SOUTHERN EXPERIENCES ON THE TRAP LINE. 275 



a powerful animal scent to draw the razorback to the trap. To 

 avoid the porker the trap must be set three inches below the 

 water or six feet above the ground. As foxes are not given to 

 tree climbing as a usual thing the trapper is sorely tried to devise 

 schemes to take the fox in a section where the razorback is get- 

 ting in his work. He is found in most places in the South, al- 

 though there are some counties and even townships that have a 

 stock law. 



The great difficulty with a non-resident or a stranger in get- 

 ting a site to camp on, is that he must be where he can use the 

 water from some one's well, as springs are not very plenty. The 

 water in the branches, small streams or rivers are not such that 

 a trapper should use; there is such a heavy drainage from swamps 

 that are ft ill of decayed vegetation, so that the trapper would 

 soon be looking for a doctor rather than for opossum and coon. 



On South River near Parkersburg, we got a good place to 

 camp, and the people were very kind and neighborly. Mr. Green, 

 the postmaster at Parkersburg, and his family, with whom we 

 stopped a short time before going into camp, were very kind and 

 generous. The young ladies, daughters of Mr. Green, gave us 

 some fine music on the piano, accompanied with singing during 

 the evenings. 



About eighteen or twenty miles from Parkersburg on Turn- 

 bull Creek where we expected to do the greater part of our 

 trapping, and where mink and' coon were quite plentiful with 

 considerable otter signs, we were unable to get a place to camp. 

 The people objected to outside trappers infringing on what they 

 apparently looked upon as their individual right. 



At the junction of Cape Fear and Black Rivers in Bladen 

 and Fender counties, there is a section of low swampy country, 

 which is a wild country where there is deer and bear as well as 

 furbearers such as otter, mink, muskrats and coon. The latter are 

 quite numerous. There is also wild turkey, quail and ducks on 

 the river. Now this section of the country had a colony of 

 mixed whites and colored people (Mulatto) who lived in these 

 swamps, other people rarely going into that locality. 



