80 FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER. 



baited and set any of the deadfalls that we had built up to this 

 time. The steel traps we set for fox and wildcats, as there was 

 a bounty of two dollars on wildcats at that time. 



In setting out the fox traps the knowledge that I had got of 

 the locality was of much benefit to me. I had kept a watch out 

 for warm springs and other good likely places to catch a fox or 

 other animals. After we had all the deadfalls and steel traps out 

 but three or four otter traps, we set one or two at the drift 

 where I caught one the fall before. The others we set where we 

 found otter signs. 



While setting the traps we got a marten or two, as well as 

 one or two mink and coon. We had had one or two little flurries 

 of snow, but we did not leave the traps to hunt deer. Now 

 that the traps were all set, we divided up the trap lines as best 

 we could for each one to attend to while hunting deer. In divid- 

 ing up the lines in this way we saved much time, as we would 

 not both be working the same territory. 



Now business began to get quite lively, and we were seldom 

 in camp until after dark, and we were up early and had breakfast 

 over and our lunch packed in our knapsacks. The lunch usually 

 consisted of a good big hunk of boiled venison and a couple of 

 doughnuts and a few crackers, occasionally the breast of a par- 

 tridge, fried in coon or bear oil. Sometimes the lunch would freeze 

 in the knapsacks and it would be necessary to gather a little paper 

 bark from a yellow birch and a little rosin from a hemlock, black 

 birch or hard maple tree and build a little fire to thaw the lunch. 

 This, however, was quickly done, and was a pleasure rather than 

 a hardship. I have delighted in eating the lunch in this manner 

 for many a winter on the trap line or trail, as have many other 

 hunters and trappers. 



Bill and I always had our lunch packed and ready to take 

 up the trail at the first peep of day. Sometimes when we would 

 get in late, tired and wet and our clothes frozen, I would suggest 

 to Bill that we shut up camp and take a wood job, just to see what 

 Bill would have to say. He would say that there would be time 

 to take a wood job in the spring or after he had killed a certain 

 large buck which is usually called "Old Golden." There were but 



