in terms of dollars and cents. First of 
all then, the prospective trapper must 
determine whether he is capable of 
making a success of wilderness trapping 
and if not he is wise to confine his en- 
deavors to settled districts. True the 
actual result cannot be determined pre- 
vious to personal experience but a care- 
ful study of the following points may 
help to determine whether there is a 
chance of making good. 
MAN who is not possessed of in- 
herent ruggedness should seek a 
physician’s advice before tackling a trip 
into the wilds. Often such an expedi- 
tion is the making of a man, but I have 
personally known a few men who actu- 
ally shortened their lives by several 
years, just because their physical make- 
up would not measure up to the de- 
mands imposed by a merciless winter. 
Heart diseases and acute stomach 
troubles are not fit companions for one 
to take along into the lonely places. 
The writer has never known better 
health than that experienced while 
trapping and the average man would 
where you don’t have to worry because 
of the fact that your neighbor’s phono- 
graph makes more noise than your own, 
etc., etc. But when you get to such a 
location you soon realize that solitude 
isn’t the finest thing in the world, you 
soon yearn for the sight of familiar 
faces and if you have a partner you 
are very apt to imagine that he has a 
very common “mug,” that he is eating 
more than his share of the grub and 
that he don’t busy himself on the trap- 
line as much as he might. It is then 
that anthills swell to mountains. Re- 
membering what I have written, size 
yourself (as well as your partner) 
again and again before disappearing 
into the wilds on a trip that is measured 
by year-long months. 
If you are of a nervous, high-strung 
temperament a winter spent in trap- 
ping the wilds is pretty sure to either 
kill or cure! When a man is alone he 
can imagine all sorts of evils impend- 
ing—when silence is so intense one can 
hear himself think, the scurry of a 
mouse along the cabin walls is some 
excuse for hysteria. 
If you cannot accept defeat with a 
smiling face you should never declare 
war on the wily creatures of forest and 
stream. The trapper must be prepared 
to suffer bitter disappointment, for 
often his dearest plans will avail him 
not one iota. The best of woodsmen 
mustn’t expect unabated success, for the 
law of averages will take care that he 
does not destroy over a certain per- 
centage of the furbearers he is pursu- 
ing. 
OTHER NATURE has a universal 
law which rarely fails to protect 
her children, namely: the harder 
pressed any creature becomes, the 
sharper grows its instincts for self- 
preservation. So, if you wish only to 
destroy, join the army and wait for 
another war. Men who have searched 
out the wilder regions in hopes of kill- 
ing off the game therein are not neces- 
sarily wicked or merciless at heart— 
thoughtless is perhaps the best adjec- 
tive with which to describe them. They 
need education along certain lines. 
Undoubtedly the most important re- 

A beaver on its lodge, photographed by the author 
no doubt enjoy robust health in a like 
manner. 
Men who become morose and ill-tem- 
pered when left alone for any length 
of time will make troublesome partners. 
It is nice to imagine yourself miles 
away from the busy marts, where no 
one can bother you, where coal and rent. 
bills are conspicuous by their absence, 
Page 519 
HIS may sound like nonsense to the 
tyro but never to the old timer. 
Consider these things beforehand. We 
hear of artistic temperament, a trouble- 
some feature in connection with certain 
of the arts; while very few realize the 
existence of “trapper’s temperament,” 
until it is brought home to them on the 
morning that solitude dawns for them. 
quisite for making a successful wilder- 
ness trapper is that one must have a 
leve for nature and her children. Per- 
haps it is a form of “monkey love,” 
which has to do with the destruction of 
the very object one is so fond of; at 
any rate the fact remains that most 
wilderness trappers are intensely in- 
terested in different forms of wild life. 
