CHAPTER XII. 

 Some Michigan Trips. 



OWING to the recent fires (1905) in the northern portion of 

 Michigan, which have undoubtedly killed many of the smaller 

 fur bearing animals in that section, has called to mind 

 experiences I had trapping and hunting in both the Lower 

 and Upper Peninsulas of that state. In the fall of 1868 on the 

 first of October, a party of four of us took a boat at Buffalo, 

 New York, and went to Alpena on Thunder Bay, Michigan, where 

 we purchased provisions for a winter's campaign hunting and 

 trapping. 



We engaged a team to take our outfit up the Thunder Bay 

 River, a distance of about twenty miles, where the road ended. 

 The road was an old lumber road and rather rough over those 

 long stretches of corduroy. We camped at the end of the lumber 

 road the first night and the team returned home the next morning. 

 We took our knapsacks with some blankets and grub and went up 

 the river to find a camping ground to suit our notion. 



Mr. Jones and myself took the one axe that we carried with 

 us and began clearing a site to build the camp on. Mr. Goodsil 

 and Mr. Vanater went back after more of the supplies, which 

 included another good axe and a crosscut saw. They cut out a road 

 as they returned so that we could drive to camp when it became 

 necessary. At the end of a week we had up a good log cabin, 

 and all was ready to begin to slay the deer and skin the fur bearers. 

 Two of the boys now went down to Alpena to get the mail and send 

 letters home. On the boys' return next day they brought word that 

 we would not be allowed to ship any deer out of the state. This put 

 a wry face on Goodsil and Jones, for deer hunting was their delight. 

 It was not so bad with Vanater and myself, for we could find 

 plenty of sport with the traps and tanning a few deer skins. Van- 



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