Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper: Autobiography, experiences and observations of Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock during his fifty years of hunting and trapping.Woodcock, E. N. (Eldred Nathaniel)
General
Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper: Autobiography, experiences and observations of Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock during his fifty years of hunting and trapping.
Woodcock, E. N. (Eldred Nathaniel)
Hunting; Trapping
Now comrades, while we can't all agree on the justification of the
game laws, we should all join hands and try to protect what little
game we have left by getting the bag limit materially cut down, and
give fifteen days more time to the hunter. Then stand by the law,
or soon the game will all be gone with the exception of a few
cotton-tails and what game is on private reserves, and posted lands.
CHAPTER XXX.
Southern Experiences on the Trap Line.
Comrades of the trap line, I am not able to report a large catch of
furs the past season, 1910. I did not catch much fur, but say, boys,
I had a good deal of experience nevertheless. I will try to tell of
conditions as I found them in North Carolina.
I first stopped in Lee County, where I met Mr. A. L. Lawrence, one of
the _Hunter-Trader-Trapper's_ most ardent friends. After stopping
here a few days and seeing some of the sights in Lee and Moore
Counties, Mr. Lawrence, now my friend and partner, a gentleman whom I
had never known before, started for Bladen Co., N. C., where we
expected to be kept up a good portion of the night in order to keep
up with the skinning and stretching of the numerous furbearing
animals caught during the day. Well boys, I will say that we were not
troubled in this matter at least.
While there is more fur in that section than in the north, there are
also more disadvantages to be met with, than we have here. The
majority of people that one meets with in the South are very kind and
obliging. Nevertheless you will find it somewhat difficult to find
suitable grounds to set your camp, providing the parties are aware
that your intentions are to put out a line of traps. Remember that
nearly every farmer has a drove of hogs that run in the woods, and
the feeding grounds of the razorback is in the bottoms along the
creeks and rivers. Naturally the farmer is a little fearful of his
pigs being caught, so he says that the better way is to keep "shet"
of the trappers, especially those that are strangers to the
neighborhood. This is not the only way that the razorback gets in his
work, and a good bit of work they get in too. The razorback is a
powerful hunter, and it does not require a powerful animal scent to
draw the razorback to the trap. To avoid the porker the trap must be
set three inches below the water or six feet above the ground. As
foxes are not given to tree climbing as a usual thing the trapper is
sorely tried to devise schemes to take the fox in a section where the
razorback is getting in his work. He is found in most places in the
South, although there are some counties and even townships that have
a stock law.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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