62 FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER. 



The middle of October came. We packed our knapsacks with 

 a grub stake, a blanket or two, and taking- our guns started for 

 the Big Woods, with a feeling that is not known to those who 

 are not lovers of the wild. 



As we only had a limited number of steel traps it was our 

 intention to spend the first week in camp, building deadfalls for 

 coon and mink and use the steel traps for fox. Our intention 

 was to build as many deadfalls as we would be able to attend to 

 before we baited and set any of them. We had built our traps 

 on many of the small brooks and streams to the south and east 

 of the camp, and had built traps on the stream on which the camp 

 was located nearly a mile below camp. 



About a mile and a half below camp there was another branch 

 coming in from the north. Pard and I started early one morn- 

 ing to finish the line of traps on the camp stream and then go up 

 the stream that came from the north and build as many traps as 

 we could during the balance of the day. We had finished the line 

 of traps on the camp stream, and had built a trap or two on the 

 other branch, when pard complained of having a bad headache, but 

 refused to go to camp. We built another trap or two, when pard 

 consented to go to camp, if I would build another trap on a little 

 spring run where coon signs were plentiful, which I readily con- 

 sented to do. W T hen I got the trap done it was nearly sundown. 



It was about three miles to camp so I hurried to see how pard 

 was feeling. I had not gone more than a half mile on my way 

 from where pard turned back to go to camp, when I found him 

 lying on the ground. He said that he was feeling so sick that he 

 was unable to go any further and complained that every bone in 

 his body ached. 



After explaining to pard the conditions under which we were 

 placed, it was with difficulty that I managed to get him .up, and by 

 supporting and half carrying him I managed to get him along a 

 few rods at a time. I could see that he was continually growing 

 worse. After I had helped until we were within about three- 

 quarters of a mile of camp, he begged me to let him lie down 

 and rest. I tried to urge him along by explaining that I must go 

 for a team to get him out of the woods, and that I could not leave 



