.
+
+The white deer was not seen in the woods any more, and I was charged
+with killing it. I said nothing in regard to the charge, for I had
+now made up my mind to kill it if I could. One day three or four
+weeks after I had made the wager, Mr. Abison came to me and handed me
+two dollars and said that the Judge had got his money and told him to
+give me my money back as he (the Judge) did not want to take the
+money, that I had killed the white deer all right.
+
+Now I was quite positive that the Judge had learned that the white
+deer was still alive. I had heard that the white deer had again been
+seen in a field near town. Now this made me all the more determined
+to kill the white deer. I will explain that I had learned that
+several of the sportsmen of Coudersport, the Judge included, had had
+dogs after the white deer several times the previous fall, but it so
+happened that there were no watchers at the place where the deer came
+to the creek.
+
+That fall as soon as the first snow fell I went after the deer. I did
+not strike the trail until quite late in the afternoon, and as the
+deer left the woods where it had been accustomed to staying and went
+into the big woods farther south, I left the trail for that day. I
+would have got a shot at the deer if my attention had not been called
+in the wrong direction by the chirping of several blue jays which I
+thought were excited over the presence of the white deer.
+
+I was working the trail to the best of my ability and knew that I was
+close to the game, when my attention was drawn by the chirping of
+those blue jays which were down the side of a hill. I was working the
+trail so as to be on vantage ground and could see from where I was
+standing that the trail had turned slightly down the hill along the
+side of a fallen tree and in the direction of the chirping of the
+jays. This led me to think that the jays were scolding the deer, so I
+cautiously advanced a few steps down the hill, expecting every moment
+to see the deer. While I was watching down the hill, I heard a slight
+noise to my right and partly behind me. I looked in the direction in
+which the noise came from and was surprised to catch a glimpse of the
+deer jumping the log near where I had last seen the trail. The log
+hid the deer from my sight so that I was unable to get a shot at it.
+The deer had lain down close to the log, and had I taken a few more
+steps in the direction I was going instead of giving attention to the
+jays I would have seen the deer and made my word good the first time.
+
+It was too late in the day to follow the trail farther at this time,
+knowing that the deer would run a long distance before stopping. As I
+had a team engaged to take me to my camp and I was anxious to get
+there on the first tracking snow, I concluded to give the white deer
+a rest a few days until I returned from camp in the big woods. I was
+in camp only a few days when the snow went off, so I came home. I had
+only been home a day or two when a man by the name of Hill came to my
+house in great haste. He had been cutting logs en a hill, and looking
+across onto a hill opposite where he was working, saw the white deer,
+so came to tell we what he had seen. I at once took my gun and
+started after the deer. I went up the hill in the direction that Mr.
+Hill had seen the deer until I was quite sure that I was well above
+the deer, then cautiously worked my way down the side of that hill.
+There being no snow on the ground and the deer being white, I soon
+discovered it lying in its bed. I cautiously crept up within shooting
+distance and fired, killing the deer instantly.
+
+I will explain how it happened that these deer disappeared so
+suddenly at the time Judge Stebens accused me of killing the white
+deer and the wager was made between the Judge and your humble
+servant. A man by the name of Frank Williams had shot the deer
+breaking a foreleg at the knee joint, and this caused the deer to
+remain hidden away until it recovered from the wound. The leg or
+joint was stiff when the deer was killed and the force of the bullet
+was so spent that it lay against the skin after shattering the knee
+joint and I still have the ball which I took from the knee. I had the
+deer mounted and Mrs. Boyington took it as she was collecting freaks
+and curios of this country.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+A Day of Luck.
+
+Every hunter of long experience could tell of the ups and downs along
+the trail consisting of good, bad and indifferent luck and as usual
+tell of our hits and let others tell of our misses, I will tell of a
+day of good luck. It was in November and there was no snow on the
+ground. I was camping on the Holman branch of Pine Creek in
+Pennsylvania and one night, just at dark, a party of several men came
+to my camp and asked to stay over night. They stated that they were
+going to camp on the opposite side of the ridge on the Sinnamahoning
+waters. My camp was small but I made room for the hunters the best I
+could.
+
+This party was going into a section of country where I had several
+bear traps as well as a good number of smaller traps set for fox,
+mink, marten and other fur animals. As I wished to look these traps
+over the next day before this party got scattered about the woods
+where my traps were, I got up early the next morning, ate a hasty
+breakfast and put a lunch into my knapsack and was ready to start out
+before the party of hunters was up. I cautioned the hunters to see
+that the fire was safe when they left camp and then started on my
+day's hunt without the slightest idea that I was starting on one of
+the luckiest days I ever had.
+
+I had to climb a high ridge, then my route was for some distance on a
+long ridge, which I would follow for a distance of a mile and a half,
+when I dropped off the right hand side of the ridge into a ravine
+where I had a bear trap set. This ridge was a clean open one of beech
+and maple timber. I knew it would keep me busy the entire day to get
+over the trap line, the best that I could do, so had no intention of
+spending any time looking after deer. When I got to this open ridge,
+I took a dog trot along the ridge.
+
+I was making good time when on looking ahead along the ridge I saw a
+good-sized buck come from the left hand side of the ridge. He would
+take a jump or two then drop his head to the ground and then take
+another hop or two and again drop his head to the ground. I knew that
+he was on the trail of other deer. I had hardly time to bring my gun
+to my shoulder when the buck wheeled and disappeared back over the
+ridge from where he had come. I started on a run to where the deer
+had gone out of sight, thinking that possibly I might catch him
+before he got out of range down the side of the hill. Imagine my
+surprise when just as I reached the top of the hill, where I saw the
+deer disappear from my sight, I almost ran against the buck. He had
+turned back to cross the ridge when I met him. He whirled down the
+hill but I was too close onto him and I caught him before he could
+get out of reach. I took out the deer's entrails and bent down a
+sapling and hung the deer up, then I crossed the ridge and started
+down the ravine to look after the bear traps.
+
+I was hurrying down the hill near a jam of fallen timber, when all at
+once out jumped five or six deer from this timber. In an instant the
+whole bunch was out of sight behind the jam with the exception of one
+large doe. I could see, one of her hips standing out from behind a
+large hemlock tree. Without hesitating a moment, I fired at what I
+could see of the deer and it dropped out of sight as the gun cracked.
+I hurried through the jam of timber to where I saw the deer and there
+the doe lay, trying to get on her feet. I soon ended her misery by
+shooting her in the head. I soon had her entrails out and hung up as
+I had the buck. It was the trail of this bunch of deer that the buck
+was on when he ran into me.
+
+After I had hung up the deer I hustled on down the ravine to the bear
+trap. When I got to the place where the trap was set it was gone. The
+trail led down the ravine and was easy to follow as I hurried along
+and I soon found a small bear tangled up in a thicket of small brush.
+It was only the work of a moment to fix bruin in shape to skin. After
+I had the hide off, I cut the bear up into quarters and hung the meat
+up in the trees. I toted the trap back up to where it was set and
+reset it then I went back down the hollow to where I had left the
+bear skin and took it on my shoulder and made tracks down the hollow
+to the main creek where I had a string of deadfalls set for mink and
+coon. The bear skin was about all the load I cared to tote, but I had
+not gone far down the creek before I had the skins of two good sized
+coon and one mink tied to my load. The coon and mink skins I could
+get in my knapsack so they did not bother much.
+
+After following the creek a distance of about one mile I left the
+creek and went up a long narrow sawtooth point to cross the divide to
+the Cross Fork waters where I had some bear, fox and marten traps
+set. When I was about two-thirds of the way up this point I stopped
+at the side of a large rock which would shelter me from the cold
+wind. The point was covered with low laurel. I had been watching down
+the side of the hill to see if I could not catch sight of some animal
+on the move, but I had not got a glimpse of even a squirrel.
+
+I had about finished my lunch, when I saw the motion of something
+move in the laurel, forty or fifty yards below me. I picked up my gun
+and stood watching, when I again caught sight of the animal and in a
+moment I saw the horns of a deer. I could get the outline of the
+deer's body so I said, "Now or never," and let go the best I could at
+the bunch, but when the smoke from the gun was gone, I could neither
+see nor hear anything but stood ready with my gun to my shoulder. I
+again saw a part of a deer move in an open space in the laurel. I
+again fired at the bunch with the remark that I guessed that I could
+drive him out of there after a while.
+
+I left the bear skin and knapsack at the rock, knowing that the rock
+would be a good landmark to find them by and went down through the
+laurel to see what effect my shot had. When I got to where the deer
+were, when I shot, I readily saw plenty of blood on the green laurel
+leaves and I only had a few steps to go when I saw the buck lying
+dead. I cut his throat and stood waiting for the blood to stop
+flowing and saw a trail that was fresh. I could readily tell by the
+way the leaves and ground were torn up that the trail was of some
+animal that was having a hard time to keep on its feet. You can
+imagine my joy and surprise to get two deer so unexpectedly. I had
+only a few rods to go when I found a good big doe dead.
+
+Well, you may guess that I lost no time in getting the entrails out
+of these two deer and swinging them up as I had the other two for it
+was getting well past noon. I would be a good five miles from camp
+when I got to my first marten trap.
+
+After I got to the top of the divide, I made the best time that was
+in me. I looked at several fox and marten traps but none had been
+disturbed. When I got to the first bear trap on the divide I had an
+occasion to scold and scold hard, but all to no purpose. I found the
+limb of a tree jammed in between the jaws of the trap. Of course, I
+thought some hunter had done me the favor and having as hard a stunt
+ahead of me, you can guess that the trick was not pleasing to me.
+Well, here I learned how foolish it was to fly off the handle before
+you know what has been doing. Now, after a little investigation, I
+found that the limb had been broken from the tree by the wind and it
+so happened that it fell right onto the pan of the trap and sprang
+it. Setting the trap, I hurried on to the next bear trap and here I
+had another chance to be disgusted, even more than in the first case.
+This time it was a porcupine in the trap but there was nothing to be
+done, only reset the trap and hurry on again. None of the other traps
+were disturbed, neither the small traps nor the bear trap until I
+came to the last marten trap which had a marten in it. It was now too
+dark to see to skin it so I was obliged to dump the carcass into the
+knapsack and tote it along with the coons and mink pelts.
+
+I had about one mile to go to reach the road, then four miles to camp
+and I often thought what a hunter and a trapper would endure and call
+it sport. It must have been nearly nine o'clock when I got to camp,
+where I still found the hunting party. They had taken a part of their
+outfit to their camp grounds and had worked on their camp until
+nearly night when they returned to my camp to stay for the night and
+get the balance of their outfit.
+
+Well, I was pleased to find them still in camp for they volunteered
+to go with me the next day and help me get the deer and bear out to
+the road in return for venison and bear meat. This ended one of the
+luckiest and hardest day's work that I ever did on the trail or trap
+line.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+A Mixed Bag.
+
+I promised some of my old trapper friends back East, that I would let
+them, who were fortunate enough to be subscribers to the H-T-T, hear
+from me. I will say that this is a mountain region of the first
+magnitude. A man that cannot mount a donkey and ride over a trail
+where the river is hundreds of feet below, or as it looks to be
+nearly under him, and the trail not more than twelve inches wide,
+hewn out of the solid rock, he had best remain in the East.
+
+This is a sportsman's paradise, and the trapper will find here prey
+in the way of bear, both black and brown, fisher, mink, raccoon, fox,
+otter, panther, or as the natives call them, mountain lion, wildcat,
+skunk, civet cat and many other fur bearing animals and all quite
+numerous. Deer seem to be very abundant. I counted thirteen in a lick
+this morning, and it is not an uncommon thing to see from ten to
+twenty in the licks at one time.
+
+The fishing is said to be the best in the spring and fall. It is not
+an uncommon thing to catch salmon, weighing from six to thirty-five
+pounds, and as it is only thirty-five miles to the Pacific Ocean,
+they are of the very best quality. Mountain trout are plentiful.
+
+Another animal that is plenty is the mountain goat. Bear, mountain
+lion, and other signs are as numerous as those of rabbits in the
+East. I am not prepared at this time, to say how shrewd these animals
+are to trap, but if they take bait as readily as they are reported
+to, they must not be very hard to catch. There is a bounty of $4.00
+on wolves and the writer has seen numerous signs of them.
+
+Will say to my friends in the East that while on my way from the
+coast to the ranch, a distance of only fifty miles, and the most of
+the way over mountain trails, I stopped often to watch the deer
+feeding along the side of the trail. When they saw you they would
+trot off a short distance and begin feeding again.
+
+Only last evening, Mrs. Evie Newell, shot and killed a large mountain
+lion that started into the yard after a pig. It seems to me panthers
+are thicker here than wildcats in Pennsylvania.
+
+* * *
+
+I have experimented with scents for years and have found scents of no
+particular benefit for trapping the fox. I have tried the skunk and
+muskrat scent, the matrix of the female fox taken at the proper time.
+I have had a female fox and have lead her to my trapping place, and I
+have tried many so-called fox scents and all to no purpose. Fox urine
+may, in some particular places, be used to some slight advantage. It
+is not so with other animals in regard to scents, for they do not use
+the same acute instinct that the fox does.
+
+I do not wish to insinuate upon those that do use scent, but for me,
+I would not give a cent for a barrel of so-called fox decoy. I boil
+my traps in soft maple bark, hemlock boughs or something of that
+nature. I do not do this because the fox can be any more readily got
+into the trap, but because it forms a glazing on the trap and thereby
+prevents them from rusting and the trap will then spring more
+readily. It makes no difference how rusty the trap is, so far as
+catching the fox is concerned.
+
+No boys, no scent for me, the fox soon learns to associate the scent
+business with the man, then you are up against it. With me there is
+nothing mysterious about trapping. It is simply practical ways of
+setting the trap, learned from many years of experience.
+
+* * *
+
+I have had fifty years experience as a hunter and trapper. I have
+netted wild pigeons in the Adirondack Mountains, in New York, to the
+Indian Territory, so you know that the articles in H-T-T are very
+interesting to me. I would say that no young trapper should be
+without this journal, although I would advise them not to take too
+readily to scents and decoys.
+
+As to the discussions that have been in H-T-T, one writer says he has
+twenty ways to catch the fox; now I have just as many different ways
+as there are different conditions. I would say that no one can become
+a successful trapper until he learns to comply with the natural
+conditions, which will differ with almost every trap he sets when
+trapping fox, mink, etc.
+
+I will tell my brother trappers what I have been doing this fall
+(1902) along the line of trapping. In August I took a trip through
+portions of Montana, Idaho and Washington, to look up a site to do a
+little trapping this winter. There is much more game here than in the
+East, but nothing like you hear talked of. I found the mountains too
+steep and the underbrush too thick and from what I could learn, I was
+afraid the weather was too cold for one of my age and condition of
+health, but, oh boys, what trout fishing I found in the Clearwater;
+this is a branch of Snake River and empties into that river at
+Lewiston, Idaho.
+
+As I found things, I thought I would return to old Potter County,
+Pennsylvania, and have a little fun trapping the fox and skunk as
+that is about the only game there is in this section when we have no
+beechnuts, for that is the only mast we have here. We have no
+beechnuts this season and most of the fur bearing animals have
+migrated south of here where there are chestnuts, acorns and hickory
+nuts.
+
+Brothers, I will tell you where my camp is, and you will always find
+the latch-string out. My camp stands at the very head of the
+Allegheny River, 1700 feet above sea level. From the cabin door you
+could throw a stone over the divide to where the water flows into the
+west branch of the Susquehanna. In a half hour a person can, from my
+camp, catch trout from the waters of the Allegheny, and the
+Susquehanna.
+
+As we have no beechnuts we have no bears, so I have not set my bear
+traps. This will cut my sport considerably short. I have put out but
+about sixty small traps, so I spend my time about equally between
+camp and home.
+
+I will send a picture of myself and my old dog Mage, who I believe
+knows more about trapping than some families. But poor old Mage is 13
+years old and is following the down trail very rapidly. He is quite
+deaf and gets around with difficulty. Poor fellow, he is nearly to
+the end of the trail.
+
+  [Illustration: WOODCOCK AND HIS OLD TRAPPING DOG--MAGE. THE BEST
+TRAPPING DOG THAT EVER TROD THE EARTH.]
+
+The furs shown in the picture are my first four days' catch with
+forty traps: 9 fox, 2 coon, 1 mink and 7 skunk. My catch to date,
+November 25, in thirteen days is 14 fox, 27 skunk, 9 coon and 1 mink.
+
+* * *
+
+Brothers, I will give some reasons why I do not write more of my
+experience as a trapper. First, I am not much given to writing.
+Second, my experiences in trapping are so different from so many
+trappers who write, that I thought it best to say but little or
+nothing about trapping. I could call myself, "Old Honesty," and
+then write or cause it to be written and published in some of the
+sporting papers, that I had caught 300 fox this season, as I see one
+trapper did, but I would not feel good about it after I had done so.
+Fifty-seven fox are the most that I ever caught in one season.
+
+A brother was down to see me and I was pleased to meet him, I wish to
+say, brother trappers, that if you should have an opportunity to meet
+Brother Stearns, you will find him a gentleman in every respect. But,
+Brother Stearns and I could not agree on the scent question, and he
+did not like to believe that I handled my traps, bait and all
+pertaining to the setting of the trap, bare-handed. He went so far as
+to hint that I was cold-blooded, and even felt of my pulse to see if
+my circulation was all right. Hold on, I am mistaken, it was my hands
+that he felt of to see if they were not cold, but he pronounced them
+all right. He then related a story about an old uncle of his and a
+crow, but shook his head and said it did not do any harm to wear
+gloves if it did not do any good. That is all right, but we do not
+like to be carrying unnecessary weight.
+
+One word with Brother Chas. T. Wells. No, brother, I do not go much
+on scents. Perhaps you would have caught more than 15 fox, but I do
+not like to own that you could have done so. Now the first ten days
+that I was in the woods, there were hundreds of head of cattle in the
+woods, and the woods were full of men gathering them up, and one
+could do but little or nothing in the way of trapping. Neither did
+the 15 include the five that were stolen, nor the two that broke the
+chains and went off with the trap. By the way, Brother Stearns could
+tell you of a chase I had with one of those that carried off a trap,
+the worst jaunt I have had in many a day. No brother, the only scent
+I use is the urine of the fox and I only use that in certain places.
+No, I believe that one good method is much better than scents in
+trapping the fox. If one wishes to use scents, they will find none
+better than some of those advertised in the H-T-T.
+
+Now brothers, while I do not believe that any one man is so cute he
+cannot find his equal, I do not like to believe but that I can catch
+as many fox as the next one--all things being equal. For the last ten
+years I have not set traps over a scope of territory to exceed two or
+three miles square and if Brother Stearns had been on the ground that
+I trapped on, a few days before I began trapping, he would have seen
+but few fox signs. I usually trap on a different piece of ground each
+year. I know of some trappers here that begin trapping the first of
+September and they are good trappers too, but they are so greedy,
+they are willing to kill the "goose that lays the golden egg."
+
+* * *
+
+Several years ago, through the courtesy of Mr. John Shawl, one of the
+Tide Water Pipe Line Co's telegraph operators, I was allowed the use
+of one of their offices for camping purposes during the trapping
+season. Now, do not think that this office was located in a town, for
+it was not. On the contrary, it was located in the largest wooded
+section of this locality, and on the old Jersey Shore Turnpike. There
+was a path or sort of a woods road at the point where this office was
+located, leading from this road to another road, a distance of more
+than four miles and making a cut off for people who wished to go on
+to the waters of the Sinnamahoning or Kettel Creek in Northern
+Pennsylvania.
+
+It was customary for me to stay in camp for a week or ten days and
+then go home and stay two or three days. One day on returning from
+one of my trips home, I had rather better luck than coming, getting 5
+fox, 3 coon and 1 wildcat. I usually hung my furs on the side of the
+building close up under the eaves until I went home, then I would
+take them home on the following morning of the day I had caught them.
+
+There was a rap at the door about five o'clock in the morning and on
+going to the door, I found two men with a lantern; one man of middle
+age, the other a young man. There had just been a fall of snow of
+about four inches, and the men were going onto the Cross Fork of
+Kettel Creek, deer hunting. They had stayed at a farm house on the
+other road and had started from this house between three and four
+o'clock in the morning. Seeing a light in the office, they thought
+they would come in and stay until daylight.
+
+The old gentleman inquired what I was doing there. I informed him
+that I was trying to trap a little. He said that he should not think
+it would pay me, but if I could catch a fox it would be different, as
+he had seen several tracks along the road by the light of the
+lantern. He also told me that he had a recipe for making fox scent,
+that was a dead sure thing, and as I lived so far from his place, I
+would not be liable to interfere with his trapping, he would knock
+off one-half his usual price and sell me a recipe for five dollars.
+
+I said I would see what luck I had while they were gone, and it might
+be possible that I would buy his recipe when he came back. He said,
+delays were dangerous, and that I was losing the greatest opportunity
+of my life, that he might not come back that way. I thanked him, but
+told him I would chance it.
+
+It was now daylight, and as the hunters stepped outside they noticed
+the carcass of a wildcat, and I told them if they would step to the
+corner of the building, they would see what I got yesterday. They did
+so, and gazed for one second at the pelts, then the older of the two
+said, "Come, Charley, let's be going," and they left without even
+bidding me good morning.
+
+Comrades you do not know how I enjoy your letters as given in this
+splendid magazine, especially so this winter (season of 1905-6) as I
+have not been able to trap. But I have no kick coming for this is
+only the third time in fifty years, but what I have been able to be
+out with the traps and gun.
+
+I know that the readers of the H-T-T would be pleased to read
+articles from old veterans. The H-T-T has about reached the height of
+perfection so far as the trapper is concerned. There is none of the
+high top boot, fashionable, corduroy suits and checkered cap business
+about the H-T-T. Success to all.
+
+* * *
+
+Boys, you know how we all like to gather around a camp fire and talk
+over our hunting and trapping experiences, of how we caught a certain
+mink, fox, coon or bear, or how we killed a certain deer. So while we
+are out fishing I thought I would like to have a chat with the
+trappers. And boys, all you who have not camped out for a week and
+had a good time fishing, do not know how much you have lost,
+especially those who need the care of a doctor.
+
+Yes, boys, take your camp outfit and go out into the woods among
+the hills, streams and lakes. There you will find one of the
+most competent doctors and nurses that ever treated the ills
+of human family. Do not forget to take a few copies of the
+HUNTER-TRADER-TRAPPER along and other sporting magazines, as well as
+some of the Harding Library, so while you are resting in camp you can
+visit with the trapper boys all over the Union.
+
+This is May 20, 1905, and the second time I have been out camping and
+fishing this spring. Trout are not as plentiful as they were forty
+years ago by a great deal, but we still get all we can use, and that
+is plenty.
+
+While you are out fishing do not forget to keep a lookout for signs
+of game you will be trapping next winter. You may see where there has
+been a litter of young mink, fox or coon reared. While these animals
+are of migratory nature, they will, nevertheless, visit their old
+homes frequently, so you will find these places a pretty sure place
+to make a catch next fall when you put our your traps. Do not forget
+that during the summer is just the time to fix some of your best sets
+for fox and other fur bearing animals.
+
+As I have had many years experience in camping, let me say to those
+who have never camped, and who expect to camp the coming season, that
+now is the time to hunt up a partner and get acquainted. I have
+camped many seasons in large woods both with and without partners.
+
+
+END OF FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper, by 
+Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock
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