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
"Fred, you get that rabbit out of the knapsack that we took out of
the snare, and we will put some fresh bait in the pen for this is
getting too stale; mink and coon do not like rotten meat. Cut it into
several pieces so that the animal can not get it all at once. There,
that is all right, and let us hurry on to the next trap. Here it is
and a mink in it and drowned."
"Where is the pen? I do not see it."
"We do not always have a pen. You see that notch in that log where
the water runs over? That is where the trap was set. See this hay
wire that is fastened to the trap chain and which is fastened to that
stone out in the deep water? The mink could not go toward the bank so
it went into the deep water and was drowned."
"Why did you set a double spring trap here?"
"Well, Fred, an otter might happen along and that is just the place
to catch it. You see above the log I have fixed to gage the water as
at the other trap. I do this so the water will not wash the covering
from the trap, or get so deep over the trap that the animal will not
spring it when going over it." "I see that you have got those brush
on either side of the trap with just enough space for the animal to
pass through over the trap." "That is correct, you are catching on,
Fred, all right."
"Don't you use bait where you set a trap in this way?"
"Not often; sometimes I fasten a fish with a horse-hair with a hook
fast to it so that you can hook it to the lower jaw and fasten it in
the water just above the trap; water keeps it moving and attracts the
animal. We have got this trap set all right and will now move on to
the next. We will take the mink to the next trap before skinning it."
"What is that over yonder on the other side of the creek?"
"That is a coon and it is in a trap. Fred, you take my cane and kill
it while I fix up the bait pen, for it has torn things up as bad as a
bear would."
"Why did you not use stones to build this pen?"
"Old chunks are just as good and much handier to get, and there was
plenty of moss on the old logs near to cover it with."
"Why do you not use old bushy limbs here?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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