ON THE TRAP AND TROT LINE IN THE SOUTH. 283 



aware that the fur-bearers throughout the country are rapidly 

 becoming scarcer each year. While I found more mink, coon 

 and muskrats here in Alabama than I did in either Georgia or 

 North Carolina, yet I did not see mink, coon or rat signs in 

 comparison to what they were a year ago, and I do not believe 

 that there was one-third as many mink, coon or muskrats as there 

 was last season. Opossum seem to hold their own fairly well. 



Well, comrades, the picture here shows the greater part of our 

 Alabama catch of furs. I trapped in Alabama about three weeks 

 when I went to Georgia, where I expected, from what I was told, 

 to find far better trapping than was to be had here in Alabama, but 

 I was sadly disappointed. 



* * * 



Leaving Tryanna, Alabama, by wagon, I went to Farley, eigh- 

 teen miles. There I took a train to Huntsville, then by the 

 Southern R. R. by the way of Chattanooga to Dikes Creek, Georgia, 

 where I went into camp. I camped at this place about two weeks, 

 building two boats, one a good large boat, sufficient to move my 

 whole -outfit from point to point, as I moved down the Etowah 

 River, then the Coosa River. The other boat was much smaller, 

 being suited to the trap and trot line. Boys, you who have trapped 

 on the rivers and large streams of the South, know that the traps 

 and the trot line go hand in hand and with only two or three trot 

 lines, to one who is onto the job, you will find them quite 

 profitable as well as a pleasure. In most places you will find ready 

 sale for the fish you catch at 10 to 12 cents a pound. If one runs 

 his trot lines two or three times a day and takes in from 20 to 100 

 pounds of fish, it is a little item along the financial trail. But, 

 boys, there is a knack in running a trot line in a successful manner 

 as well as a trap line. Where the trot line is run in connection 

 with the trap line, it makes quite an addition to the trapper's job, 

 for he will be out as late as 9 or 10 o'clock before going to bed 

 to run the trot lines, take off the fish and rebait the lines. It is also 

 necessary to put in any spare time that happens your way in 

 digging wigglers, hunting crawfish and other bait. 



The boat is an absolute necessity in trapping in the South, as 

 the most of the fur-bearers are found along the rivers and large 



