beasts are soon feasting. Should any touch his 

 traps that lay a distance away, it is caught, then 

 anoiher and another, until his traps are lull. If his 

 drags and clogs are right, these howling with 

 pain, retire to a distance, and their howls mingled 

 with that of the beasts fighting for their share, fill 

 the very air with trappers music. Morning comes 

 and the trapper, rifle in hand, secures several more 

 by his skillful aim. Fear he knows not, for seldom 

 will the beasts (gorged as they are with foods) re- 

 sent his appearance, especially as daylight ap- 

 proaches; seeking his traps and the animals there- 

 in, which are seldom afar, he dispatches his vic- 

 tims, and using their carcasses sets his traps "ad 

 finitum," and his winter's catch is assuredly suc- 

 cessful. The writer himself had the pleasure of such 

 an experience when employed in the service of the 

 , U. S. Government, on the borders of Texas (1885 

 to 1893) an d with seven rusty old Newhouse traps 

 secured by the Indian scouts, none of them the 

 regular Wolf trap (No. 4^,) captured no less than 

 five Wolves and Coyotes, besides shooting down 

 with our rifles before dispersing them, seven oth- 

 ers, and as the Texas bounty alone (not counting 

 value of hides) was then $25.00 each, I leave it to 

 the reader whether it was good night's work; and 

 were it not for the fact that we could not (being on 

 travel orders) delay, there would have been no 

 telling what our final aggregate could have been. 

 In conclusion however, let me say that the carcass 

 referred to, was in this case, several Deer shot by 

 the Indians for food, and well staked down to the 

 earth, to preclude any possibility of their being 

 dragged away. 



K H 



107 



