FRED AND THE OLD TRAPPER. 



95 



will now move on to the next. We will take the mink to the next 

 trap before skinning it." 



"What is that over yonder on the other side of the creek?" 



"That is a coon and it is in a trap. Fred, you take my cane and 

 kill it while I fix up the bait pen, for it has torn things up as bad 

 as a bear would." 



"Why did you not use stones to build this pen?" 



"Old chunks are just as good and much handier to get, and there 

 was plenty of moss on the old logs near to cover it with." 



"Why do you not use old bushy" limbs here?" 



"You see this trap sets in the mouth of a small spring run; we 

 will cut some little twigs and stick them up in the ground, in 

 place of the brush, to make the runway, as we call it. We will now 

 skin the mink. Rip straight down the hind leg from the heel to 

 the vent. Now lay the knife down and start the skin loose on the 

 legs with the thumb and finger; work the skin down the leg to the 

 root of the tail then take knife and cut the skin loose around the 

 vent working the skin free around the roots of tail until you can 

 get your fingers of the left hand around the tail bone. Now with 

 the right hand near the body of the mink pulling with the right 

 and you will strip the tail clean from the bone. With the knife 

 make a slit on either fore leg about one inch from the heel and 

 around the leg. You are now ready to strip the skin down the body 

 to the fore legs and with the thumb and finger work the leg out. 

 Strip the skin down to the ears and with the knife cut the ears close 

 to the head, continue to strip the skin down to the eyes, cut around 

 the eyes close to the bone and use the knife on down to the end of 

 nose. That was a short job. Now we will put this mink carcass in 

 the back end of the pen and cut the balance of the rabbit up and put 

 it in the pen back about six inches from the trap." 



"Don't you use any scent; I have heard people say that you 

 use some kind of scent?" 



"I use none, only of the animal itself. It did not take long to 

 take the pelt off that coon; we will strip some of that fat from 

 the carcass and do it up in the skin and put it in the knapsack; 

 hang the carcass up on that sapling. We must be moving now. 

 Our next trap is a bear trap ; it sets up in that little sag you see and 



