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
I was hurrying down the hill near a jam of fallen timber, when all at
once out jumped five or six deer from this timber. In an instant the
whole bunch was out of sight behind the jam with the exception of one
large doe. I could see, one of her hips standing out from behind a
large hemlock tree. Without hesitating a moment, I fired at what I
could see of the deer and it dropped out of sight as the gun cracked.
I hurried through the jam of timber to where I saw the deer and there
the doe lay, trying to get on her feet. I soon ended her misery by
shooting her in the head. I soon had her entrails out and hung up as
I had the buck. It was the trail of this bunch of deer that the buck
was on when he ran into me.
After I had hung up the deer I hustled on down the ravine to the bear
trap. When I got to the place where the trap was set it was gone. The
trail led down the ravine and was easy to follow as I hurried along
and I soon found a small bear tangled up in a thicket of small brush.
It was only the work of a moment to fix bruin in shape to skin. After
I had the hide off, I cut the bear up into quarters and hung the meat
up in the trees. I toted the trap back up to where it was set and
reset it then I went back down the hollow to where I had left the
bear skin and took it on my shoulder and made tracks down the hollow
to the main creek where I had a string of deadfalls set for mink and
coon. The bear skin was about all the load I cared to tote, but I had
not gone far down the creek before I had the skins of two good sized
coon and one mink tied to my load. The coon and mink skins I could
get in my knapsack so they did not bother much.
After following the creek a distance of about one mile I left the
creek and went up a long narrow sawtooth point to cross the divide to
the Cross Fork waters where I had some bear, fox and marten traps
set. When I was about two-thirds of the way up this point I stopped
at the side of a large rock which would shelter me from the cold
wind. The point was covered with low laurel. I had been watching down
the side of the hill to see if I could not catch sight of some animal
on the move, but I had not got a glimpse of even a squirrel.
I had about finished my lunch, when I saw the motion of something
move in the laurel, forty or fifty yards below me. I picked up my gun
and stood watching, when I again caught sight of the animal and in a
moment I saw the horns of a deer. I could get the outline of the
deer's body so I said, "Now or never," and let go the best I could at
the bunch, but when the smoke from the gun was gone, I could neither
see nor hear anything but stood ready with my gun to my shoulder. I
again saw a part of a deer move in an open space in the laurel. I
again fired at the bunch with the remark that I guessed that I could
drive him out of there after a while.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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