FOREST AND STHEAMf L ' 
Reminiscences. 
Was there ever a country-born Yankee boy who Idved 
the woods and its wild things, or one who merely pos- 
sessed the survival of savagery called by courtesy the 
sporting instinct, who did not in some way try his hand 
and wits at trapping? It is quite apt to begin with the 
mice in the dairy room, grainery and barn under the 
stimulant of a reward offered of so much a dozen. With 
his outfit of garrotte and wire traps or the simpler in- 
vented bowl and splint spindle, no great skill and care 
are needed, though the more used the better the returns 
in the pursuit *of these small deer. When he aspires to 
rats he has to cope with a much more cunning animal ; 
indeed, an experienced old rat will call forth the best 
efforts of the young trapper. He must be careful there 
are no lumps in the covering to prevent the jaws coming 
together ; but sometimes a gray-headed veteran forgets his 
usual caution and is unwary enough to step into a trap 
the boy has set with little care. 
I remember when the trapping fever first began to 
burn in my veins. A girl cousin from the great city 
was my playmate, and became my partner in this new en- 
terprise, which was proposed by me at sight of a big rat 
sneaking along the border of our playground. She was 
as eager as I for the pay, and being heavier than I by 
virtue of her three years seniority, she stood on the spring 
while I, at the peril of getting my fingers pinched, suc- 
ceeded in setting the stubborn trap. I'hen, according to 
instructions previously given by my elders, aiter the trap 
was staked strongly enough to hold a raccoon, we spread 
a piece of cotton over it, on which a handful of Indian 
meal was poured directly above the pan, and then re- 
tired to await the result in what would have been a season 
of unendurable impatience if it had not been for the won- 
derful tales my pretty cousin told of the great cit}'. Sud- 
denly it was interrupted by an ear-splitting outcry coming 
from the direction of our trapping operations, a sound 
of such volume that I could scarcely believe it to be made 
by a rat, and by the scared look on her face my cousin 
thought that some terrible wild beast was coming to at- 
tack us. I started in hot haste, and assured by my 
movement, she followed. As we ran past the woodpile, I 
snatched a couple of stout clubs froin it and gave one of 
them to her. 
Sure enough, though almost too good to be true, there 
was our big rat fast in the trap, tugging at it till the 
chain jingled again, while "he roared an' he shoutut 
millia o' murthers," as our Irish hired man declared. We 
advanced to the attack in a great flurry of excitement, 
threshing the ground, the trap, and perhaps occasionally 
the rat, with indiscriminate blows, cheering each other 
on with loud shouts, to which our victim added his shrill 
plaint, altogether maldng an uproar so unusual that it 
was a wonder it did not bring all the household to the 
scene. We were glad enough that it did not, as our 
adventure turned out. If the trap had not been a well- 
wrought product of the blacksmith's forge, our wild 
mauling would have broken it. But there were no others 
then, the march of improvement having not yet developed 
the cheap factory-made trap. 
But there was mischief to be wrought in another way, 
for presently one of our misdirected downright blows fell 
squarely on the spring, relieving the jaws just enough to 
let go the rat's foot while he was pulling with might 
and main, and out slipped the foot, and away went he, 
hobbling and limping, yet making speed enough to escape 
our wretched aim, and he vanished in the tangled thicket 
of mallows. 
The woebegone . and rueful faces we turned to each 
other when our captive disappeared so unaccountably were 
complete expressions of bitter disappointment. But when 
it was made evident beyond question that we were the 
cause of the mishap, our disgust and humiliation were 
greater than our disappointment. To make it worse, it 
was impossible to tell whose club struck the unlucky 
blow, and neither one had the consolation of saying, "You 
did it!" ■ 
In vain we tried, to retrieve our luck by new exploits. 
Our escaped prisoner had gained wisdom by his ex- 
perience, and could not be bequiled by the daintiest baits, 
nor fooled by carefulest covering of the trap, after smok- 
ing it to destroy the scent of iron, which we were told 
by the wise was necessary in trapping wary animals. 
People who ought to know better will tell you the same 
to-day, though the absurdity of the idea is apparent when 
we remember that the house rat is in daily contact with all 
sorts and shapes of iron implements ; and that the fox, 
wariest and cunningest of animals that traps are set for. 
trots unconcernedly across and along the railroad track 
and crawls through the wire fence, leaving furrj^ memen- 
toes 'of his passage on the barbs. It is not the scent of 
the metal that causes wild animals to fear a trap, but that 
of their arch enemy — man. A good trapper understands 
this, and takes constant care not to touch trap, bait or 
anything not covered by water or earth in trapping the 
warier animals. Our veteran must have told his ad- 
ventures to all the younger members of his tribe, for we 
were unable to inveigle even one pink-tailed youngster 
into our toils, and gave up the attempt in despair. 
The boy's next step upward in the line of trapping is 
usually an easy and natural one of attempting the capture 
of the woodchuck and the skunk, both animals being 
common residents of the open fields and counted as 
enem.ies by the farmer, who takes no account of the ver- 
min, bugs and grubs they destory, but only of a few beans, 
chickens and eggs. 
My instructor in the simple art was an old black man 
who was a pretty constant member of our family in 
my childhood. He aspired to nothing higher in the line 
of trapping than the capture of what he called "woo*- 
chucks" and skunks — the first for the pelts, the second for 
the oil alone, the fur not being considered of any value. 
The oil was a soverign remedy for croup and rheumatism, 
and therefore in demand by youth and age. 
I have as distinct a picture of Mingo as if it were but 
yesterday that I saw him setting forth on some wood- 
chuck's life and pelt intent, his carefully preserved straw 
hat put on in honor of spring's return and worn far back 
of his shining bald pate, his square-built, solid body bent 
forward from the hips and rocking from side to side with 
the movement of his stiffened rheumatic knees, which 
made him a good customer of his own "skunks' ile," his 
toes turned so far out that it seemed as if he might as 
easily walk backward as forward, while his eyes would 
be bent all the time on the ground in search of something 
worth picking up — perhaps a pin if he walked in the 
road, it in the field a leat of sorrel or a spng of penny- 
royal or an early strawberry, it was a wonder to me 
that he could discover a tarnished old pin among the 
dust and litter of the road, and still the wonder grew at 
the dozens which were ranked on the collars of tiis vest 
and coat to be transferred afterward to his pin box, a 
tube of hollowed elder. The sorrel was given to me to re- 
gale myself with, scarcely less welcome than the straw- 
berry to my omnivorous palate. The pennyroyal went 
home to join the congregation of bundles and bags of 
healing roots and herbs on the garret rafters, each marked 
with Its name and date of gathering in my mother's neat 
handwriting. 
The lair of the woodchuck having been previously dis- 
covered, Mingo led the way directly to it, usually on 
some sunny southern bank where the first greenness of 
spring showed in the young grass and the swollen buds 
of the elder. .If the owner was at home he was usually 
found sitting erect on his earthern threshold, from which 
he precipitately retired to inner privacy with a chuckling 
whistle expressive of alarm and defiance. Then Mingo 
rejoiced exceedingly, for he counted the pelt of the be- 
sieged as belonging to us. 
A crotched stick was driven through the trap ring into 
the ground firmly and and the trap set inside the thresh- 
hold with a piece of paper over the pan to keep the 
earth from getting under it, and the whole covered 
lightly with loam, quite free from pebbles and lumps. 
I watched fhe operation with close interest from first 
to last, when Mingo, having pronounced his work well 
done, and invited the occupant of the hole to come out 
and inspect it, we withdrew quietly. 
Age and experience had taught my mentor to wait the 
result philosophically, but I was in a fever of impatience 
and was loath to go a rod from the hole until Mingo 
enticed me to the woods with stories of treasures they 
might yield. If it was too early in the year for the richest 
of them, there was at least black birch bark, akin in 
flavor to the wintergreen berries that were crimsoning 
the woodland cradle knolls where the arbutus hid its blos- 
soms among the rusty leaves, any one of them a bait 
tempting enough to catch a boy, to say nothing of the 
pretty and interesting sights always provided by the 
w^oods. Mingo cared nothing for these, but only for 
what was edible, medicinal or in some way practically 
useful. The range of each class seemed to me unlimited, 
and he was always surprising me with some new extension 
of one or the other of them. Now it was a bulb, vulgarly 
and very properly called "tallow ball," for it spread 
itself on one's teeth and the roof of the mouth with the 
tenacity of mutton tallow. Or it was an "Indian cucum- 
ber," a root slightly resembling the cucumber in taste 
and crispness. Its chief fault was, there was too little of 
it. Mingo knew just when the pine sapling would 
yield a delicious substance from its inside bark, known 
to us as "slyvers." It had a sweet, slightly balsamic taste 
and had a high place in our woodland bill of fare. • The 
tender, sub-acid young beech leaves and tendrils of the 
wild grape had their time and place, and wild ginger 
was always in favor and in season whenever it could be 
found. The tender white heart of the young leaves of 
sweet flag were highly prized, and the pungent root was 
dug and carried home to become a prime delicacy when 
sliced and boiled in maple sugar. Sometimes in moist 
spots where the sweet flag grew we found and carried 
home the dark green, slender stalks of the "scouring 
rushes," valued for brightening tin and whitening wooden- 
ware. 
Among them all, enough was found to beguile me 
until Mingo thought proper to examine the trap. 
If it turned out that the besieged woodchuck was a 
captive, Mingo loudly celebrated the triumph as was his 
custom in like events. I have been told that upon the 
occasion of his catching a 25-pound catfish in Little 
Otter one night he raised a shout that awakened every 
sleeper within a mile of him. 
Sometimes a woodchuck was found taking refuge in an 
old stone wall, and if his head was in sight a slip knot 
was tied in a stout cord, which was fastened to the 
end of a stick and so presented to the animal. He 
seized it at once, the noose was drawn tightly around 
the hooked incisors, and the poor woodchuck was hauled 
steadily forth in spite of his protesting whistle and 
growls. Next day his skin was immersed in the soap 
barrel, or buried first in wet ashes to remove the hair. 
After the grease was quite removed from the skin, it 
went through a long process of rubbing and stretching 
until it was the perfection of toughness and pliability, 
and ready to be manufactured into whiplashes, shoe- 
strings, ball covers and mittens. 
^ When Mingo caught a skunk he approached the cap- 
five with the respect due to its weapon of defense, but 
whether black, half-stripe or white, the pelt was only a 
hindrance to getting the oil, and when removed it was 
thrown away. I do not know why it was valued so 
little by our trappers in those days, since it is now in 
such demand, and it was an article of commerce so long 
ago as during the French occupation of Canada, for 
Parkman mentions skunkskins in the export of furs. To 
one Avho has seen skunks killed merely as vermin and 
thrown away to rot unskinned. it seems strange enough 
now to see them the most persistently trapped of all the 
fur-bearers of the clearings. We are told of people who 
were reduced to the dire necessity of eating skunks, but 
when Mingo had one roasting before the open fire, slowly 
turning on a twisted string as the fat ran from the brown- 
ing surface into the seething pan, it diffused an aroma 
that made me wish to forget that it was skunk that was 
roasting. A hungry man could easily be fooled into 
eating it and with right good relish, as my old comrade 
Jim used to tell of doing. 
Rowland E. Robinson. 
The FoEEST AND Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday. 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at the 
latest by Monday and as much earlier as practicable. 
Moose Calling from the Camp-Fire. 
Much has been said ^aird written a&oiit. die elusive 
moose, his quickness to scent the approaching hunter, 
tiavel ^'^^^"^^ noiselessness of his 
^l.^'M^'"''' ^'^'^tl would make it seem that this giant of 
the wilds could be secured only by exercising the great- 
:f hurn'beings.^"^^"^^^'"^ ^'^"^ P--- 
In defiance oi the usual observances I ran f-P«i-;f.r fi^nf 
my wif^ and I on a visit last SepteSei to New truns 
wick, Canada, shot two fine bull moose° and iiT each 
case we were standing within six rods of otir came fire 
which was blazing most cheerfully, and Wily a^l the 
Ne"^' htln\l7 tI°BoT^ '"^-'^ ^^^^'"^ ^he 
x>icw na\en load to Boston, changing there tn thf 
sli,?t"i,vl"'h;"="'" travel, along, when we were 
?sr'^^t,rviriS" ^ 
We were all immensely relieved hv fhic 
ment, as visions of a wreck aS or a r.il Tf^'^ 
were flitting through our brain' 'l(fo other interruodon 
marked our progress, and in due time vS^ ^^acS i " 
J uniping off place, a small town near 7h. end of the 
As we passed through the principal thoroughfare of 
oecul ar '?,?n'''' ^ '^"^^^ "^dividual" of most 
pecu iai appearance, pursuing a somewhat uncertafn 
course along the road. "Who is that rhan''' T ..T i 1 
our guide. '/Well," was tl'^ruV kc.S^fc^espVnse'^'h1 
hves down m that little house 'yonder, and that's the 
must you can say of him." ^ 
. What naively frank individuals one sometimes meets 
m these regions. I wished on one occasion t ™se TlfS 
of moose hide moccasins, and had given the uattern nf 
my foot, together with some moose hide! to a youth who 
was reported proficient in that line. When he Zerred 
with the articles in question, he remarked, "I never see" 
such big shoes as these, but I cut them out jes Te same 
as the pattern showed." This response Us too much 
or my gravity, and I joined in the rorr of lauSr 
hat followed from our party. When I w shed° this 
nteresting specimen to accept some remUneratfon fo? 
h.s services, he refused the money, saying thS making 
hoes was not his regular trade, and Ihaf he was g ad 
accent VZy'lirci:^- ' '""''^ persuaded him^^o' 
It was cold and dark when we reached the guide's 
house,, and vve welcomed the genial warmFh of the bil 
stove in his kitchen, with the unalloyed joy tha fs at^ 
tSveJng ' '"'^"'■''^ 
As soon as our supper had been well digested we 
fell to unpacking our camping kit, in order to inakelS 
early start the next morning. ^ . 
The tents were carefully disposed of in one pack 
bedding and clothes, made up a second, camping uteS 
a thrrd, while provisions composed the remaimn| bundle 
fr.iT packing completed, a general stampede to bed 
irfi/' 7^'i P'i"^ ^^^ed out. It seemed 
as If 1 had scarcely c osed my eyes when I was wakened 
by a loud rap at the door, followed by the announcenient, 
^JS^^ o clock, and we must start in an hour " 
To slip on my hunting clothes and boots was the 
work of but a ew moments. I found all the guides 
busy downstairs loading our things on the wagon which 
was to accompany us, as far as practicable 
We made short work of breakfast, 1 as daylight was 
makmg Its appearance over the neighboring hills. Boots 
and saddles was sounded, and the expedition started 
Noon brought us to the edge of a small stream where 
we stopped to "bile the kettle" for dinner. Duncan, our 
chief guide, to d me that we must not rest for more than 
an hour, as the only place where water was available 
vyas sonie miles distant, and it was essential to reach 
there before dark. 
Cheese, coffee, crackers and bread served for a hasty 
:> ^^'^ .T''" s°o" climbing once more over 
dead-ialls and breaking our way through the bush. 
Making a way for the wagon was most bothersome work 
T ''.f.^f-r^^^'^^^ ^° ^ell trees and drag away dead 
wood. Whiffietrees too gave out with surprising fre- 
quency, causing us to call a halt to make repairs. 
In spite of all our exertions, darkness began to settle 
down on us, when we were still some distance from the 
wished for camping place. , The patter of rain on the 
leaves gave <notice that the night would be cold and 
disagreeable. "How much further is it, Duncan before 
we reach that stream you spoke of?" said 1. "I should 
say It was a matter of about five miles," was the reply, 
"We haven't covered as much ground as I hoped for." 
The rain was now falling fast, and it was so dark that 
all idea of making our prosposed camp was out of the 
question. "There's a small swamp about a mile oft", where 
you can sometimes find water in the wet season'" said 
Duncan. "We'd better try that, because 'taint no use 
to camp till we get some water." "You travel ahead . 
as fast as you can foot it, Duncan," said I, "and we'll 
follow with the wagon." With exceeding difficulty we 
made oitr way along the guide's trail, and finally reached 
the swamp, where to our joy we found enough water to 
supply us all. 
Next morning we started bright and early, and at 
noon said good-by to the wagon. We apportioned the 
things into several packs, and then started forward on 
foot. We had worked out the question of "pack-car- 
riers" pretty carefully, and as a result we made satis- 
factory progress. 
How much sulphurous language the badly arranged 
pack has caused! _ What fiendish pleasure the different 
articles take in_ disarranging themselves! The unwary 
tourist starts with a miscellaneous assortment of things 
on his back — hominy, flour, condensed milk, etc. In h' 
