PLAN OF A CAMPAIGN. 123 



crevices with moss to keep the wind out, and the structure 

 is finished. Build your fire in the centre ; that makes a par- 

 tition ; you have one room for a sleeping apartment, the other 

 for a dining-room. This is my home shanty. It is quite 

 necessary to have other shanties on the trapping line, to stop 

 in over night, as I always calculate to be three days going 

 round a circle, in setting and tending traps. 



What I call an outfit for a trapping campaign, or at least 

 what I take, is, one large axe to the home shanty, where I do 

 my cooking, a tin six quart pail, for carrying water and other 

 purposes, a pint cup, a sheet-iron bake-pan with lid, for baking 

 bread and cooking game in, and a blanket, leaving it at the 

 home shanty. I always carry a gun, (and prefer a double bar- 

 reled shot and rifle gun,) a small axe weighing ten or twelve 

 ounces, a pocket knife, a butcher knife in my belt, and from 

 eighty to one hundred and fifty traps for one line. If there 

 are many beaver you want one or two traps to each family. 

 Sometimes I use the No. 1 Newhouse trap with good success 

 for otter and beaver ; and I have caught four wolves in that 

 sized trap on land. But I prefer for my own use, for taking 

 beaver and otter, the No. 2 or fox trap. In the way of pro- 

 visions, I carry butter and flour, and some tea, salt, and 

 pepper. For meat I depend on my gun and traps. 



In setting traps attention should be paid to the signs of 

 game. These are well known to old trappers, and are learned 

 by careful observation. 



Beaver can easily be found in the fall by their cutting tim- 

 ber for their winter supply of food, and for repairing or building 

 dams. During the summer they play about, laying up nothing, 

 and feeding on aquatic plants till about the first of October. 

 At this time, dam beaver begin to build their dams, and draw 

 in timber for winter supplies. Bank beaver never build dams 

 but live in the banks of streams, in holes lined with grass and 

 leaves. Their holes start from the bottom of the stream, or 

 at least three or four feet under water, rising up into the bank, 

 above the level of the water, so that they are dry to sleep in. 

 Bank beaver feed like other beaver, drawing sticks into their 

 dwellings, eating the bark off, and then carrying the refuse 



