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
So I gave up the chase and went to camp, getting there long after all
good boys should have been in bed. Bill was up and out at the door
listening if he could hear a gun shot or anything to indicate what
had become of me. We held a council of war before going to bed, and
decided to give Bruin another day's rest or travel, as he saw fit to
do, before we started on the trail. We would go to all the traps that
had not been tended to in the past three or four days and then take
up the trail of Bruin and follow him to the end of his trail, no
matter how long the trail might be.
There was but little danger of the trail becoming snowed under or
lost, as there was nearly a foot of snow on the ground, and the trap
would make a broad trail in the snow, which was quite easily
followed. The next day, as intended, we put in a full day attending
the traps and got some fur, but I do not remember just what. We
started out on the trail of Bruin with a three days' ration of the
usual lunch, boiled venison, ham, doughnuts and biscuits.
After following the trail about two hours from the place where I had
left it, we came onto a man's track that had taken the trail of our
bear. This roiled the temper of the Vermonter somewhat, and if I did
not say anything, I had a mighty think on. But we had no cause for
alarm at this time. The man after following the trail for a mile or
two gave up the chase as a bad job, I guess. He stood and stamped
about for some time (we judged by the tracks he had made) and then
started back nearly in the same course that he had come.
We followed on until dark when we came to a wagon road. Apparently
several persons had seen the bear trail, for there was a beaten path
for a few yards on either side of the road. We knew nothing about the
road or where it went, but finally concluded to take the road leading
south for a little ways. If we saw no signs of habitation then we
would camp, as that was what we expected to be compelled to do when
starting from camp and each had taken a blanket for the purpose.
We had not gone far when a man with a sleigh overtook us, and we
learned that we were about one and a half miles from what was called
Bunker Hill. The man gave us a ride. We went to a boarding house and
stayed over night, rather than camping on Bruin's trail, though we
got plenty of camping on the trail of Bruin before this hunt was at
an end.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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