INDIAN MODES OF HUNTING FOXES.
The fox as a rule is a most wily animal, and numerous are the stories
of his cunning toward the Indian hunter with his steel traps.
Starvation makes them catch in deadfalls, but they must be very
starved indeed before they pull a piece of frozen bait and have a
weight fall on their back. The skins of foxes killed during
starvation are never so valuable, as the hair then lacks the rich
gloss. When small game is plenty, such as rabbits and partridges, and
foxes are few, the skins are of a deep richness not seen under other
circumstances.
There are several different and distinct colors of foxes of the north
country. They are all of the same family, with the single exception
of the white or arctic fox. These, apart from their difference of
color, differ very much in their characteristics. They are not
cunning; on the contrary, they are positively stupid. They will
readily catch in deadfalls, and will walk into an open, uncovered
steel trap in daylight! Again the flesh of the arctic fox is eaten as
readily as that of the hare or white partridge; all other foxes are
carrion; even a starving Indian would give them the go-by.
Of the other or true fox we have many colors and shades of color, and
I give them in their cash value rotation, beginning with the black or
pole fox; First, black or pole; second, black silver; third, silver
gray; fourth, black cross; fifth, dark cross; sixth, ordinary cross;
seventh, light cross; eighth, dark blue (i. e., lead color); ninth,
light blue; tenth, bright red; eleventh, light red; twelfth, arctic
white; thirteenth, pale red.
Number thirteen is the poorest quantity of the fox family, and is
worth less than the arctic white fox.
January is the best month for trapping. First, because the fur is
then at its primest, and second, food is harder to get and the fox
consequently more likely to enter a trap.
Of course, any number of traps will catch a fox, but not every trap
will hold him. There is such a thing as the trap being too large and
strong, as well as too small and weak! When too large and strong it
catches too high up the leg, and being too strong it breaks the bone
at the same time; and then in cold weather it's only a question of a
few minutes for the frozen skin and muscles of the leg to be twisted
off and Master Fox runs away on three legs, ever after to be too
cunning to be caught in a trap. On the other hand, if the trap is too
small and weak it catches the fox by the toes, and he either pulls
his foot clear at once or the toes, becoming frozen and insensible to
feeling, are twisted off; and this, if anything, is a harder fox to
circumvent than the one with half a leg.
The proper trap to use is a Newhouse No. 2. When properly set it
catches just above all the fingers, as it were, or where the paw or
foot would correspond with the thick part of the hand. There is a
good, solid hold of muscles, sinews, etc. There, once the jaws are
fixed, they hold the fox to the death.
Fox hunters are very particular to keep everything connected with the
trapping away from the house or camp, even wearing an outside pair of
moccasins, which are peeled off and hung up with the snowshoes.
The hunter generally places his trap or traps on some bare point
jutting out into the lake, or some narrows, or near a clump of
willows at the edge of barren grounds, or any other place his
judgment tells him a fox is likely to pass. The fewer signs the
better; therefore instead of the chain being tied to a picket, a
stick 4 or 5 ft. long is slipped through the ring on the chain up to
the middle. Here it is securely fastened, so that it won't slip
either way. A trench the length of the stick is cut down in the snow
with the head of the axe, and the pole laid therein about a foot
beneath the surface. Snow is then piled in and the whole packed hard.
The trap is now opened, and the snow packed down with the back of the
man's mitt, large enough to lay the trap and spring therein. The trap
is now open and about 2 in. lower than the surrounding snow. The
hunter now begins carefully to lay fine flat balsam bows or clusters
of needles from the palate out to the jaws until the whole is
covered; then very gently he either dusts light snow over this until
it has the same appearance as the rest or he takes up two large
pieces of frozen snow and rubs them together over the trap until all
is covered.
Chopped up frozen meat or fish, a supply of which the trapper is
provided with, is now sprinkled or thrown about, beginning 15 or 20
ft. off and gradually getting more plentiful as the trap is neared.
With a brush broom the hunter dusts his snowshoe tracks full as he
recedes from the trap until he is off 30 or 40 ft.; after that no
further precaution is necessary for an ordinary fox. But for an
extraordinary one I could relate a hundred different ways of setting
traps and bait to overreach the wily old fellow; but in most cases it
is time wasted, the fox eating the bait and turning the traps over
night after night, much to the vexation of the hunter.
It is a pretty sight to see a black or silver gray fox jumping in a
trap on the pure white snow. I went one time with Wa-sa-Kejic to see
his traps in the barren grounds back of the post. I was following in
his snowshoe tracks steadily, and we were just topping a small swell
in the country, here and there clumps of black willows. All at once
he stopped so suddenly in his tracks that I fell up against him.
"There," he said, "look at that!" My eye followed his finger, and
there, jumping and struggling to get away, was a large black fox!
"Let me shoot him," I exclaimed, drawing my gun cover as I spoke.
"Oh, no," he replied, "we will only do that if he pulls himself clear
of the trap." And with that he drew his belt axe and walked with a
steady step down on the fox. The closer he got the more the fox
struggled, but he was well and freshly caught, and the trap held him
fast.
Wa-sa-Kejic gave him a tap on the nose with the helve of the axe,
which had the effect of stunning him. The Indian then seized him with
his left hand by the throat, and with his right hand felt for his
heart; this he drew gradually down toward the stomach until the heart
strings gave way; there was a quiver, and the fox was thrown down on
the snow limp and dead.
What a pleased look the Indian wore as he stood there, evidently
oblivious to my presence for the moment, as he gazed down on the most
valuable skin it was possible for him to trap. What a number of
necessaries and luxuries this would procure for his family. He would
get from the factor at the post $80 for that one single skin! What a
number of any other skins it would take to amount to that sum!