TRAPPING AND BEE HUNTING. 173 



over and all the game driven out. Smoky was not far from the 

 mark in his prophesying. 



We now began to put out the small traps at as good a "jag" 

 as I was able to stand the travel. We had, while bee hunting at 

 odd times, selected and prepared many of the sets so that we were 

 now able to set out many more traps in a day than we could have 

 done had we not fixed and selected many places for sets. The 

 fourth day of November was a very warm day in Potter County, 

 and as we had not tried to get any bees west of camp, I to.ld 

 Smoky that we had better let the balance of the traps go for a 

 day and try the bees in that direction as it was not likely that we 

 would have many more days that bees would fly during the season. 



We went about one-half mile west of camp and put out the 

 bee bait and burned more comb. It was not long before a bee 

 came to the bait and then another and another, until we had several 

 at work. As soon as the first bee that came was loaded up and 

 began to make preparations to go, I told Smoky to keep a good 

 eye on him to see which way he went, as the quicker we got a 

 line the quicker we could move on. 



When the bee first started from the bait, he jagged off east, 

 then he circled so that neither Smoky nor I could tell which way he 

 went. I told Smoky that I was afraid that the bee went back up 

 the creek toward a tree we had already found. Smoky said that 

 he did not know what made me think so, for no one could tell 

 which direction that bee went. I told Smoky that I had always 

 noticed that the way that the bee first started when leaving the 

 bait was pretty sure to be in the direction of the tree and to get in 

 position so that he could see well if the bee should fly back up 

 the creek as we had no time to spare on bees flying in that 

 direction. 



It was not long before we had bees a-plenty and they came 

 from a tree that we had already found. I told Smoky that we 

 would leave some bait there so that those bees would not follow 

 us, and we would move down the creek some distance before we 

 would try for more. We moved nearly a mile, and while I was 

 fixing a stand there was no stump or good place to set the box 

 so I cut a stick about four feet long, an inch in diameter and split 



