A Mixed Bag.
I promised some of my old trapper friends back East, that I would let
them, who were fortunate enough to be subscribers to the H-T-T, hear
from me. I will say that this is a mountain region of the first
magnitude. A man that cannot mount a donkey and ride over a trail
where the river is hundreds of feet below, or as it looks to be
nearly under him, and the trail not more than twelve inches wide,
hewn out of the solid rock, he had best remain in the East.
This is a sportsman's paradise, and the trapper will find here prey
in the way of bear, both black and brown, fisher, mink, raccoon, fox,
otter, panther, or as the natives call them, mountain lion, wildcat,
skunk, civet cat and many other fur bearing animals and all quite
numerous. Deer seem to be very abundant. I counted thirteen in a lick
this morning, and it is not an uncommon thing to see from ten to
twenty in the licks at one time.
The fishing is said to be the best in the spring and fall. It is not
an uncommon thing to catch salmon, weighing from six to thirty-five
pounds, and as it is only thirty-five miles to the Pacific Ocean,
they are of the very best quality. Mountain trout are plentiful.
Another animal that is plenty is the mountain goat. Bear, mountain
lion, and other signs are as numerous as those of rabbits in the
East. I am not prepared at this time, to say how shrewd these animals
are to trap, but if they take bait as readily as they are reported
to, they must not be very hard to catch. There is a bounty of $4.00
on wolves and the writer has seen numerous signs of them.
Will say to my friends in the East that while on my way from the
coast to the ranch, a distance of only fifty miles, and the most of
the way over mountain trails, I stopped often to watch the deer
feeding along the side of the trail. When they saw you they would
trot off a short distance and begin feeding again.
Only last evening, Mrs. Evie Newell, shot and killed a large mountain
lion that started into the yard after a pig. It seems to me panthers
are thicker here than wildcats in Pennsylvania.
* * *
I have experimented with scents for years and have found scents of no
particular benefit for trapping the fox. I have tried the skunk and
muskrat scent, the matrix of the female fox taken at the proper time.
I have had a female fox and have lead her to my trapping place, and I
have tried many so-called fox scents and all to no purpose. Fox urine
may, in some particular places, be used to some slight advantage. It
is not so with other animals in regard to scents, for they do not use
the same acute instinct that the fox does.
I do not wish to insinuate upon those that do use scent, but for me,
I would not give a cent for a barrel of so-called fox decoy. I boil
my traps in soft maple bark, hemlock boughs or something of that
nature. I do not do this because the fox can be any more readily got
into the trap, but because it forms a glazing on the trap and thereby
prevents them from rusting and the trap will then spring more
readily. It makes no difference how rusty the trap is, so far as
catching the fox is concerned.
No boys, no scent for me, the fox soon learns to associate the scent
business with the man, then you are up against it. With me there is
nothing mysterious about trapping. It is simply practical ways of
setting the trap, learned from many years of experience.
* * *
I have had fifty years experience as a hunter and trapper. I have
netted wild pigeons in the Adirondack Mountains, in New York, to the
Indian Territory, so you know that the articles in H-T-T are very
interesting to me. I would say that no young trapper should be
without this journal, although I would advise them not to take too
readily to scents and decoys.
As to the discussions that have been in H-T-T, one writer says he has
twenty ways to catch the fox; now I have just as many different ways
as there are different conditions. I would say that no one can become
a successful trapper until he learns to comply with the natural
conditions, which will differ with almost every trap he sets when
trapping fox, mink, etc.
I will tell my brother trappers what I have been doing this fall
(1902) along the line of trapping. In August I took a trip through
portions of Montana, Idaho and Washington, to look up a site to do a
little trapping this winter. There is much more game here than in the
East, but nothing like you hear talked of. I found the mountains too
steep and the underbrush too thick and from what I could learn, I was
afraid the weather was too cold for one of my age and condition of
health, but, oh boys, what trout fishing I found in the Clearwater;
this is a branch of Snake River and empties into that river at
Lewiston, Idaho.
As I found things, I thought I would return to old Potter County,
Pennsylvania, and have a little fun trapping the fox and skunk as
that is about the only game there is in this section when we have no
beechnuts, for that is the only mast we have here. We have no
beechnuts this season and most of the fur bearing animals have
migrated south of here where there are chestnuts, acorns and hickory
nuts.
Brothers, I will tell you where my camp is, and you will always find
the latch-string out. My camp stands at the very head of the
Allegheny River, 1700 feet above sea level. From the cabin door you
could throw a stone over the divide to where the water flows into the
west branch of the Susquehanna. In a half hour a person can, from my
camp, catch trout from the waters of the Allegheny, and the
Susquehanna.
As we have no beechnuts we have no bears, so I have not set my bear
traps. This will cut my sport considerably short. I have put out but
about sixty small traps, so I spend my time about equally between
camp and home.
I will send a picture of myself and my old dog Mage, who I believe
knows more about trapping than some families. But poor old Mage is 13
years old and is following the down trail very rapidly. He is quite
deaf and gets around with difficulty. Poor fellow, he is nearly to
the end of the trail.
[Illustration: WOODCOCK AND HIS OLD TRAPPING DOG--MAGE. THE BEST
TRAPPING DOG THAT EVER TROD THE EARTH.]
The furs shown in the picture are my first four days' catch with
forty traps: 9 fox, 2 coon, 1 mink and 7 skunk. My catch to date,
November 25, in thirteen days is 14 fox, 27 skunk, 9 coon and 1 mink.
* * *
Brothers, I will give some reasons why I do not write more of my
experience as a trapper. First, I am not much given to writing.
Second, my experiences in trapping are so different from so many
trappers who write, that I thought it best to say but little or
nothing about trapping. I could call myself, "Old Honesty," and
then write or cause it to be written and published in some of the
sporting papers, that I had caught 300 fox this season, as I see one
trapper did, but I would not feel good about it after I had done so.
Fifty-seven fox are the most that I ever caught in one season.
A brother was down to see me and I was pleased to meet him, I wish to
say, brother trappers, that if you should have an opportunity to meet
Brother Stearns, you will find him a gentleman in every respect. But,
Brother Stearns and I could not agree on the scent question, and he
did not like to believe that I handled my traps, bait and all
pertaining to the setting of the trap, bare-handed. He went so far as
to hint that I was cold-blooded, and even felt of my pulse to see if
my circulation was all right. Hold on, I am mistaken, it was my hands
that he felt of to see if they were not cold, but he pronounced them
all right. He then related a story about an old uncle of his and a
crow, but shook his head and said it did not do any harm to wear
gloves if it did not do any good. That is all right, but we do not
like to be carrying unnecessary weight.
One word with Brother Chas. T. Wells. No, brother, I do not go much
on scents. Perhaps you would have caught more than 15 fox, but I do
not like to own that you could have done so. Now the first ten days
that I was in the woods, there were hundreds of head of cattle in the
woods, and the woods were full of men gathering them up, and one
could do but little or nothing in the way of trapping. Neither did
the 15 include the five that were stolen, nor the two that broke the
chains and went off with the trap. By the way, Brother Stearns could
tell you of a chase I had with one of those that carried off a trap,
the worst jaunt I have had in many a day. No brother, the only scent
I use is the urine of the fox and I only use that in certain places.
No, I believe that one good method is much better than scents in
trapping the fox. If one wishes to use scents, they will find none
better than some of those advertised in the H-T-T.
Now brothers, while I do not believe that any one man is so cute he
cannot find his equal, I do not like to believe but that I can catch
as many fox as the next one--all things being equal. For the last ten
years I have not set traps over a scope of territory to exceed two or
three miles square and if Brother Stearns had been on the ground that
I trapped on, a few days before I began trapping, he would have seen
but few fox signs. I usually trap on a different piece of ground each
year. I know of some trappers here that begin trapping the first of
September and they are good trappers too, but they are so greedy,
they are willing to kill the "goose that lays the golden egg."
* * *
Several years ago, through the courtesy of Mr. John Shawl, one of the
Tide Water Pipe Line Co's telegraph operators, I was allowed the use
of one of their offices for camping purposes during the trapping
season. Now, do not think that this office was located in a town, for
it was not. On the contrary, it was located in the largest wooded
section of this locality, and on the old Jersey Shore Turnpike. There
was a path or sort of a woods road at the point where this office was
located, leading from this road to another road, a distance of more
than four miles and making a cut off for people who wished to go on
to the waters of the Sinnamahoning or Kettel Creek in Northern
Pennsylvania.
It was customary for me to stay in camp for a week or ten days and
then go home and stay two or three days. One day on returning from
one of my trips home, I had rather better luck than coming, getting 5
fox, 3 coon and 1 wildcat. I usually hung my furs on the side of the
building close up under the eaves until I went home, then I would
take them home on the following morning of the day I had caught them.
There was a rap at the door about five o'clock in the morning and on
going to the door, I found two men with a lantern; one man of middle
age, the other a young man. There had just been a fall of snow of
about four inches, and the men were going onto the Cross Fork of
Kettel Creek, deer hunting. They had stayed at a farm house on the
other road and had started from this house between three and four
o'clock in the morning. Seeing a light in the office, they thought
they would come in and stay until daylight.
The old gentleman inquired what I was doing there. I informed him
that I was trying to trap a little. He said that he should not think
it would pay me, but if I could catch a fox it would be different, as
he had seen several tracks along the road by the light of the
lantern. He also told me that he had a recipe for making fox scent,
that was a dead sure thing, and as I lived so far from his place, I
would not be liable to interfere with his trapping, he would knock
off one-half his usual price and sell me a recipe for five dollars.
I said I would see what luck I had while they were gone, and it might
be possible that I would buy his recipe when he came back. He said,
delays were dangerous, and that I was losing the greatest opportunity
of my life, that he might not come back that way. I thanked him, but
told him I would chance it.
It was now daylight, and as the hunters stepped outside they noticed
the carcass of a wildcat, and I told them if they would step to the
corner of the building, they would see what I got yesterday. They did
so, and gazed for one second at the pelts, then the older of the two
said, "Come, Charley, let's be going," and they left without even
bidding me good morning.
Comrades you do not know how I enjoy your letters as given in this
splendid magazine, especially so this winter (season of 1905-6) as I
have not been able to trap. But I have no kick coming for this is
only the third time in fifty years, but what I have been able to be
out with the traps and gun.
I know that the readers of the H-T-T would be pleased to read
articles from old veterans. The H-T-T has about reached the height of
perfection so far as the trapper is concerned. There is none of the
high top boot, fashionable, corduroy suits and checkered cap business
about the H-T-T. Success to all.
* * *
Boys, you know how we all like to gather around a camp fire and talk
over our hunting and trapping experiences, of how we caught a certain
mink, fox, coon or bear, or how we killed a certain deer. So while we
are out fishing I thought I would like to have a chat with the
trappers. And boys, all you who have not camped out for a week and
had a good time fishing, do not know how much you have lost,
especially those who need the care of a doctor.
Yes, boys, take your camp outfit and go out into the woods among
the hills, streams and lakes. There you will find one of the
most competent doctors and nurses that ever treated the ills
of human family. Do not forget to take a few copies of the
HUNTER-TRADER-TRAPPER along and other sporting magazines, as well as
some of the Harding Library, so while you are resting in camp you can
visit with the trapper boys all over the Union.
This is May 20, 1905, and the second time I have been out camping and
fishing this spring. Trout are not as plentiful as they were forty
years ago by a great deal, but we still get all we can use, and that
is plenty.
While you are out fishing do not forget to keep a lookout for signs
of game you will be trapping next winter. You may see where there has
been a litter of young mink, fox or coon reared. While these animals
are of migratory nature, they will, nevertheless, visit their old
homes frequently, so you will find these places a pretty sure place
to make a catch next fall when you put our your traps. Do not forget
that during the summer is just the time to fix some of your best sets
for fox and other fur bearing animals.
As I have had many years experience in camping, let me say to those
who have never camped, and who expect to camp the coming season, that
now is the time to hunt up a partner and get acquainted. I have
camped many seasons in large woods both with and without partners.
END OF FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER