SOUTHERN EXPERIENCES ON THE TRAP LINE. 277 



making, but when it came to boiling water without burning it, 

 your humble servant could hold him a close second. 



Say boys, I forgot to say that you will find Billy the Sneakum 

 just as numerous in Dixie as he is in Pennsylvania. 



* * * 



Comrades of the trap line, I am not in condition to write 

 much at this time owing to my health, but, later I hope to be able 

 to give a fuller account of my trapping experiences of 1912 in 

 Alabama, northern Georgia, northwestern North Carolina and 

 southeastern Tennessee. And Comrades, right here I wish to say 

 that through the above mentioned sections of the south, I found 

 nearly every trapper a reader and lover of the Hunter-Trader- 

 Trapper, and many of these readers seemed like old neighbors 

 to the writer, when he met them. 



Well boys, during all of last year, my health was such that 

 I never again expected to hit the trap line, but as the frost began 

 to turn the leaves of the timber on the hillsides, the trap fever 

 became so high that I was compelled to take a half dozen traps 

 and take to the brush. The first night I got two foxes, the 

 second night I got another fox, three skunk and wife's pet cat. 

 The catching of Timy (the cat) caused wife to put up such a fight, 

 that I was compelled to pull the traps, pack my outfit and start 

 for Alabamr. 



Now boys, I am not going to tell you entirely of my own 

 experience, but of the experiences of other trappers and hunters 

 as told me by them. One trapper told of the killing of a bear 

 in the thick cane brakes in the swamps of the Mississippi. It was 

 against the game laws of Mississippi to kill bear at that time of 

 the year, and as these hunters could not resist the taking of this 

 bear, they put up a job on the bear. There were four of the 

 hunters going through the thick cane brake, when they saw the 

 bear coming toward them. The head man pulled his hunting knife, 

 and told the other hunters to lie down, he dropping to his knees, 

 knife in hand. When the bear was close up to him he sprang 

 up and shouted "boo". The bear raised up on its hind feet and 

 the hunter seized the bear and plunged the knife into it. The 

 other hunters sprang to their feet, gun in hand and shot the bear. 



