l6 FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER. 



longer and my hunts took me farther into the woods. Finally 

 game became scarcer my hunts grew from a few hours in leng 

 to weeks and months camping in a cabin built in the woods 

 a section where game was plenty. 



At the age of thirteen while out with a party of men on 

 hunting and fishing trip, I killed my first bear. While I had nc 

 been out each fall with my 'traps and gun, it was not until I w 

 about eighteen years old that I took my first lesson from an o 

 and experienced trapper, a man nearly eighty years old and 

 trapper and hunter from boyhood. The man's name was Ale' 

 Harris. We made our camp in the extreme southeastern part < 

 this (Potter) County in a section known as "The Black Fores 

 and it was here that I learned many things from an experieno 

 trapper and hunter that served me well on the tra^ line and tl 

 trail, in the years that followed. 



It was here that I made my first bed in a foot or more < 

 snow with a fire against a fallen tree and a few boughs throv 

 on the ground for a bed. At other times perhaps a bear skin ju 

 removed from the bear for covering, or I might have no coverii 

 other than to remove my coat and spread it over me. This 

 have often done when belated on the trail so that I was unab 

 to reach the cabin and was happy and contented. 



It was here I first learned to do up the saddles or the ca 

 cass of a deer in the more convenient way to carry. It was he 

 that I took my first practical lessons in skinning, stretching, curh 

 and handling of skins and furs. I also learned many things < 

 traps and trapping and to do away with sheath knives and oth 

 unnecessary burdens on the trap line. In my younger days 

 preferred to "go it alone" when in a country that I was famili; 

 with and many a week I have spent in my cabin alone save f< 

 my faithful dog, but as I grew older and became afflicted wi' 

 rheumatism I have found a partner more acceptable. 



I have met with many queer circumstances while on the tn 

 line and trail, yet I have neve,r met with any of those blooi 

 curdling and hair-breadth escapes from wild animals which a 

 mostly "pipe dreams". Perhaps the nearest I ever came to beir 

 seriously hurt by a wild animal was from a large buck deer. 



