CHAPTER XIII. 

 Hunting and Trapping in Cameron County, Pa., in 1869. 



TN my last letter on hunting and trapping in Cameron County, 

 I promised to give Bill Earl's ana 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 com- 

 pelled to stay there over night, the distance being too far to reach 

 camp the first day. At Emporium we purchased what more nec- 

 essaries 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 in- 



