CHAPTER XXXII. 

 Trapping in Alabama. 



ELL, comrades of the trap line, as I am getting well up 

 to the seventy notch, and as the chills of zero weather 

 chases one after the other up and down my spinal 

 column, like a dog after a rabbit in a briar patch, and as 

 I am unable to shake off that desire for the trap line, I concluded 

 to go south again to trap. I began an inquiry in several different 

 sections, in states of the South, and finally decided upon Alabama, 

 where a gentleman and a brother trapper by the name of Ford had 

 invited me to come. On the last days of October, 1911, I arrived 

 in Alabama where I met Mr. Ford, whom I found to be a gentle- 

 man in all respects, and a member of the M. E. Church. 



My first day's outing after reaching Mr. Ford's place was on 

 the Tennesse River, raising fish nets, and putting out a few mink 

 traps to ascertain what the complexion of the inner side of a 

 mink's coat was. I got a mink the first night, which I found to 

 be of fairly light color, but not quite light enough to my liking. 

 The setting of more traps was delayed for a few days and we 

 spent the time in tending the fish nets. 



I have whipped the streams and drowned earth-worms for 

 brook trout and other fish, from my childhood days to the present 

 time. I had never done any fishing in large rivers with nets, so 

 you can imagine my feelings when one net after another was 

 raised which contained many fish of different kinds, such as yel- 

 low cat, channel cat, buffalo, pickerel, pike, carp, suckers, black 

 bass (called trout in the South) and many other kinds. These fish 

 ran in weight all the way from one-fourth pound up to twenty 

 pounds each, and occasionally a buffalo or yellow catfish much 

 larger. Mr. Ford informed me that often on trot lines they got 

 sturgeon, weighing more than one hundred pounds. 



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