BARREL-HOUSK BLIND 



camp and leaving the Kankakee hunting 

 grounds to the agriculturist, which is now pass- 

 ing into its third stage of development, I want to 

 tell the readers of another type of hunters 

 known as the fur hunters, and their hunting out- 

 fit consisted of a good dog or two. an axe, a 

 shovel and a rat spear. I have told the reader 

 how we. hunted the deer, shot the wild geese, 

 trapped wild animals. Now I will relate how we 

 hunted the ring-tail, raccoon, mink and musk- 

 rat, and occasionally an otter but not very often 

 as they stay close to deep water. If there was 

 snow on the ice the coon and mink were 

 tracked to their dens and the musk-rat was 

 speared in his house with a long two-pronged 

 spear jabbed through the house where the rats 

 stayed during the day. But the coon and mink 

 were mostly hunted with dogs. Scores of fur 

 hunters who hunted the swamps with dogs 

 never hunted with a gun at all and the hunter 

 who owned a good coon or mink dog in those 

 days had something that was valuable. One 



166 



