76 FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER. 



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 



