found in the little ark. Tf you remember, the woman was tall with 
large pleasant looking eyes and wore sandals. She was so much like 
nature s girl and so different from most girls, being the same all the 
time. She was raised on the frontier of Kansas and could ride horse¬ 
back equal to any jockey. 
After we became well acquainted she went quail hunting with 
me several times and was a very good shot. All of this, and Minnie, 
caused me to fall in love with Minnie Couch. After a brief courtship 
we were married. 
By this time Oklahoma had begun to get tame so we sold our 
holdings and went to California. There we lived and I trapped 
through the mountains for over twenty years. 
Mountain trapping is entirely different from trapping swamps 
and the animals are different in mountains. You find there wolves, 
coyotes, lions, bears, lynx and lynx cat, cougars, fox, martin and any 
number of others, while the swamps have more beaver, otter, mink, 
coon, muskrat, etc. While I was trapping in the mountains I would lo¬ 
cate the animals during the summer and build log cabins to live in dur¬ 
ing the winter. As a rule I would build one cabin near the summit of 
the mountain and one half way down and another about the snow 
line. The first trapping I did in the early fall was from the upper 
cabin, and as the snow would come and drive the animals to a lower 
altitude, I would make a sled out of poles, load it with my outfit and 
furs and slide down to my second or middle cabin, and as the snow 
would drive the animals on down still farther, I would again sled 
my stuff to the lower cabin. In the spring when the snow began to 
melt I would use burros to pack my outfit back, and as the animals 
would follow the snow line I would follow them until late spring. 
This would find me and my outfit at the top again, ready for the 
coming fall, at which time I would pack in my winter supplies with 
the burros, turn them loose and as the snow would fall they would 
go back and the next spring I would find them somewhere at the foot 
of the mountains. 
I would like to tell here of my exciting hunts, but space will not 
permit. But, before you try to live and follow the life I have lived, 
you had better try yourself out by trapping and hunting around 
home; try to find what breed of dogs you are. If you find your 
instincts are similar to the ones I had, which never found the trails 
too long or the storms too rough, you may make a success. But, 
boys, before you go to Alaska, figure yourself out. 
I am now 64 years old and have got too old to stand the storms, 
so have quit the trap line; however, I am yet a live old wire, though 
my blood pumps too slow to stand the cold. 
Yours very truly, 
T. ALEXANDER, 
Linnton, Oregon. 
— 83 — 
