INDIAN MODES OF HUNTING OTTER AND MUSQUASH.
With steel or wooden traps is the only systematical way of hunting
these animals. They are, of course, hunted for their pelts in the
north country of Canada, and not for sport, as in Scotland. A few are
shot, but these are met with by chance.
November is when the Indian sets his traps for otters. They have then
their full winter coats on; and it is just before the small lakes and
rivers set fast.
Their resort is generally in some chain of small lakes with creeks
connecting the chain, and their home, if they can find one, is an
empty beaver lodge. They prefer such a place, as after the ice is
taken in fishing along shore, they carry the fish into one of the
"washes," where they can breathe and eat with safety and comfort.
The otter is a great enemy of the beaver, but never willingly courts
an encounter; yet, every time they meet, there is a terrible battle.
I remember years ago coming out on a small lake about sundown, and
seeing a great commotion on the surface of the water a few hundred
yards out, jumped into my canoe and quietly paddled out. As I drew
near, I noticed two black objects engaged in a deadly conflict.
Although they must have observed the canoe, they paid no attention,
but continued the fight, sometimes disappearing beneath the surface,
fast to each other, for a full minute.
When within gunshot, I made out the combatants to be an otter and a
beaver, and could have despatched the two with one shot, only I could
plainly see they were both very much exhausted, and I wished to see
which would gain the day.
The end was nearer than I expected. Once more they disappeared
beneath the waters, each maintaining the same deadly grip of the
other's neck; a few moments later the beaver floated to the surface
on its back, dead. I looked about for the otter, and saw him swimming
toward the shore, bleeding profusely from many wounds and evidently
hurt to the death. I followed, however, with my gun full cocked,
ready if need be to shoot him; but the beaver's long, sharp,
spade-like teeth had done their work well, for the otter all at once
rose half out of the water, pawed about for a minute in a blind way,
turned over on his side, gave one convulsive quiver, and he also was
dead.
A No. 3 Newhouse trap is generally used. In fact, this number is
called throughout the country "otter trap." These traps are set at
the overflow of beaver dams and otter slideways during the open water
and at little portages used by water rats crossing from one bend of a
small river to another. No bait is used; the trap is set in about 4
inches of water with a picket out in deep water to tie the chain to
and a small piece of castorum on a forked stick.
The odor of the beaver castor has a very alluring effect on most all
animals, and is greatly used by the hunter.
Traps for otters are set in the following way, under the ice: A place
is selected in some small creek, connecting two lakes, where signs of
otters are found. These signs are noticeable at the discharge of the
lake, where the lake ice thins off into open water, for the ice is so
thin that the otter readily breaks a hole to come out on the ice to
eat the fish. The otter is a fish-eating animal, and is very expert
in catching them.
Their slideways are generally made on some moss-covered, rocky
promontory, jutting out into a lake. Here they will climb up one side
and slide down the other for hours at a time.
Otters, when taken young, are readily tamed and become great pets.
Another way of setting traps in winter is under the ice in some creek
where otters are known to resort. The ice is cut away from the bank,
outward, for about 3 feet long by 1 foot or so wide. Each side of
this cut is staked with dry sticks, driven into the mud or sandy
bottom. The trap is set between the stakes at the outer end, in about
4 inches of water at least; that is, the water may be deeper than
that, but two cross sticks are so placed that the otter in entering
must go under the sticks and thus gets caught. The picket to secure
the trap chain to is out from the trap, as in open-water time.
To induce him to enter, a small whitefish or trout is placed on a
forked stick near the shore, and is so fixed that it appears to be
alive and swimming. As soon as the trap is struck, the otter jumps
backward into deep water, and for want of air is soon dead.
* * *
In Canada and the United States, the killing of the little animal
known under the several names of water rat, musquash and muskrat is
so well understood by the average frontier boy that any information I
can give would be perhaps a repetition.
Still there is one way that the Indian practices which is certainly
not known to the whites, and is at a certain time very successful.
That is spearing them on the ice; and another mode in which the
Indians are very successful in the fall is digging them out, or
"trenching" them, in the same way they do the beaver, only with much
less labor, as it is done before the ponds and creeks freeze up. I
will describe the latter way first, seeing it comes before that of
spearing.
The resort of musquash (always where they are in numbers) is along
grassy rivers, creeks, or ponds; for they store up large quantities
of the long, flat grass for winter use, as the beaver does with young
birch and poplar. The Indian paddling along the shores of such places
has his eyes fixed on the bottom of the water; presently he perceives
the entrance to one of the rat burrows; he stops his canoe and gazes
fixedly on the opening, which is always about a foot under water. At
last he sees the water ebb and flow in and out of the hole. This is a
sure sign that the "wash" is occupied at that very moment by one or
more rats.
He at once, either with his axe or the blade of his sharp maple
paddle, chops down the mud bank until he has an embankment or dam.
This is to prevent the musquash from running out to deep water. When
all is ready, either his wife or the boy who is steering the canoe is
sent ashore to prod about the honey-combed bank with the handle of
his paddle. The little animals thus disturbed and thoroughly
frightened make a rush for the outlet, deep water and safety, but
(there is always a "but") the Indian, with his upraised paddle, has
his eye steadily fixed on the water back of his dam, and as fast as
one makes its appearance the sharp edge of the paddle is brought down
on its head or back, and it is thrown into the canoe, quivering in
its death agony. From two to eight or nine are not infrequently taken
from one hole. When the last one is killed, the Indian moves his
canoe on until he finds another colony, and the same process is gone
over again, and he returns to his camp with his canoe filled with
musquash. I have in the fall received from one Indian as many as
2,000 skins, large and small.
Musquash breed twice in the summer, and bring forth at each litter
from six to eight. In the fall the large ones fetch the hunters ten
cents, and the kits, or small ones, five cents.
The spearing of the musquash is done in this wise: The rats throw up
little mud-cone lodges, or houses, out from the shore, in about a
foot of water. They are not unlike beaver lodges. The inside is
hollow and the entrance is under water. In this resort the rats sit,
huddled together, during most of the severe winter weather. The
hunter, therefore, as soon as the ice will bear his weight, slides up
to the rat houses, armed with a sharp, barbed, steel spear, about a
foot long, let into the end of a small tamarac handle. This handle is
generally about 8 feet long. Arriving close to the lodge, he poises
the spear in mid-air for a moment and drives it down through the
lodge with all his might. If he pierced a rat, he feels it wriggling
on the spear, and keeps it fast there until he has torn away the mud
and grass. He then seizes it by the tail and draws it with a jerk
from the spear and knocks it on the ice, which finishes Mr. Rat. At
times, when there are a number of musquash in the same lodge at the
same time, the spear often passes through two, or even three, at one
stroke. This is great sport where the lodges are numerous.
Musquash killed under the ice are worth two or three cents each more
than in the fall, and the hunter makes frequently two to four dollars
a day while it lasts.
The flesh of musquash killed under the ice is highly esteemed by the
Indians. It has then its winter fat on, and is free from the
objectionable odor which prevails in the spring.
The skins of the large ones, when dressed, make strong and durable
lining for cloaks, coats, etc., and are made up into caps also. The
"kit skins" are used in large numbers in the manufacture of kid
gloves. The Hudson Bay Company exports annually about 3,000,000
skins.