130 FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER. 



a big pile of wood cut and piled close to the door. We now began 

 to explore the country for the best sites to set our traps, mostly 

 Nos. 2, 3 and 4, besides seven bear traps, all Newhouse. We would 

 build deadfalls along the line, for we would not set a steel trap 

 only where we were quite sure that we would make a catch. We 

 used the water set mostly for wolves and fox, and of course, for 

 mink and coon. 



Good springs were not so common where water sets could be 

 made as in Pennsylvania. We could find occasionally a good log 

 crossing where we could get in a set for wolf, but suitable places 

 of this kind were not plentiful. We worked for beaver all we 

 could. We would break a notch in their dams and then set a trap 

 just on the edge of break in water just deep enough so the beaver 

 would spring the trap. It was while trapping here that I learned 

 to make the bait set for beaver. This is to use the kind of wood 

 beaver were feeding on for bait. 



We caught three or four wolves on the ice close to the bank. 

 Sometimes the ice would settle along the banks and the water 

 would run over the ice too close to the shore and then freeze. This 

 made a good path, or rather place for the wolf to travel. Now, 

 where a spruce or cedar tree would fall into the lake so as to leave 

 a narrow space between the boughs on the tree and the bank, was 

 a good place to set. We would watch the weather and when it 

 began snowing we would go to one of these trees from the ice 

 or water side, cut a notch in the ice, put in some ashes or dry pul- 

 verized rotten wood. The notch cut in the ice must be just deep 

 enough to let the trap down level with the surface. The clog was 

 concealed under a bough of the tree. 



Now, I wish to say that I was never able to catch a timber 

 wolf unless I was able to outwit him, and in order to do this the 

 conditions and surroundings must be perfect for making the set. 

 Where we found good places to make a. set of this kind we would 

 place the carcass of a deer several yards from shore out on the 

 ice. This would entice the wolves to come around, and of course 

 increase our chances of making a catch. 



We were bothered some by having a wolverine follow a line 

 of deadfalls, tear down the bait pen and take the bait, but we did 



