144 FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER. 



up in the skin, saving out a few choice pieces to frizzle over the 

 coals and eat with our lunch before bunking* in for the night. 



We had seen some parties, while picking berries during the 

 day. They told us that there was a man by the name of Sage living 

 down on the 1 river near Emporium, who had a large clearing on 

 the hill only about a mile from where we were, or about two miles 

 from our camp. He told us in which direction we would find the 

 field, and said that we would find M,r. Sage there, as he was up 

 there cutting oats. As the grub stake for the horses was getting 

 rather low, and as we were not yet ready to go home, Bill said 

 that if I would stay and jerk the venison (for here we cannot 

 keep venison by hanging it up in a tree, or on a pole, as you can 

 on the Pacific Coast or in the Rockies), he would go and see 

 Mr. Sage. 



In the morning I began preparation to jerk the venison, while 

 Bill went in search of grub for the horses. There was no road, but 

 there was but very little down timber in the woods in those days, 

 only occasionally a wind jam, which you had to work your way 

 around. Bill found the clearing all right, and got oats in the bundle 

 for the horses. Bill also made arrangements with Mr. Sage to bury 

 eight bushels of potatoes and leave them on the hill where we could 

 get them as we wished. Bill also killed a large rattlesnake on his 

 way to the field, which he brought to camp, where we skinned and 

 took out the oil. When we were skinning the snake Bill remarked, 

 "that he thought the fur rather light on the varmint, but it was a 

 pretty cuss." Let me say that at our place on the head waters of 

 the Allegheny we had no eels, rattlesnakes or wartelberries, so we 

 concluded that we would stop one night on the Sinnamahoning and 

 get some eels to take home with us. 



While Bill was gone for horse feed I was busy jerking the 

 venison. I gathered a good hill of dry hemlock bark from the logs, 

 burned it to a good pile of live coals. I now made a rack or grid- 

 iron by driving four crotched stakes in the ground about the 

 embers and then laid small poles across in the crotches to form a 

 rack to spread the venison on over the coals. I stood hemlock 

 bark up about the rack, freshly peeled from the tree and covering 

 the top over also with bark, which forms an oven. It is necessary 



