It is boy's instinct to try to outwit and capture wild animals. This is
as true of the outdoor boy among the whites as of the Indian boy. The
point of interest in the Indian boy's way is that he depends more upon
his own ingenuity and resources. While he is trying his grandfather's
tricks, he often devises a better one.
The first trapping that I ever did was mere childish play, engaged in by
Indian boys of seven to ten years old. We snared wild mice by placing
slip-nooses of horsehair or fine sinew across their well-beaten
thoroughfares. However, it is no easy thing to handle a mouse thus
caught, for he can and will fight with his sharp teeth. We used to turn
them loose upon some islet or in a mimic fort of clay or sand, to watch
and play with.
We also used the slip-knot for birds, especially crows and magpies,
which may be attracted to the snares by a bait of fresh meat or corn. A
few crows may be caught and hung up to drive their mates from the maize
fields; or, by tying your solitary crow prisoner in a lonely place, he
will summon all the rest to a pow-wow. This gives the boy, hidden near
at hand, a fine opportunity to study their ways.
We caught squirrels with our bowstrings, on the same principle as the
horsehair noose, only in this case we stayed by the trap, and when the
squirrel put his head through, we pulled on the string. This works well
with ground squirrels, or gophers, and prairie dogs, although in the
case of the latter we sometimes caught one of his house-mates, the
screech-owl or rattle-snake, instead.
The trapping of rabbits is a simple affair. A bended sapling is secured
above a rabbit run in such a manner that when the victim runs his head
in the noose, he is swung high in the air. Partridges are caught in the
same fashion.
A novel device for catching rabbits, in time of scarcity an important
source of food supply, is to scatter large, sharp burrs along their
runs. The burrs stick fast to their feet, they sit on their haunches to
try to get them off, and so fall an easy prey to the boy hunters.
Perhaps you would like to try the log deadfall. To make this effective
trap, you need a good knife or a hatchet--nothing more. First drive into
the ground four stakes about the size of a broom-handle, one pair on
either side of a rabbit furrow, if this is the game you are after. Leave
just enough room between each pair for a good-sized log, which you may
lay directly across the path. The stakes serve as gate-posts to your
trap, and on either side you build a slight barricade of brush. Next
take two round pegs and cut off the ends squarely at about three inches
long, or longer, according to your game; smooth a place for them at
either end of the log between the stakes, and upon them balance a second
log, which is partly supported by the two pairs of stakes as well. The
aperture, just big enough for a rabbit to squeeze through, is crossed by
several hairs from a horse's tail tied to the supporting pins. The
unsuspecting victim springs along, knocks out the underpinning, and the
log falls upon him.
For larger game, such as the fox, mink, or fisher, two more logs are
used, one end of each resting upon the upper log and the free end on the
ground. This gives extra weight to the trap, which may be baited with a
piece of meat, firmly attached to a string in such a way that when the
animal tugs at the bait, the pins are pulled out and the trap falls.
Indian men use this deadfall more than the boys.
Our fishing was even more primitive, since we were not provided with
hook and line. Sometimes we would select a convenient water-hole and
just below it build a rough dam of sticks and stones in a V shape, with
the nose pointing down-stream. In the center of the dam we left a small
opening, and just under it hung a cage or basket roughly woven of
willows, projecting slightly above the surface of the water. It was
great sport to wade the brook from a point some distance above the dam,
poking under the banks with long sticks and slapping the water with flat
paddles, so as to frighten the fish and drive them into our trap. When
the basket was well filled, we shut off the opening in the dam with logs
or stones, and proceeded to catch the fish with our bare hands, snare,
or spear them.
If we did not care to go to the trouble of constructing a basket, we
simply drove the fish into a deep hole with a rude dam below to prevent
their escape, and caught them by one of the methods named, or by
shooting with bow and arrow. But we were never allowed to take more than
we really needed. If a surplus were caught, we usually freed them, or
stored them in a small pond or spring where we could study and play with
them at our leisure.
The best time for taking large quantities of fish, which may be dried or
smoked for future use, is in spawning time in early spring, when most
fishes migrate into shallow water and are so sluggish that they may be
knocked on the head with a club. At this season all kinds of wild
hunters, crows, wolves, wildcats, minks, otters, come to the outlets of
the lakes or the banks of the streams for food, and my people were not
much behind them in this. The streams of my boyhood days were sometimes
packed like a sardine can, and we boys have more than once opened a way
and saved large numbers of fish from suffocation.