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
The trapper will find the fur bearers more plentiful and many more
kinds of animals to take, than is found in the East, which is a great
advantage to the trapper. The hunter will find deer quite plentiful
in many places in the Rocky Mountains and on the Pacific Coast. In
1904 I was in Humboldt and Trinity Counties, California and I found
deer so plentiful and tame that it was no sport to shoot them. While
the law limited the hunter to two deer in a season, the people in the
mountains made their own laws, as to the number of deer that they
should kill. Black and brown bear are plentiful all through the Rocky
Mountains and in the Coast ranges. You see much written of the
grizzly bear in this region, but it is doubtful if a hunter or
trapper would see one or even the track of one during a whole
season's trapping. The trapper will find marten, fisher and lynx in
many places in the Rockies and in the Coast Range but nothing to what
there was a few years ago.
Now one who is contemplating trapping in the Rockies or on the
Pacific Coast, must bear in mind that the conditions that a trapper
meets with in this region are far different from what they are in the
East. The trapper who is planning a trip in that section before
starting out should examine his feet close to see that there are no
tender spots on them. The man who makes a success of trapping in this
region must be a man who can stand grief and hardships a plenty, for
he will run up against it often. He will find the mountain streams
hard to get along; he will have but little use for a boat as the
streams are rapid and full of boulders. In most cases the trapper
will be compelled to take his outfit into the mountains by pack
horses, and in many cases it will be necessary for the trapper to be
the horse.
The trapper to succeed in a financial way must take in a supply of
provisions to last at least until the first of June, for it is during
April, May and even June that he must do his bear trapping; for the
bear holes up or goes into hibernation down in the lower land and
does not show up much in the mountains until spring.
The trapper must provide himself with a good number of traps of
different sizes from the No. 1 for marten to the No. 5 for bear; and
that means a whole lot of packing and hard work. He must have at
least one pair of snow shoes, and should have an extra pair in case
of a mishap, in the way of breakage. One good gun is all that is
likely to be needed, and don't load yourself down with a lot of
revolvers, hunting knives, etc. A good strong pocket knife is all
that I have found necessary, though one should have more than one
knife no matter what kind he may use.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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