CHAPTER VIII 

 TRAPPERS' CLAIMS 



TRAPPERS' CLAIMS 



AND HOW THEY WERE 



OBTAINED. THE BEE-TREE 



SWINDLE AND HOW 



IT WAS WORKED 



It was away back in 1868. Think of it. Fifty 

 years ago when I made my first appearance in 

 the Kankakee Swamps. Since then I have 

 hunted in swamps and on mountains, in the big 

 forests and on the plains, but none clings to my 

 memory quite so well as when my thoughts 

 ramble to the days when I was trapping the fur- 

 bearing animals in the Kankakee region. There 

 are many very funny things happened in those 

 old hunting days. I told my early experiences 

 in the first chapter of this book from the angle of 

 a pioneer hunter of the west, although it did not 



85 



