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Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper

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Title: Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper

Author: E. N. Woodcock

Editor: A. R. Harding


        
Release date: October 12, 2010 [eBook #34063]
                Most recently updated: January 7, 2021

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34063

Credits: Produced by Linda M. Everhart, Blairstown, Missouri


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER ***




Produced by Linda M. Everhart, Blairstown, Missouri




FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER

  [Frontispiece: E. N. WOODCOCK AND BEAR TRAPS--HIS OWN MAKE.]

FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER

Experiences and Observations of E. N. Woodcock
the noted Hunter and Trapper, as written
by Himself and Published in
H-T-T from 1903 to 1913

EDITED BY
A. R. HARDING

Published by
A. R. HARDING, Publisher
St. Louis, Mo.

Copyright 1913,
By
A. R. HARDING.



CONTENTS.

  I--Autobiography of E. N. Woodcock
  II--Early Experiences
  III--My First Real Trapping Experience
  IV--Some Early Experiences
  V--Some Early Experiences (Concluded)
  VI--A Hunt on the Kinzua
  VII--My Last Hunt on the Kinzua
  VIII--Fred and the Old Trapper
  IX--Bears in 1870, Today--Other Notes
  X--Incidents Connected with Bear Trapping
  XI--Pacific Coast Trip
  XII--Some Michigan Trips
  XIII--Hunting and Trapping in Cameron Co., Pa., in 1869
  XIV--Hunting and Trapping in Cameron Co.
  XV--Trapping and Bee Hunting
  XVI--Hits and Misses on the Trail
  XVII--Lost in the Woods
  XVIII--Traps and Other Hints for Trappers
  XIX--Camps and Camping
  XX--Deer Hunt Turned Into a Bear Hunt
  XXI--Dog on the Trap Line
  XXII--Two Cases of Buck Fever
  XXIII--Partner a Necessity
  XXIV--A Few Words on Deadfalls
  XXV--Advice from a Veteran
  XXVI--The Screech of the Panther
  XXVII--Handling Raw Furs and Other Notes
  XXVIII--The Passing of the Fur bearer
  XXIX--Destruction of Game and Game Birds
  XXX--Southern Experiences on the Trap Line
  XXXI--On the Trap and Trot Line in the South
  XXXII--Trapping in Alabama
  XXXIII--Some Early Experiences
  XXXIV--The White Deer
  XXXV--A Day of Luck
  XXXVI--A Mixed Bag



ILLUSTRATIONS.

  E. N. Woodcock and Bear Traps--His own make
  E. N. Woodcock's Residence
  Setting a Large Steel Trap for Bear
  Woodcock and Some of His Catch
  Woodcock on the Trap Line
  Log Set for Fox
  Woodcock and His Catch, Fall, 1904
  Building a Bear "Lowdown"
  Results of a Few Weeks' Trapping
  Woodcock Fishing on the Sinnamahoning
  Woodcock and Some of His Catch
  Woodcock and His Steel Traps
  Woodcock Fishing on Pine Creek
  Woodcock and His Old Trapping Dog, Prince
  Good Small Animal Deadfall
  Spring Set for Fox
  Woodcock on the Trap Line, 1912
  Visitors at Woodcock's Camp in Georgia
  E. N. Woodcock and His Catch of Alabama Furs
  E. N. Woodcock and Some of His Alabama Furs
  Foot of Tree Set
  Woodcock and His Old Trapping Dog



PREFACE.

Sometime early in the spring of 1903, a letter was received from a
man in Pennsylvania and published in H-T-T, which a few weeks later
brought to light one of the truest and best sportsmen that ever
shouldered a gun, strung a snare or set a trap--E. N. Woodcock.

Some of the happenings are repeated and all dates may not be correct,
for be it remembered that Mr. Woodcock has written all from memory.
It is doubtful if he kept all copies of H-T-T, therefore was not sure
if such and such incidents had been written before. In most cases
these are somewhat different and as they all "fit in" we have used
them as written and published from time to time.

Much information is also contained in the writings of Mr. Woodcock
and whether you use gun, steel traps, deadfalls or snares, you will
find something of value. The articles are also written in a style
that impresses all of their truthfulness, but, so written that they
are very interesting.

Those of our readers who have read his articles will be glad of this
opportunity to get his writings in book form, while those that have
only read a few of his more recent articles will be pleased to secure
all.

Perhaps the following editorial which appeared in H-T-T will be in
place here:

"Although crippled with rheumatism, there is an old hunter and
trapper living in Potter County, Pa., whose enthusiasm is high and
his greatest desire is still to get out over the trap lines a few
seasons before the end of the "trail" of life's journey is reached.
May that desire be fulfilled is the earnest wish of the H-T-T as well
as thousands of our readers, who have read the writings of this
kind-hearted and wide experienced hunter and trapper, as they have been
penned from his home near the Allegheny Mountains.

It is with pleasure that we publish in this issue the "Autobiography
of E. N. Woodcock as a Trapper." During his half century with trap
and gun, he has had some narrow escapes and experiences, but not the
many "hair-breadth escapes" that some claim, but which only occur on
paper. Mr. Woodcock is a truthful man, and you can read his
autobiography knowing that it is the truth even to the minutest
detail."

The autobiography was written by Mr. Woodcock at the request of the
Editor of Hunter-Trader-Trapper in the spring of 1908 and published
July of the same year. We are glad to add that since that time, Mr.
Woodcock has enjoyed several hunting and trapping expeditions. Some
were in his home state--Pennsylvania--on same grounds, or at least
near those he camped on many, many years ago. He also took a couple
of trips into the south--fall of 1911 and 1912. He was in Tennessee,
Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas. An account of these hunts is
given in Chapters XXX, XXXI and XXXII.

In May, 1912, the Editor of Hunter-Trader-Trapper visited Mr.
Woodcock and family at their home some four miles from Coudersport,
Pennsylvania. Mr. Woodcock, though physically not large, is a
wonderful man in the "ways of the woods." He is not given to
exaggeration or boasting like many a man who has followed the Trail
and Trap Line. Every word that he says or writes can be put down as
truthful beyond a doubt.

At this time, (May, 1912) he was afraid he would never be able to get
out on the trap line again, as he was suffering from rheumatism and
heart trouble. Towards fall he became better, and enjoyed the sport,
which for more than fifty years has been his--may he be spared to
enjoy many more.

By noting the dates as given in connection with various articles
published, it will be seen that Mr. Woodcock shortly after 1900 began
to point out the need of protection to game and fur animals. After a
life on the trap and trail of more than fifty years, such advice
should be far reaching. Mr. Woodcock is a man of unusual foresight
and knowing that he is nearing the end of the trail, wishes to
forcibly impress the needs of protection.

By referring to a good map, you will be able to see the location of
many of Mr. Woodcock's hunting, camping and trapping trips, as he
generally mentions State, County and Streams.

Very few men have had wider experience than Mr. Woodcock. He knows
from more than a half century much of the habits and characteristics
of animals. He gives his reasons why marten are plentiful in one
section and are gone in a few days. His reason too, looks plausible.
He describes trapping wolves in Upper Michigan about 1880, also
beaver. Tells how he caught the "shadow of the forests" as wolves are
often called by trappers--they are so hard to trap. By reading of his
many experiences you will not only enjoy what he says, but will get
facts about bear, deer, fox, wolves, mink, marten and other fur
bearers that you had never thought of.

This man, while on the "trail" upwards of fifty years, so far as
known never killed out of season or trapped unprime furs.



A WORD FROM MR. WOODCOCK.

The editor of HUNTER-TRADER-TRAPPER has requested a foreword of
introductory to FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER OR EXPERIENCE OF E.
N. WOODCOCK, saying that so many have enjoyed my articles, which have
appeared from time to time in HUNTER-TRADER-TRAPPER, extending over a
period of some ten years, 1903 to 1913, that same are to be published
in book form.

I was born at Lymansville, Potter County, Pennsylvania, August 30,
1844. From early childhood, my nature led me to the Forests and
Streams. I have hunted in many of the states of the Far West
including the three Pacific States--California, Oregon and
Washington. I killed my first panther or cougar in the mountains of
Idaho on the headwaters of the Clearwater river. My first real
experience in wolfing was in Southeastern Oregon. I met my greatest
number of deer in Northwestern California.

I have trapped of late years, in nearly all of the states east of the
Mississippi river and also on the White River of Arkansas; also
trapped bear and other fur bearing animals and hunted deer in
Northern Michigan, also forty years ago.

Another sport which I enjoyed was the "pigeon days." I have netted
wild pigeons from the Adirondack Mountains in New York state to
Indian Territory--now Oklahoma--trapping them in the states of
Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, Pennsylvania and New York.

My nature led me to the Trail and Trap line from early childhood and
I have trapped bear and hunted deer in the mountains of Pennsylvania
for more than 50 years--half a century--and my picture with my two
foxes on my shoulder shows me on the trap line for the season of
1912-13.

March 1, 1913.    E. N. WOODCOCK.



CHAPTER I.

Autobiography of E. N. Woodcock.

I was born on the 30th day of August, A. D. 1844, in a little village
by the name of Lymansville, Potter County, Pennsylvania. Lymansville
was named after my grandparent, Isaac Lyman, or better known as Major
Lyman, having held office of that rank in the Revolutionary War. It
is from this limb of the family that I inherited that uncontrollable
desire for the trap, gun and the wild.

At a very early age it was my greatest delight to have all the mice,
squirrels and groundhogs and in later years young raccoons, young fox
and every other varmint or wild animal that I could catch or could
get from other sources, and at times I had quite a menagerie.

I began trapping at a very early age, the same as many boys do who
live out in the country where they have an opportunity. My father
owned a grist mill and a sawmill. These mills were about one-half
mile apart and it was about these mills and along the mill races and
ponds of these mills that I set my first traps for muskrats, mink and
coon. Before I was stout enough to set a trap which was strong enough
to hold the varmint, it was necessary for me to get some older person
to set the trap. I would take the trap to the intended place and set
for the particular animals I was in quest of, whether mink, coon or
rat.

In those days clearings were small, woods large and full of game.
Deer could be seen in bunches every morning in the fields and it was
not uncommon to see a bear's track near the house that had been made
during the night. Wolves were not plenty though it was a common thing
to see their tracks and sometimes hear them howl on the hills.

Like other boys who lead an outdoor life, I grew stronger each year
and as I grew older and stronger my trap lines grew longer and my
hunts took me farther into the woods. Finally as game became scarcer
my hunts grew from a few hours in length to weeks and months camping
in a cabin built in the woods in a section where game was plenty.

At the age of thirteen while out with a party of men on a hunting and
fishing trip, I killed my first bear. While I had now been out each
fall with my traps and gun, it was not until I was about eighteen
years old that I took my first lesson from an old and experienced
trapper, a man nearly eighty years old and a trapper and hunter from
boyhood. The man's name was Aleck Harris. We made our camp in the
extreme southeastern part of this (Potter) County in a section known
as "The Black Forest" and it was here that I learned many things from
an experienced trapper and hunter that served me well on the trap
line and the trail, in the years that followed.

It was here that I made my first bed in a foot or more of snow with a
fire against a fallen tree and a few boughs thrown on the ground for
a bed. At other times perhaps a bear skin just removed from the bear
for covering, or I might have no covering other than to remove my
coat and spread it over me. This I have often done when belated on
the trail so that I was unable to reach the cabin and was happy and
contented.

It was here I first learned to do up the saddles or the carcass of a
deer in the more convenient way to carry. It was here that I took my
first practical lessons in skinning, stretching, curing and handling
of skins and furs. I also learned many things of traps and trapping
and to do away with sheath knives and other unnecessary burdens on
the trap line. In my younger days I preferred to "go it alone" when
in a country that I was familiar with and many a week I have spent in
my cabin alone save for my faithful dog, but as I grew older and
became afflicted with rheumatism I have found a partner more
acceptable.

I have met with many queer circumstances while on the trap line and
trail, yet I have never met with any of those bloodcurdling and
hair-breadth escapes from wild animals which are mostly "pipe dreams".
Perhaps the nearest I ever came to being seriously hurt by a wild
animal was from a large buck deer. It was in November and on a stormy
day. I had killed a doe and was in the act of dressing the doe and
was leaning over the deer at work. I was within a few feet of a
fallen tree. Hearing a slight noise, I raised up to see what caused
it, when with the speed of a cannon ball a buck flew past me, barely
missing and landed six or eight feet beyond me.

The deer had come up to this fallen tree on the track of the doe and
seeing me at work over the doe, became angered and sprung at me and
only my straightening up at the very instant that I did saved me from
being seriously hurt or perhaps killed. I sprang over the log. The
deer stood and gazed at me for a moment. His eyes were of a green hue
and the hair on his back all stuck up towards his head. After gazing
at me for a moment the deer walked slowly away. The suddenness of the
occurrence so unnerved me that I was unable to shoot for some minutes
though my gun was standing against the tree within reach.

At another time I was somewhat frightened by what I supposed was a
dead bear suddenly coming to life. I had caught the bear in a trap
and it had got fastened in some saplings growing on the steep bank of
a small brook. I shot the bear in the head, as I thought, and it fell
over the bank in such a manner that his whole weight was held by the
leg that was fast in the trap. I was unable to release it from the
trap where it was hanging as I had no clamp to put the trap springs
down with, to release the bear's foot. I had set my gun, a single
barrel rifle, against a tree without reloading it.

I cut the bear's paw off close to the trap which allowed the animal
to roll down the bank to level ground. I had begun to rip down the
leg that had been caught in the trap. A lad of about ten years was
with me having accompanied me to attend the traps that day. The lad
stood looking on when all of a sudden he said, "See him wink." I
stopped my work and glanced at the bear's eyes and sure enough he was
winking and winking fast, too, and almost before I knew it the bear
was trying to get onto his feet. My gun was unloaded and the lad was
screaming at the top of his voice, "Kill him! Kill him!" But what was
I to kill him with? Nothing came to my mind at first except to use my
gun as a club but I did not like to break it.

In a moment I thought of my hatchet which I had taken from the
holster and laid on the bank where I had cut the bear's foot off to
release him from the trap. I grabbed the hatchet and one good blow on
the head put a stop to the rumpus and nobody harmed, although the boy
was badly frightened.

At another time I might have got into trouble with a bear also caught
in a trap. I was quite young at this time. I had gone some ten or
twelve miles from home and set a trap for a bear. The trap was rather
a poor one with a very light chain for a bear trap. I had only set
the trap a few days before yet I thought I must go and look after it,
but it was more the desire to be in the woods than it was of
expecting to have a bear in the trap at that time. I did not take a
gun with me, only a revolver loaded as I had no more balls and this
was before the days of fixed ammunition.

When I came to the trap there was an ugly bear in it and he had the
clog fast in some roots and among some fallen trees. After firing one
shot at the Bear's head, which I missed, I then shot the two
remaining balls into the bear's body with the only effect of making
him more determined to get at me. I now cut a good club determined to
put a quietus on Bruin in that manner but after landing several blows
my knees began to feel weak. I gave up the job and returned home
leaving Bruin in the trap feeling as well as he did when I first
found him, so far as I was able to see. But when I returned the next
morning with help and now with a regular gun we found Bruin nearly
dead and helpless from the shots that I had given him the day before
from the revolver.

I have met with other circumstances not quite so fascinating as those
just related. At one time a young companion and I were camping and
trapping several miles from home and several miles from a road. One
day while we were some ways out from camp setting traps my friend
became suddenly very ill. It required no skilled doctor to see that
it was a case that must have help at once. I started with my friend
to get to camp. While my companion was not as old as I, he was larger
and heavier. I worked along with him, half carrying him, while he
would support himself as best he could. I got him within about a mile
of the cabin when he completely gave out and could go no farther and
with all my pleadings I could not get him to try to go any farther,
but he promised that if I went after help that after resting he would
work his way to camp.

Seeing that there was no other way to do, I left him and started for
help. It was now dark. My way was over a road of about twelve miles
and nearly all the way through a thick woods and part of the way
without a road other than a path. When I reached the cabin I stopped
long enough to build a fire so that the cabin would be warm when my
companion got there if he did get there at all, which I doubted.

I took a lunch in my hand and started for help. I would take a trot
whenever the woods were sufficiently open to let in light enough so
that I could see my way. I got to my companion's home about midnight
and we were soon on the way back with a team and wagon while my
companion's father went after a doctor to have him there when we got
back with the patient. We drove with the wagon as far as the road
would allow, then we left the wagon and rode the horses to the camp.

When we reached the cabin, contrary to expectations, we found my
companion there but very sick. We lost no time in getting him onto a
horse and starting for the wagon where we had a bed for the patient
to lie down on. We got home about eight o'clock in the morning. The
doctor was waiting for us and he said as soon as he looked at the man
that it was a bad case of typhoid fever. He was right, for it took
many weeks before my friend was able to be out again.

When game began to get scarce, that is when game was no longer found
plenty right at the door, I began to look for parts where game was
plentiful and accordingly, with three companions, I arranged to hunt
and trap on Thunder Bay River in Michigan, where deer and all kinds
of game, we had been told, were plenty and also lots of fur bearers.
This we found to be quite true but the state had passed a law
forbidding the shipment of deer. We did not know this when we left
home and two of the boys soon got discouraged and returned.

It was while hunting here that I had another trip of twenty miles
through the woods over rough corduroy tote road in the night after a
team to take my companion (Vanater by name) out to Alpena to have a
broken leg set. He was carrying a deer on his shoulder and when near
camp it was necessary to cross a small stream to get to the cabin. We
had felled a small tree across the creek for the purpose of crossing.
There was three or four inches of snow on the log and after my
companion was across the creek and just as he was about to step from
the log he slipped and fell, striking his leg across the log in some
manner so that it broke between the knee and ankle.

After getting my companion to camp and making him as comfortable as
possible, I took a lunch in my knapsack and with an old tin lantern
with a tallow candle in it, which gave about as much light as a
lightning bug, I started over the longest and roughest twenty miles
of road that I ever traveled in the night. Sometimes I would trip on
some stick or log and fall and put out my light but I would get up,
light the candle in the lantern again and hurry on all the faster to
make up for lost time. I made the journey all right and was back to
camp the next day before noon where we found my companion doing as
well as could be expected under the circumstances.

We got my companion out to Alpena where the doctor set the leg and in
the course of two or three weeks he was so far recovered that he was
able to return to camp and keep me company until he was able to again
take up the trap line and trail.

Some years later I again went back to Michigan and hunted deer and
trapped on the Manistee, Boardman and Rapid Rivers, but I found game
and furs had become somewhat scarce in that part so I next went with
a partner to upper Michigan. At that time there was no railroad in
Upper Michigan and but few settlers, after leaving the Straits, until
near Lake Superior and near the copper and iron mines.

I have tried my luck in three of the states west of the Rocky
Mountains. In the Clear Water regions of Idaho there was a fair
showing of big game, with a good sprinkling of the fur bearers,
including a bunch of beaver here and there. (Beaver protected.) I
heard men tell of there being plenty of grizzly and silver tip bear
but I saw no signs of them. In California a trapper told, me of a
large grizzly coming to his shack in the night. He said that he was
cooking venison and that he had the fresh meat of a deer in the shack
and he thought that the bear smelled the meat was what brought him
there. The man said the bear smelled around the shack awhile and then
began to dig at one corner of the shack and soon pulled out the
bottom log. The man kept quiet until the bear pulled out the next log
and put his head in through the hole when he put a ball between the
bear's eyes that fixed Bruin too quick. (A bad case of nightmare.) I
think it doubtful if there is a grizzly bear or at least very few now
to be found south of the British Columbia line.

My best catch of bear in one season with a partner was eleven. Years
ago I caught from three to six bear each season but late years I have
not caught more than one to three. I think that of late the heavy
lumbering going on through Northern Pennsylvania had something to do
with the catch of bear.

The timber in Pennsylvania is largely cut away now leaving bark
slashings which make fine shelter for bear and wildcats and both
animals were apparently quite plenty I would judge from the number
caught in this section, fall of 1907. Deer are very scarce in this
state, perhaps the most to be found are in Pike County.

I can lay claim to one thing that but few hunters and trappers can
do, that is for forty years I lost only two seasons from the trap
line and the trail and each time I was detained by rheumatism. Once
being taken down with sciatica while in the camp trapping and
hunting, and it held me to my bed for several months hard and tight.
I still have the greater part of my trapping and hunting outfit, and
am still in hopes to be able to get out on the line and pinch a few
more toes.



CHAPTER II.

Early Experiences.

As I promised to write something of my early experience at trapping
and hunting, I will begin by saying that I am now living within one
mile of where I was born sixty years ago (this was written in 1904),
and that I began my trapping career by first trapping rats in my
father's grist mill with the old figure four squat trap. I well
remember the many war dances that I had when I could not make the
trap stay set; but I did not trap long inside the mill for father
also ran a blacksmith shop and always kept a good man to do the work
in the shop. I was soon coaxing the smith to make me a steel trap,
which he did. I now began catching muskrats along the tail race and
about the mill dam, but the spring on my trap was so stiff that when
I found the trap sprung or found game in it, I was obliged to bring
the trap to the house and have some one older than I to set it. Then
I would carry it back to the creek and set it. Well this was slow
work and I was continually begging the blacksmith to make me more
traps with weaker springs so I could set them myself. After much
coaxing he made me three more which I was able to set and then the
muskrats began to suffer. Let me say at that time a muskrat skin was
worth more than a mink skin.

Boys, I was like a man in public office, the more of it they have,
the more they want. So it was with me in regard to the traps, but I
could not coax the blacksmith to make any more. An older brother came
to my aid in this way: he told me to go to town and see the
blacksmith there and see if I could not sell some charcoal to him for
traps, and he, (my brother) would help me burn the coal. Now this
burning the coal was done by gathering hemlock knots from old rotten
logs and piling them up and covering them like potato holes, leaving
a hole open at the bottom to start the fire. After the fire was well
started the hole was closed and the knots smoldered for several days.
Well, the plan worked and by the operation I became the possessor of
five more traps. By this time the vicinity of the mill dam and race
was no longer large enough to furnish trapping grounds, and I
ventured farther up and down the stream and took in the coon and mink
along with the muskrat.

  [Illustration: WOODCOCK, WIFE, SISTER-IN-LAW, RESIDENCE AND HIS DOG
MACK.]

We had a neighbor, Washburn by name, who was considered a great
trapper, for he could now and then catch a fox. As time passed by, I
began to have a great desire to get on an equal with Mr. Washburn and
catch a fox. I began to urge him to allow me to go with him to see
how he set his trap, and after a long time coaxing, he granted my
request. I found what everyone of today knows of the chaff bed set.
You may now know that it was not long before I had a bed made near a
barn that stood well back in the field, and after much worry and many
wakeful nights I caught a fox and I thought myself Lord Jonathan. As
time went by, and by chance I learned that by mixing a goodly part of
hen manure with plenty of feathers in it, and mixing it with the
chaff, it was a great improvement on chaff alone. Next I learned of
the well known water set. However, I perhaps set different from the
most of trappers in making this set. Well as all trappers learn from
long years of experience, so have I, and those old-fashioned sets are
like the squat traps, not up-to-date. I will now drop the trapping
question for a time and tell you how I killed my first deer.

Just outside of the clearing on father's farm and not more than fifty
rods from the house was a wet place, such as are known to these parts
as a "bear wallow." This wet place had been salted and was what is
called a "salt lick." In those days it was not an uncommon thing to
see six or eight deer in the field any morning during the summer
season--the same as you will see them in parts of California today.
It was not an uncommon thing for my older brother to kill a deer at
this lick any morning or evening, but that was not making a nimrod of
me. I would beg father to let me take the gun (which was an old
double barreled flintlock shot gun) and watch the lick. As I was only
nine years old, they would not allow me to have the gun, so I was
obliged to steal it out when no one was in sight, carry it to the
barn and then watch my opportunity and "skipper" from the barn to the
lick. All worked smoothly and I got to the lick all right. It was
toward sundown and I had scarcely poked the gun through the hole in
the blind and looked out when I saw two or three deer coming toward
the lick. I cocked the old gun and made ready but about this time I
was taken with the worst chill that any boy ever had and I shook so
that I could scarcely hold the gun to the peep hole. It was only a
moment when two of the deer stepped into the lick, and I took the
best aim I could under the condition, and pulled the trigger. Well of
all the bawling a deer ever made, I think this one did the worst, but
I did not stop to see what I had done but took across the field to
the house at a lively gait, leaving the gun in the blind.

The folks heard the shot and saw me running for the house at
break-neck speed (this of course was the first that they knew I was out
with the gun). My older brother came to meet me and see what the
trouble was. When I told him what I had done, he went with me to the
lick and there we found a fair-sized buck wallowing in the lick with
his back broken, one buck shot (or rather one slug, for the gun was
loaded with pieces cut from a bar of lead); one slug had struck and
broken the spine and this was the cause of the deer bawling so loud
as this was the only one that hit.

The old shotgun was now taken from its usual corner in the kitchen
and hung up over the mantle piece above the big fire place and well
out of my reach. This did not stop my hunting. We had a neighbor who
had two or three guns and he would lend me one of them. I would hide
away hen eggs and take them to the grocery and trade them for powder
and shot. Of course the man who owned the gun got the game, when I
chanced to kill any, for I did not dare to carry it home. It was not
long until father found that I was borrowing Mr. Abbott's gun, and he
thought that if hunt I would, it would be better that I use our own
and then he would know when I was out with it. He took the old
flintlock to the gunsmith and had it fixed over into a cap lock, and
now I was rigged out with both gun and traps.

I will now tell you about the first bear that I killed. I was about
thirteen years old, and it was not so common a thing for one to kill
a bear in those days as it is now (1904), for strange as it may seem,
bears are far more plentiful here today than they were at that time.

Two of my brothers and three or four of the neighbors went into the
woods about twelve miles and bought fifty acres of land. There was no
one living within six or seven miles of the place. They cleared off
four or five acres and built a good log fence around it. They also
built a small barn and cabin. Each spring they would drive their
young cattle out to this place, stay a few days and plant a few
potatoes, and some corn. About once a month it was customary to go
over to this clearing and hunt up the cattle and bring them to the
clearing and salt them, then have a day or two of trout fishing,
watch licks and kill a deer or two, jerk the meat and have a general
good time.

I was allowed to go on one of these expeditions, and the first night
the men watched one or two licks and one of the men killed a deer,
but I had to stay in camp that night with a promise that I should
watch the second night.

During the first night we heard wolves howl away upon the hills. The
next morning the men talked very mysteriously about the wolves and
said that it would not be safe to watch the licks that night, that no
deer would come to the licks as long as the wolves were around. I
took it all in and said nothing, but was determined to watch a lick
that night. Finally one of the men, John Duell by name, said that I
could watch the lick that he had and he would stay in camp. The one
that I was to watch was only a short distance from the clearing. When
the sun was about one-half hour high, I took the old shot gun, this
time loaded with genuine buck shot and climbed the Indian ladder to
the scaffold which was built about twenty feet from the ground in a
hemlock tree.

I sat quiet until sundown and no deer came. I thought I would tie the
gun in the notches in the limbs, which brought the gun in proper
range to kill the deer in the lick, should it come after dark. I got
one string tied around the barrel and the limb when a slight noise to
my left caused me to look in that direction and I saw a dark object
standing in the edge of the little thicket, which I took to be a
black creature I had seen down near the clearing when I came to the
lick. My thoughts were that I would tie the breech of the gun fast to
the limb, and then I would climb down and stone the animal away, so I
went on tying the gun fast. On looking up I saw that the supposedly
black heifer had turned out to be a black bear, and that it was going
to go above the lick and not into it. My knife was out in an instant
and the next moment I had the strings that held the gun cut. I raised
it carefully to my face and about this time the bear stopped, turned
his head around and looked back in the direction he had come. This
was my chance, and I fired both barrels at his head and shoulders,
and immediately there was a snorting, snarling, rolling and tumbling
of the bear, but the maneuvers of the bear was no comparison to the
screams and shouts that came from me. I was still making more noise
than a band of Indians when Mr. Duell arrived on the scene and took
in the situation. The other men who were watching other licks thought
I had surely been attacked by the wolves by the unearthly yell I was
making and the whole party were soon on the ground. The bear was soon
dressed and the men gave me the cognomen of the "The Great Hunter of
Kentucky" and so ended the killing of my first bear.

I am still in hopes to take the pelts from one or two this fall and
winter and later, I will tell of some of the incidents I have seen
and experienced while trapping and hunting among them. Perhaps, how a
brother of mine got a tenderfoot to ride the carcass of a deer down a
steep and hard frozen mountain when there was about two inches of
snow on would be interesting.



CHAPTER III.

My First Real Trapping Experience.

When I was about eighteen, I received a letter from a man by the name
of Harris, who lived in Steuben County, New York, wherein he stated
that a Mr. Lathrop had suggested me as a suitable party to go with
him to the region known as Black Forest. This section extends through
four counties, the southern part of Potter and Tioga counties, and
northern part of Clinton and Lycoming counties, Pa. Every reader
knows or has heard of the Black Forest region.

This section was and is still (1910) known as a good bear country. I
thought it strange that Mr. Lathrop, a man of much note as a hunter,
would recommend me, merely a boy, to go with Mr. Harris and into a
region like the Black Forest. As Mr. Lathrop lived about four miles
from our place I lost no time in going there to learn who this Mr.
Harris was. I was informed that he was an old hunter and trapper
about eighty years old and that he wanted a partner more for a
companion than a hunter or trapper. Mr. Lathrop had met Mr. Harris
while on a fishing tour on the Sinnamahoning waters during the summer
and said that he knew nothing of Mr. Harris otherwise than what he
saw of him at this meeting and to all appearances he was a fine old
gentleman. I showed the letter to father and asked what I should do
about it and he replied that he thought I could spend my time to a
better advantage in school, but he did not say that I could not go
with Mr. Harris. I therefore wrote him that I would be ready at the
time mentioned which was the twentieth of October.

Mr. Goodsil, the gunsmith in town, had been at work for some time on
a new gun for me. Now that I was going into the woods to hunt in
earnest, I was at the gun shop nearly every day, urging Mr. Goodsil
to finish my gun which he did and in plenty of time. After I got my
gun the days seemed like weeks and the weeks like months. I was
constantly in fear that Mr. Harris would not come. But promptly at
the time set, in the evening just before sundown, a man with a one
horse wagon loaded with bear traps and other traps of smaller size
and with one of the worst old rack-of-bones of a horse that I had
ever seen, drove up to father's place, stopped and inquired if Mr.
Woodcock lived there. I immediately asked if he was Mr. Harris, as I
had already guessed who the man was. He replied that he was and said
that he took it that I was the lad who was going with him.

Mr. Harris said that "often an old horse and a colt" worked well
together and that we would make a good team. While we were putting
his horses away I asked him what he intended to do with the old horse
and he replied that he brought him along so that if we got stuck he
could hitch him on and help out. The other horse was a fine horse and
I was at a loss to know what Mr. Harris meant.

During the evening I thought father and Mr. Harris talked on every
other subject rather than hunting but I managed to put in a few
questions now and again as to what we were to do when we arrived at
the great Black Forest.

Mr. Harris was a tall, broad-shouldered man with a long beard nearly
as white as snow. We were up early the next morning and on our way
before daylight. Our route was over the road known as the Jersey
Shore turnpike but after the first four miles we went through an
unbroken wilderness for twenty miles, save only one house, then known
as the Edcomb Place, now called Cherry Springs. The next place, ten
miles farther on, was a group of four or five shacks called Carter
Camp, but known now as Newbergen. This was in the year 1863 and the
conditions over this road are the same today only the large timber
has been mostly cut away and there is no one living at Cherry
Springs. Five miles farther on we came to Oleana, where there was a
hotel and store, owned by Henry Anderson, a Norwegian, who came to
this country as the private secretary of Ole Bull, the great
violinist, and it was here where the much talked of Ole Bull Castle
was built.

Beg pardon, I guess I am getting off the trap line. We stopped at the
hotel for the night and the next morning purchased supplies
sufficient to last during the entire campaign, consisting of lard,
pork, flour, corn meal, tea, coffee, rice, beans, sugar and the
necessary salt, pepper, etc. I remember well when Mr. Harris ordered
fifty pounds of beans and asked me if I thought that would do? I
replied that I thought it would. In my mind I wondered what we would
do with all those beans. But now I wish to say to the man going into
camp on a long hunting and trapping campaign, don't forget the beans
as they are bread and meat.

We are now within about ten or twelve miles of where we intended to
camp, which was at the junction of the Bailey and Nebo Branches of
Young Woman's Creek. It was about the middle of the afternoon of the
second day we were out and Mr. Harris said that here would be a good
place to build the camp. We got the horses out as soon as we could
and Mr. Harris picked out a large rock; one side had a straight,
smooth side and was high and broad enough for one end of the shanty
and there was a fine spring close by. Mr. Harris pointed to the rock
and said that there we had one end of our camp already as well as a
good start towards the fire place.

He told me to begin the cutting of logs for the other two sides and
the other end. We cut the logs a suitable size to handle well and
about twelve and fourteen feet long. Mr. Harris did the planning
while I did the heavy part of the work.

That night we slept under a hemlock tree and were up the next morning
and had breakfast before daylight and ready for the day's work. We
could see scuds of clouds away off in the southwest which Mr. Harris
said did not show well for us. He had brought a good crosscut saw and
it was not long until we had logs enough cut to put up the sides,
about four feet high and logs for one end. We hauled the logs all up
with the horse so they would be handy. Then we began the work of
notching and putting up the logs.

About noon a drizzling rain started and kept it up all the afternoon.
We covered our provisions and blankets the best we could to keep them
dry and continued to work on the camp. We got the body up, the
rafters and a part of the roof on. We put up a ridge roof as Mr.
Harris said it would not be necessary to have the sides quite so high
with a steep ridge roof. We got our supplies under shelter and had a
dry place to sleep that night. It was still raining in the morning
but we continued to work on the camp like beavers all day and we got
shakes split from a pine stub to finish the roof and chinking blocks
to chink between the logs.

The next morning Mr. Harris said that he would go and take the horse
out to a farm house that was about six miles out the turnpike, known
as the Widow Herod Place, or better known as Aunt Bettie. Mr. Harris
said he would go while there was food enough to last the old horse a
day or two until we were ready to use him. Then I knew that the old
horse was doomed to be used for bear bait.

When Mr. Harris started away with the horse he cautioned me not to go
off hunting, but to stick to work on the shanty which I did like a
"nailer." When Mr. Harris returned I had the roof on, the chinking
all in and the gable end boarded up with shakes and all ready to
begin calking and mudding. It was some time in the afternoon when he
got back and after looking over the shack to see what I had done he
said that he thought I had done so well that I was entitled to a play
spell and suggested that we take our guns and go down along the side
of the hill and see if we could kill a deer, remarking that we could
use a little venison if we had it. He told me to go up onto the bench
near the top of the hill while he would take the lower bench and he
would hunt the side hill along down the stream until dark.

Mr. Harris had a single barrel gun with a barrel three or four feet
long which he called Sudden Death, and it weighed twelve or fourteen
pounds. As for me I had my new double barrel gun which I have
mentioned before. We had not gone far until I heard the report of a
gun below me and soon I heard Mr. Harris "ho-ho-hoa," and I hurried
to where the howling came from and found him already taking the
entrails out of a small doe. I suggested to Mr. Harris that we take
the deer down to the creek before we dressed it and that by so doing
we probably could catch a mink or coon with the entrails. He
consented to do so and after we had taken out the entrails Mr. Harris
noticed a fine place to catch a fox or some other animal and pointed
to a large tree that had fallen across the stream.

The tree had broken in two at the bank, on the side of the stream
where we were. The water had swung the trunk of the tree down the
stream until there was a space of three or four feet between the end
of the tree and the bank. Mr. Harris took a part of the offal from
the deer and carried it across to the opposite bank and placed the
remainder on the side where we were. He then placed an old limb for a
drag to the trap at the place where he wanted to set the trap. As we
had no traps with us we went to camp and early the next morning we
took two traps and went to this place and set them.

We put in that day finishing the camp, putting in the door and fixing
the chimney to the fireplace and calking all the cracks between the
logs and mudded tight between the logs and all the joints. Now the
camp being completed we began setting the bear traps. The old horse
was taken onto a chestnut ridge and shot, cut up into small pieces
suitable for bear bait, and hung up in small saplings such as we
could bend down. After the bait was fastened to the tree we let it
spring up so as to keep it out of the reach of any animal until we
had a trap set.

The way Mr. Harris set a bear trap was to build a V shaped pen about
three feet long and about the same in height, place the bait in the
back end of the pen and set the trap in the entrance. We had eleven
bear traps and after they were all set on different ridges where
bears were most likely to travel, we began the work of setting the
small traps which was not a long job, as we had only about forty.

The next morning Mr. Harris said that I had better go down and see if
the traps we had set had been disturbed and he said that he would
rest while I was gone.

When I came in sight of the traps I could see a fox bounding around
in one of the traps. I could see on looking at the trap we had placed
across the creek that the drag had been moved closer to the log but I
could see nothing moving. I cut a stick and killed the fox when I
crossed over to see what was in the other trap and to my disgust
there was a skunk. I was not particularly in love with skunks in
those days, for while they scented just as loud at that time as now
they were vastly lacking in the money value. I took hold of the clog
and carefully dragged the skunk to the creek and sank him in the
water. I now went back to the other side of the creek and set the fox
trap and when I had the trap set the skunk was good and dead. I reset
the trap and took the fox and skunk to camp without skinning. When I
got to camp I found Mr. Harris busy making stretching boards of
different sizes for different animals from shakes that we had left
when covering the roof. Mr. Harris laughed and said that he knew that
we would need them when I got back. The fox and skunk were skinned,
stretched and hung up on the outside of the gable of the shack, and
that was the starting point of our catch of the season.

We set the most of our small traps along the streams for foxes and
mink, taking a few to the ridges to set in likely places to catch a
fox, and at thick laurel patches where we were likely to catch a wild
cat as there was a bounty of $2 on them.

After the small steel traps were set we began building a line of
deadfalls for marten and fisher. After the deadfalls were built we
divided our time between hunting deer and tending the traps.

We caught three bears, two fisher, which were very scarce, as I do
not think that fishers were ever very plentiful in this state, a good
bunch of marten, foxes, four or five wildcats and killed twenty-two
deer. The last days of December Mr. Harris said that we would prepare
to go home as the deer season closed the first of January. Although
the law gave until the fifteenth to get your deer we had dragged the
most of ours up to the Bailey Mill at various times. We got all those
around the mill and sent them to Jersey Shore by freight teams to the
railroad, then shipped them to New York. We got 15 cents for saddles
and 10 cents for the whole deer.

Mr. Harris had brought an auger with him so that he could make a
sleigh to go home with and from birch saplings we made one and on the
thirteenth of January I went and got the horse. He was as fat as a
pig and felt like a colt. We hitched him up to the sleigh and got our
stuff up to the Bailey Mill where we loaded the wagon onto the sleigh
and piled on the furs and the rest of our outfit and early on the
morning of the fourteenth we started for home. This ended my first
real experience as a hunter and trapper.

I received two or three letters from Mr. Harris, the last one in
which he stated that he was not feeling very well and I never heard
from him again.



CHAPTER IV.

Some Early Experiences.

In 1871 or 1872 I had several bear traps made by our local blacksmith
and I started in as a bear trapper and went it alone. After being out
with Mr. Harris I had taken some valuable lessons on trapping bear
and other animals. I built a good log camp on the West Branch of Pine
Creek and went to trapping and hunting without either partner or
companion, but after being in camp the first season I bought a
shepherd dog that was a year old and broke him for still hunting and
trapping. I found that a good intelligent dog was not only a
companion but also a valuable one. I have noticed that some trappers
do not want a dog on the trap line with them, claiming that the dog
is a nuisance. This is because the dog was not properly trained.

To get back to the bear trapping: In the locality where I was
trapping, bear were not very plentiful except in season, when there
was a crop of beechnuts, although there was but little other shack,
such as chestnuts and acorns. However, some seasons there would be an
abundance of black cherries which the bears are very fond of. I set
three traps at the head of a broad basin where there were three or
four springs and the next day I set the balance of my bear traps;
then I built a few deadfalls for coons and set a few steel traps for
fox.

As I had seen several fresh bear tracks crossing the stream, where I
had been setting the coon traps, on the morning of the third day
after I had set the first three bear traps, I thought that I would go
and look after them. They were about a mile and a half from camp and
when I came in sight of the first trap I saw that I had a bear. You
may be sure that I again felt like a mighty hunter. I was more
pleased over this one bear than I was over the eight bear we had
caught when I was with Mr. Harris, because now I was the trapper and
not Mr. Harris. The bear was a good sized female. She had become fast
only a short distance from where the trap was set. I shot and skinned
the bear then cut the carcass into quarters, bent down a sapling and
hung a quarter of the bear on this. With a forked pole I raised the
sapling up until the meat was out of the way of small animals that
might happen along.

After hanging up three of the quarters in this manner, leaving one to
take to camp, I took the lungs and liver and put them in the bait
pen. The bait had all been eaten and I was quite sure it had been
done after the bear was caught, as a bear immediately loses its
appetite after placing its foot in a good, strong trap. I really
expected to find another bear in one of the other traps as they were
not far away, but the other traps were undisturbed.

The next morning I thought I would take some bait from camp and bait
the trap where I had put the offals from the bear, fearing that
should a bear come along it might not eat the bait that was in the
pen. You may imagine my surprise when I came in sight of the trap to
see another bear fast in the trap.

After killing the bear I removed the entrails and started to carry
the bear to camp. It was a cub and I could carry it without cutting
it in parts. I was just about to start for camp when I decided I
would go to the other traps. If I was surprised at seeing the first
cub, I was doubly so, for there was another cub tangled up in the
trap. Do you think I felt gay? Well, that was no name for it.

I shot this cub and without waiting to dress it I took a lively gait
to the other trap to see if there were any more bears but there was
nothing there. The last two bears, I think were the cubs of the old
bear that I had caught the night before. I spent the entire day
getting the bears to camp. I did not get any more bear for some time
although I had an opportunity to learn a whole lot about them.

Some days after I got the old bear and the cubs, I found the bait pen
in one of the traps torn down by a bear, which had taken the bait and
had not sprung the trap. Right here I will say that I learned a great
deal more about the habits of Bruin. After finding the bait gone I
thought that all I would have to do was to make the bait pen a little
stronger so Bruin could not tear it down so readily to get at the
bait. I did not think that a bear knew anything about "trapology,"
for the experience I had so far in bear trapping was that bears knew
but little more about a trap than a hog, though later I found I was
very much mistaken.

  [Illustration: SETTING A LARGE STEEL TRAP FOR BEAR.]

The trap was set in a small brook where there were plenty of rocks of
all sizes. I rolled several of these rocks, as large as I could
handle, up about the bait pen to strengthen it to such an extent that
Bruin would not think of tearing it down. I figured the bear by going
over the trap would take the bait from the entrance of the pen as a
good bear should; though in this I was greatly mistaken. The second
day I went to the trap with full expectation of finding Bruin fast in
the trap, but again I was disappointed--Bruin had again gone to the
back of the pen and torn the top of the pen off, rolling away some of
the stones, taking the bait.

Now I saw that if I was to get my friend Bruin, I would have to work
a little strategy. I removed the trap from the clog, leaving the clog
undisturbed and making all appear just the same as it did when the
trap was set. I was very careful to have the covering of the trap
left just the same as when the trap was set. Then I got another clog
and set the trap at the back of the pen at the place where the bear
had torn off the top of the bait pen. Here I concealed the trap and
clog as completely as I knew how and being very careful to make all
appear just as before the trap was set, flattering myself that Bruin
would surely put his foot in it this time.

I went early the next morning, being sure that I would find Bruin,
but no bear had been there. I went again early the next morning with
high expectations of finding Bruin waiting for me, but again nothing
had been disturbed. Thinking that Bruin had left that locality
altogether, or that he would not be back again for several days, I
thought I would go and have a team come and take out the furs and
game I had, and give Bruin time to get back after more bait. As I had
caught no bear at the other traps, I felt quite certain that Bruin
was still somewhere in the neighborhood and would be around again
after more bait.

When I reached home an old gentleman by the name of Nelson who was a
noted hunter and trapper and who lived near us, came to see me. Let
me explain who this Mr. Nelson was, as I shall have more to say of
him.

Mr. Nelson was one of the early settlers in this county, moving here
at an early date from Washington County, New York State. He was known
here as Uncle Horatio and by many as Squire Nelson, as he was a
Justice of the Peace here for thirty years.

Mr. Nelson would always come to our house as soon as he found that I
was at home, to see what luck I had in the way of trapping and
hunting. On this occasion, Mr. Nelson, or Uncle Horatio, as we always
called him, was soon over to learn what luck I had and when I told
him what sort of a time I had trying to outwit the bear, he said I
had better build a deadfall and let the bear kill himself. Uncle said
that Bruin would give me much trouble and was likely to leave and I
would not get him at all. This idea I did not like, for I had, before
this, been put to my wit's end to outwit a cunning old fox, but
finally succeeded in catching him and I thought I could outwit such a
dumb thing as a bear. I thought if I could not get the bear in a
steel trap, there would be but little use trying to get him in such a
clumsy thing as a deadfall--however, Uncle had trapped bear long
before I was born and knew what he was talking about.

As soon as I got back to camp I went to the bear trap to relieve
Bruin of his troubles, but it was not the bear that was in trouble,
but myself, for Bruin had been there and torn out a stone at one side
of the pen and had taken the bait. Well, the case was getting
desperate, so I got another trap and set it at the side where the
bear took the bait the last time, taking all the pains possible in
setting the trap, but the result was no better than before.

I had made it a habit to hang on a small bait near the bear traps,
believing that the bear would be attracted by the scent of the bait
hanging up from the ground more than it would from the bait in the
pen. At this trap I had hung up the bait in a bush that extended out
from the bank over the brook and each time the bear had taken this
bait. I now took one of the traps at the pen, leaving the clog and
all appearances as though the trap still remained there. Getting
another clog I concealed it under the edge of the bank and set the
trap under the bait that I had hung in the bush. I was certain this
time that I would outwit Bruin, but instead, the bear went onto the
bank, pulled the bush around, took the bait and went about his
business. Now I was getting pretty excited and began to think of the
advice of Uncle Horatio but I was not willing to give up yet.

Up the brook, fifty or sixty feet from the bait pen, there had fallen
a small, bushy hemlock tree which stood on the right hand bank of the
spring, and the top of the tree reached nearly over to the opposite
bank. I had noticed that when the bear had come to the trap he had
come down the brook and went back the same way. The water was shallow
in the brook, barely covering the stones and fallen leaves all over
the bed of the brook. Going to the top of the hemlock tree, I saw
that the bear had passed between the top of this tree and the bank of
the brook. Here was a fine place to conceal the trap and I said, "Old
fellow, here I will surely outwit you." I took the trap from the bait
pen and set it in the open space between the top of the tree and
concealing all the very best I could, I again put more bait in the
bait pen and hung up more on the bush.

I waited two days and then went to the traps again, wondering all the
way what the result would be. Well, it was the same as before. The
bear had gone to the bush on the bank, taken the bait, and had also
taken the bait from the bait pen as usual. Now I thought it quite
time to try Uncle's plan, though I had but little faith in it.

It was several miles to Mr. Haskins', the nearest house, but I lost
no time in getting there for I was now feeling desperate. Mr. Haskins
readily consented to help me build a deadfall. We cut a beech tree
that was about fourteen inches through, that stood back in thick
undergrowth some rods from the bait pen. We cut a portion about four
feet long from the large end of the tree for the bed-piece and
placing it against the small tree for one of the stakes. With levers
we placed the tree on top of the bed-piece and with three other good
stakes driven at each side of the logs fastened the tops of the
stakes together with withes to strengthen them, we soon had a good,
strong deadfall made, as every boy who is a reader of the H-T-T,
knows how to build. We baited the trap and set it, getting done in
time for Mr. Haskins to get home before dark.

I again put bait back in the bait pen and on the bush as before and
patiently awaited results. The second day I looked after the traps
but there were no signs of bear being about either the deadfall or
the steel traps and I feared that I had frightened Bruin out of the
country in building the deadfall. I put in three or four days looking
after other traps, thinking but little about the bear that had, so
far, been beyond my skill.

After three or four days, I again went to the deadfall, wondering and
imagining all kinds of things. When I came to the steel traps the
bait was still undisturbed and I was now sure that that particular
bear was not for me, but when I stepped into the thicket so that I
could see the deadfall, there was Bruin, good and dead. When I looked
at the bear I found that he had three toes gone from one foot and
this I thought to be the cause of his being so over-shy of the steel
traps.

I learned a lesson that has since served me more than one good turn.

* * *

In later years it was customary for many of my friends to come to my
camp and spend a few days with me. It was of one of these occasions
that I will relate. Two young men, named Benson and Hill, had sent me
word that they were coming out to my camp and hunt a few days; also
to go with me to my bear traps but added that they did not suppose
that I would get a bear while they were in camp, even if they would
stay all winter.

It had been drizzling sort of a rain for several days and every old
bear hunter knows that dark, lowery weather is the sort bears like to
do their traveling in. I had set the time to go out on a stream known
as the Sunken Branch, to look after some fox traps and also two bear
traps that I had in that section the day I got word from Benson and
Hill that they would be over to camp the next day. I thought I would
put off going to look after the traps in that locality until the boys
came over and should I have the luck to find a bear in one of the
traps it would come very acceptable to have the help to get the bear
to camp for it was some four or five miles to the farthest trap.

The boys came as they said but the next morning after they got there
it was raining very hard and they did not want to go out and did not
want me to go until it slacked up. Well, the next morning it was
raining hard and the boys were in no better mood to go out than the
day before. It had been several days since I had been to the traps,
in that direction, and there were some chestnuts in that locality
where the bear traps were set. The storm had knocked the chestnuts
out and it was probable that bears would be in that locality. I told
the boys I did not like to let the traps go any longer without
looking after them and they could stay in camp and I would go to the
traps. When I was about ready to start, Hill said that he would go
with me, notwithstanding the rain, though Benson tried to persuade us
not to go, stating that no bear was fool enough to travel in such a
rain and that all we would get would be a good thorough soaking.

I was determined to delay no longer looking at the traps and started
off when Hill said, "Well, I'm with you." So we took the nearest cut
possible to reach the traps. Hill was continually wishing we would
find a bear in one of the traps and that he could shoot it so that he
could joke with Benson.

Our route took us along the top of a ridge for about three miles when
we dropped off to the first trap. When we were still half way up the
side of the ridge I saw that Hill had got his wish for I could see a
bear rolling and tumbling about down in the hollow and knew that it
was fast in the trap. I tried to point it out to Hill but he could
not get his eye on it, so we went farther down the hill when Jim
(that was Hill's given name) could see the bear. He said there was no
need of going closer, that he could shoot it from where we were, but
I said we must go closer as I did not like to make holes in the body
of the skin unnecessarily. We had only taken a few steps farther when
Jim said we were plenty close, that he could, shoot it from where we
were and that if we should go closer the bear might break out of the
trap and escape.

With all my urging I could not get Hill closer so I told him to be
sure that he shot the bear in the head and not in the body. I
discovered that Hill was very nervous and told him to take all the
time necessary to make a sure shot. When the gun cracked I saw a twig
fall that the gun had cut off fully three feet above the bear's head.
I urged Hill a few yards closer when he tried again with no better
results than the first shot. After making the third shot Hill said he
guessed that I had better shoot the bear as he thought something had
gone wrong with the sights on his gun. It was raining hard so I
killed the bear and took the entrails out, set the trap again and
left the bear lying on the ground. As it was a small bear we
concluded to take the bear to camp whole.

We hurried on to the next trap which was about a mile farther down
the stream. When we got to where the trap was set it was gone, but
the way things were torn up we could see that we had a bear this time
that was no small one.

The bear had worked down the stream, first climbing the hill on one
side of the stream until it became entangled in a jam of brush or old
logs, then back down the hill and up on the other side until it
became discouraged, when it would try the other side again. The bear
was continuously getting the clog fast under the roots of trees or
against old logs when it would gnaw the brush and tear them out by
the roots. It was also noticed where he would rake the bark on the
trees in trying to climb them, in hopes of escaping the drag that was
following him. The bear would gnaw and tear old logs to pieces
whenever the clog became fast against them.

This was all very interesting and exciting to Hill and he said he
would give Benson the laugh when we got to camp. Hill had made me
promise not to tell Benson how he had shot three times at the bear's
head and missed it.

The bear had worked his way down the stream nearly a mile from where
the trap was set, when we came upon him and shot him at once. Hill
declaring that it was getting too near night and raining too hard for
him to practice on shooting bear any more that day.

We skinned the bear, hung up the meat, took the trap and skin and
went back up the creek and set the trap in the same place again.
Taking the bear skin we started back to where we left the other bear.
After carrying the whole bear and bear skin until it was dark, we
hung the bear skin up in the crotch of a tree, taking the bear and
hurrying to camp at as lively a gait as we were able to make.

Hill said that while we had had a pretty rough day of it he would
make it all up in getting the joke on Benson if I would not give him
away on shooting the bears, as Hill was to tell Benson all about how
he did it.

Before we came to camp I said to Hill that if he cared to we would
play a joke on Benson. He wished to know what the plan was. I said
that we would fix the bear up in the path that led from the shack to
the spring and get Benson to go after a pail of water and run onto
the bear. So we planned to have Benson think that we got no bear and
after supper was over I was to take the pail and start to the spring
after a pail of fresh water when Hill was to interfere and insist
that Benson should go for the water as he had been in camp all day
and needed exercise.

It was about a hundred feet from the shack to the spring and down
quite a steep bank and about half way from the shack to the spring
was a beech log across the path. When we got near camp we made no
noise and when we came to the spring we washed our hands carefully to
remove any blood that might be on them. Then we took the bear to the
log that was across the path and placed the forepaws and shoulders up
over the log leaving the hind parts on the ground, then with a small
crotched stick placed under the bear's throat to hold up its head we
had it fixed up to look as natural as we were able to in the dark.

We went into the shack looking as downcast as a motherless colt. It
was unnecessary to deny getting any bear for Benson told us almost
before we were inside that we should have known that we would get no
bear in any such weather as we were having and none but simpletons
would have gone out in such rain.

We ate our supper which Benson had waiting for us. We had little to
say farther than to talk of what a fearful rain we were having. After
supper was over I took the water pail, though it was nearly full of
water, and threw the water out the door before Benson had time to
object, saying that I would get a pail of fresh water. Hill said that
we should let Benson go after the water as he had not been out of the
shanty all day and needed some fresh air. Benson consented to go
after another pail of water although he said that he had brought the
water that we had thrown out just before we came. I told Benson that
I would hold the light at the door so he could see but Benson replied
that I need not bother, all that was necessary was to leave the door
of the shack open so that he could see his way back.

About the time that Benson reached the log he gave a terrible howl
and we heard the water pail go rattling through the brush and when we
got to the door Benson was coming on all fours, scrambling as fast as
he could and yelling "Bah--bah--bear--bear!"

Hill nor I could not keep from roaring with laughter, and finally
Hill managed to say, "Oh, you didn't see any bear."

Benson made no reply but was as white as a sheet and shook as though
he had the ague. We could not conceal our feelings and when Benson
found his speech he said, "You think you are mighty cunning; if you
got a bear why didn't you say so and not act like two dumb idiots."

We had laughed so hard that Benson caught on and the game was up.

Well, after Benson was onto our joke, nothing would do but we must
get the bear in and skin out the fore parts so we could have some
bear meat cooked before we went to bed. Every time Hill awoke during
the night he would burst out laughing while Benson would hurl a few
cuss words at him.

The next day we brought in the skin and saddles of the other bear,
leaving the fore quarters for fox and marten bait.

The rain now being about over with and the ground and leaves
thoroughly soaked, it was a good time for still hunting deer, so we
were all out early the next morning. We started out together and soon
became separated and it so happened that I was the only one to get a
deer during the day. When I got to camp I found Benson was not in
yet, so I did not tell that I had killed a deer, but thought I would
wait until Benson came in and see what luck he had. If he had not
killed anything I would give him the hint and let him have the credit
of killing the deer that I got as a sort of off-set on Hill on the
bear hunt. I stayed outside gathering dry limbs for wood until I saw
Benson coming and I planned to meet him before Hill got to talk to
him. I learned that Benson had not killed anything, so I told him
where I had killed the deer and that if he cared to he could claim
the deer as his game. Benson was much pleased with the idea and as I
had told him just where I had killed the deer it was easy for Benson
to explain to Hill where the deer was shot. Hill did not believe that
Benson had killed a deer and said he would not believe he (Benson)
had killed one if he did not know that he had been alone and anyway
he must see the deer before he would believe it. I took the first
opportunity when Hill was out to tell Benson which way to go so that
he would be sure to find the deer and the next morning the boys went
out and brought in the deer while I went to look after some traps.
The boys stayed a day or two longer and then went home declaring that
they had had the best hunt of their lives.

I will now tell of some of my hunting and trapping with Mr. Nelson
and my first experience with a big cat. About 1860, when I was a mere
chunk of a boy, a man by the name of Perry Holman was camping on the
extreme headwaters of Pine Creek, hunting and trapping. Early one
morning Mr. Holman came out of the woods after groceries and other
necessaries. On his way out he saw where a small bear had crossed the
road just at the top of the hill on the old Jersey Shore turnpike and
about five miles from Mr. Nelson's place. Mr. Nelson at that time
always kept one or two good bear dogs. Mr. Holman told Mr. Nelson of
the bear's track and said that the bear had gone into a laurel patch
on the west side of the road and that the track was very fresh. He
thought if Mr. Nelson would take his dogs and go out that he could
get the bear without much trouble as he believed the bear would still
be in the laurels close to the road.

Mr. Nelson told Mr. Holman to get his groceries while he would come
to see if I would go along to look after the team while Mr. Nelson
and Mr. Holman went into the laurels after the bear. Of course, I was
ready for anything that had hunt in it. The sleighing was good and
Mr. Nelson was soon ready, taking his dogs into the sleigh so that
they would not break off on the track of a deer or some other animal.

When we came to where Mr. Holman saw the bear or cub, Mr. Nelson, or
Uncle as we always called him, said to Mr. Holman before he got out
of the sleigh:

"Perry, that is no cub's track; that is a big cat and I think we will
find him in the laurel patch."

Uncle told me to stay with the team and that they would not be gone
long; that if the track led off he would come back to the sleigh and
I could go back with the team and he would go to Mr. Holman's camp
and stay over night and come home the next day.

The dogs were anxious to take the trail, but Uncle held them in to
the laurels. They had not been gone more than ten minutes when the
dogs began to give tongue like mischief. I could see that the dogs
were coming towards the road and in about a minute saw the biggest
cat that I had ever seen at that time, shinning up a large tree that
was not further than fifty yards from the sleigh. The dogs were soon
at the tree barking their best and in a few minutes I heard the crack
of a gun and the big cat seemed to fly out into the air. I could hear
the cat go threshing down through the limbs on the trees and the dogs
doubled their howling and I could hear the men laugh. I called to the
men to see if they got the cat. Uncle told me to watch the horses and
they would soon be there, and they were soon in sight dragging a
large panther instead of either a cub or cat. Uncle drove down to
where Holman's path left the road to go down to his camp and we then
drove back home. Uncle was greatly pleased over Perry's cat hunt as
Mr. Nelson called it.

* * *

In or about the year '67 or '68, Uncle Horatio Nelson, whom I have
spoken of before, had for years been accustomed to going to Edgecomb
Place, later known as Cherry Springs, to hunt and trap. Wolves were
then more plentiful than foxes are at the present time.

I will explain that Cherry Springs was simply a farm house built of
logs. This house was located about half way through, or in the center
of a dense forest of about twenty miles square. The Jersey Shore
turnpike ran through this vast forest and the stage or any traveler
going through this region were obliged to stop at this house to feed
at noon, or to stop over night, this being the only house on the
road.

From where this house was located there was easy access to the waters
of Pine Creek, which flowed east, to the waters of the Cross Fork of
Kettle Creek, which flowed south and to the waters of the East Fork
of the Sinnamahoning which flowed west. There was no one living on
any of these streams for many miles. This was the point where Mr.
Nelson, or Uncle, as I shall call him, hunted for many years.

At the time I am writing of, it had been a noted place for many
hunters to stop from all parts of the country. There were almost too
many hunters stopping at Cherry Spring to suit Uncle as he was
getting pretty well along in years and did not like so much company.
I had been camping a greater part of the time for several seasons
about five miles north of Cherry Springs and one day Uncle said, if I
cared to, he would go on to Crossfork and build a cabin and we would
hunt and trap, more particularly trap. This was satisfactory to me
although I had a good camp where I was trapping and in a fairly good
locality for game, but the Crossfork country was a little farther in
the tall timber so I thought that the change might be a good thing.

About the first of October we took a team, went into the woods and
cut out a sort of a turkey trail from the wagon road down to Boon
Road Hollow to the Hog's Back branch of the Crossfork, where we
selected a sight for the camp. We felled a large hemlock tree and cut
off four logs of suitable length to make the body of the camp about
ten by twelve feet inside. We worked them around in shape fitting the
two shorter logs in between the ends of the two longer logs; then
placing rafters at about half pitch, put on the covering, chinked and
calked all the cracks and built a chimney of stones, sticks and clay
and put in a door.

We were now ready for the trap line. We set the bear traps on
different ridges where we thought would be the most likely places for
bears to travel. Then we put out two lines of deadfalls for marten.
We then took the different branches and spring runs, building more
deadfalls for mink and coons, setting the greater part of our steel
traps for foxes. After all the steel traps but three or four were
set, Uncle said that if I would go down the creek and set the balance
of the steel traps, he would go and look after the first of the bear
traps that we had set. I set the steel traps for foxes and built one
or two more deadfalls farther down the creek. I think that I found a
mink and one coon in the deadfalls that we had set in that section.

I got to camp about dark but Uncle had not come yet. I hustled supper
to have it ready when he came, but when supper was ready I could
neither see nor hear anything of him. After waiting some time I
concluded to eat and then if he did not come I would go in the
direction he had taken as I now suspected that he had gotten a bear
and was bringing in what he could carry and that I would meet him and
help him in with his load. Before I started out to see if I could
find him I gave several long and loud "coohoopes," but got no answer.
I concluded I would fire a couple of gunshots and see if I could get
an answer, but got no reply save the hoot of an owl.

I now began to feel alarmed, fearing that some misfortune had
happened Uncle as he knew every rod of the ground in that section. I
had no lantern so I made two good torches from fat pine, having a
good supply in camp, and followed the stream until I came to a little
draw where we had a bear trap set. This trap had not been disturbed,
so I climbed the hill to the top of the ridge when I fired two more
gunshots but still got no response. I was now thoroughly alarmed as I
knew that a gunshot on the still night air could be heard a long ways
from the high ridge I was on.

With the aid of another torch I hurried on to the next bear trap and
upon arriving at the second trap I saw that the clog was gone and
that there was a trail leading off through the leaves and
undergrowth. I now knew that it was something in connection with the
bear that was detaining Uncle, but what it was I could not tell.

I followed the trail with the aid of the torch for fifty yards when I
came to a fallen tree that lay up about a foot from the ground. Here
I found the clog that had been fastened to the trap. I could see that
the trap ring had been moved from the clog by the aid of a hatchet. I
searched about but could find no signs of the trap nor of the bear
and I could no longer follow the trail by the aid of the torch, the
last one being now pretty well burned out. There was nothing for me
to do but go back to camp and wait until morning.

When I was within a mile or less of camp, I heard the report of a gun
in the direction of camp and knew that Uncle had arrived and was
firing his gun to let me know that he was in camp. I answered the
call by firing my gun and hurried on to camp to see what had detained
him.

The bear had gone over the fallen tree while the end of the clog had
caught under the log and a weak link in the trap chain had given
away, Bruin going off with the trap. Uncle had followed the bear
several miles when dark came on. He followed down the stream to where
it came in to the branch that the camp was on, and being over a ridge
and so far from the camp was the cause of him not hearing the
gunshots that I had fired. Uncle followed the bear until dark so as
to know about where he was in case a snow should fall to fill up the
trail.

It was after midnight when we turned in but we were up in good season
the next morning and taking a lunch in our knapsacks and each a
blanket, we started for the wind jam to see if we could find the
bear. Uncle took me to the bear's trail at the edge of the wind jam
where I waited, giving him time to get around on the opposite side of
the jam, at a point, where the bear was likely to come out, provided
I should start him. I had not followed the trail far into the jam
before I came to where the bear had made a bed by breaking down
briers and gnawing down saplings, but he did not stay long at this
place when he again went on.

I soon came to another such bed and after finding several more, came
to one that was fresher than the others. I could see that the bed had
been made during the night. I now began to work my way along the
trail very cautiously with my gun in hand ready for action and my
heart in my mouth for I knew that Bruin would soon be on the move. I
worked my way through the jam at a snail's pace and soon heard the
rattle of the trap and could see the brush move not more than a
hundred feet away.

The undergrowth was so thick that I could get no distinct sight of
the bear but fired a shot more to let Uncle know that Bruin was on
the move than of any expectation of hitting him. When the gun cracked
the bear gave a snort like that of a frightened hog and I could hear
him tearing through the brush at a great rate. It was not long until
I heard Uncle shoot and in the course of two or three minutes I heard
him shoot again and knew that Bruin had given up the trap.

After I had gone along the trail quite a ways, I saw a few drops of
blood now and then and when I reached Uncle he was already skinning
the bear. We found three holes in the bear. Uncle's second shot which
was the finishing shot, hit the bear in the head. The shot that I
fired caught Bruin just forward of the hips and undoubtedly would
have killed him in time.

We skinned the bear and took the hind quarters, the skin and trap and
started for camp. I must say that I think this was the hardest stunt
of packing that I remember and every old trapper knows what sort of a
job of toting he often runs up against. We went down the run about
two miles before coming to the stream that our camp was on, and then
we had to go up this stream about four miles to camp. When we reached
the stream it was dark; there was no path and there was a great deal
of fallen timber and undergrowth along the creek, the creek winding
around from one side of the valley to the other. It was a continual
fording of the creek, climbing over fallen timber, through
undergrowth and what not. You know no one but a trapper would be
silly enough to do such a stunt in the dark. We arrived at camp about
9 o'clock, wet, tired and hungry. The next morning Uncle was still a
little sore but I was as good as new and ready for another job of the
same kind.

Some days later we had a fall of snow of several inches and the
second or third day after the snow came we heard a number of gunshots
south of the camp on the ridge in the direction that we had a bear
trap set. It was near sundown and as we were not aware that there was
anyone camping or living in the direction of the gunshots, we
concluded it was hunters shooting at deer. The shots were at such
long intervals that Uncle said he did not think it was anyone
shooting at deer and that the shots sounded like they were right
where we had a bear trap set and that he thought hunters had run onto
a bear in our trap and were shooting at it. It was then too late to
go to the trap. Uncle said we would get up early in the morning for
he was sure the gunshots were close in the neighborhood in which our
trap was set, and he thought it likely that we had a bear in the
trap.

We were on the way before it was fairly daylight but when we came to
the place where the trap had been set we found it gone. We followed
the trail a short distance when the tracks of three men came onto the
trail. The men had stamped and tracked about where they came onto the
trail as though they were holding a council and then all started off
on the trail of the bear. They did not go far before they came up
with the bear where the trap clog had become fast between two
saplings. The trap was nowhere to be seen. The men had made many
tracks where they killed the bear.

Uncle said it looked as though the men intended to steal the bear
trap and all. We saw where the track of a man led off towards a large
log and returned. Uncle told me to follow that man's tracks and see
what he went out there for, as probably he hid the trap behind the
log. I found the trap clog behind the log but there was no trap. It
was snowing some at the time the men killed the bear.

When we found that the men had taken the trap and hid the trap clog
Uncle exclaimed, "The varmints intend to steal our bear." We followed
the trail of the men as fast as we could for we were quite sure they
must have stopped over night not far from there for it was nearly
dark when they killed the bear. Their trail led down the hillside to
the main stream, then down the creek and we hustled after them as
fast as we could go. After going down the creek a mile or more we saw
a smoke and Uncle said, "There the varmints are," and he was right.
We were none too soon as the men were already hitching the horses to
the sleigh ready to start off. We could see that the bear was already
on the sleigh, although it was covered over with a blanket. The men
started at us but did not say a word.

Uncle walked up to the end of the sleigh, caught a corner of the
blanket, threw it back and uncovered the bear. Then taking the bear
by the foreleg he gave it a flop onto the ground saying, "You have a
bear, haven't you," and the bear rolled to the ground and uncovered
the trap; Uncle said, "You have a trap, too, haven't you." Not a word
did any of the men say and when Uncle asked them who they were and
where they lived, one of them said that they did not intend to steal
the bear but were going to take it to the first house and leave it
for us.

Uncle told them that we did not care to have the bear go in that
direction and told the men they must take the bear to our camp and
their intentions were to steal the bear and trap and that they had
better settle the matter at once. The men were ready to settle and
asked what it would cost and Uncle told them if they would take the
bear to our camp and then leave the woods and not be caught in that
section again, that he would let them go. This they readily consented
to do and insisted that we take a part of a cheese they had brought
in with them. Uncle told them that we did not care for their cheese
or anything else they had--all that we wanted was that they take the
bear to our camp and get out of the woods. This they did and one of
them also took the cheese along and left it at the camp. Then they
left, begging that we would not say anything farther about the
matter.

We learned that the men did not live down the creek but instead lived
in New York State. They had come for a few days' deer hunting and had
only made a shelter of hemlock boughs. The first day out they ran
across the bear and as it was snowing they thought it would snow
enough to cover up their tracks and they would take the bear and get
back to New York State. Well, they did get back but it happened they
left the bear behind.

I would like to ask the old liners who have grown too old on the
trail and trap line to follow it longer with profit and pleasure, if
they keep bees? I find it a great pleasure to watch these little,
industrious and intelligent fellows work.



CHAPTER V.

Some Early Experiences (Concluded.)

I will state that I began my career as a trapper and hunter at a very
early age. The woods extended to the very door of my father's house
and deer were more numerous than sheep in the fields at the present
day. Bear were also quite plentiful and wolves were to be found in
considerable numbers in certain localities. Panthers were much talked
of and occasionally one would be killed by some hunter or trapper of
which I will speak later.

It was not long before I found my way further up the stream into the
woods where mink and coon tracks were in real paths, and here was
where father taught me how to make the deadfall, which was the trap
principally used in those days.

The guns that father had were one double barrel shotgun and a single
barrel rifle, both flintlocks, and with much anxiety I watched those
guns and begged of the older members of the family to let me shoot
the gun but mother was ever on the watch to see that I was not
allowed to handle the guns.

About this time a man moved into the place by the name of Abbott from
Schuylkill County, Pa., who brought two guns with him, a double
barrel shotgun and a double barrel rifle. After doing some hard
begging Mr. Abbott said that I could take the shotgun but that he
could not furnish the ammunition. I later thought that Mr. Abbott
thought that the problem of getting ammunition would put me up the
tree. But again the will was good and I soon found a way. I began to
watch the hen's nests pretty close and hide away the eggs and mother
began to complain that the hens were not laying as many eggs as
usual. Well, three dozen of eggs would get a pound of shot, a fourth
of a pound of powder and a box of G. D. gun caps.

I had some fine times out with the gun and I always gave Mr. Abbott
whatever game I killed. I did not dare to take it home fearing that I
would be compelled to explain how I came by the game. One day I had
been out after wild pigeons and had got quite a number or more than I
liked to give away and go without ourselves. I thought I would resort
to one of those white lies that we have all heard tell of. I told my
parents that Mr. Abbott gave me the pigeons but the plan did not
work, although it was the making of me so far as a gun is concerned.

When father inquired of Mr. Abbott as to how I got the pigeons it
brought out the whole thing as to the gun business and also why the
egg basket had not filled up as usual. The result was that father and
mother held a council of war and decided that if I was to have a gun
the better way was to let me have one of my own. Father told me that
I must not borrow a gun any more but take one of our own guns and
that he (father) would take the gun to the gunsmith and have the
locks changed from a flint lock to a cap lock.

You may be sure that this was the best news that this kid ever heard.
I picked up double the usual stone piles that day and went and got
the cows without being told a half dozen times.

Well, as every hunter and trapper who is born and not made is always
looking for taller timber and trying to get farther and farther from
the ting-tong of the cow bells, so it was in my case. I had seen some
whelp wolves that friends of ours (Harris and Leroy Lyman, who were
noted hunters) had got. They had gone onto the waters of the
Sinnemahoning and taken five pup wolves not much larger than kittens,
from their den. The puppies were brought out alive but they killed
the old mother wolf. On their way home they stopped at our house so
that we could see the young wolves.

I heard these hunters tell how they discovered the wolf den; how they
had howled in imitation of a wolf to call the old wolves up; how they
had shot the old female and had then taken the young wolves from the
den; heard them tell of the money that the bounty on wolves would
bring them (there was $25 bounty on all wolves then, the same as
now). All of this made me long for the day when I would be old enough
to do as these noted hunters had done.

I had already found a den of young foxes and had kept five of them
alive, which father finally killed all but one because he said they
were a nuisance. I had seen some Indians bring a live elk in with
ropes, dogs and horses, which they had roped in, after the dogs had
brought it to bay, on a large rock on Tombs Run (Waters of Pine
Creek).

All this made me hungry for the day that I too could hit the trail
and trap line that I might get some of those wolves and with the
bounty money buy traps and guns to my satisfaction.

A number of persons at our place (Lymansville) had gone several miles
into the woods to the headwaters of the Sinnamahoning and taken up
fifty acres of land. An acre or two was cleared off and the timber
from this clearing was drawn and put in an immense pile to be used
for the camp fire. The camp was simply a shed or leanto, open on one
side, and in front of this shed the fire was built of beech and maple
logs. Brook trout and game of all kinds were in abundance. Two or
three times during the summer a party of six or eight persons would
go out to this clearing and camp a week, killing as many deer as they
could make use of, jerking a good portion to take home with them and
having a general good time feasting on trout, venison and other game,
and amusing themselves shooting at marks, pitching quoits, etc. I
will add that the main reason they went to this camp was for a good
time rather than the game, as game was plentiful right at their homes
in those days.

Well, it was at one of these outings that I killed my first bear. I
was about thirteen years old, and, of course, in my own mind, it made
a mighty hunter of me, not to be compared with Esau of old. It was in
June and shortly after we got to camp there was a heavy thunder
storm, but it all passed over before sundown, the sun coming out nice
and bright. I was determined to go with some of the men to watch a
lick (there were three or four licks not far away), but none of the
men cared to have my company, and they said it was likely to rain
again and made many excuses why I should not go to watch a lick with
them. Just before they were ready to start out to the lick we heard a
wolf howl away off on the hills and they (the men) put up the wolf
scare on me and said that there would be no deer come to the lick so
long as wolves were in the neighborhood. I took their stories all in
but insisted that I would watch a lick all the same. There was a lick
only a few hundred yards from camp, but for some cause deer rarely
ever worked it. When they saw that I was going to watch a lick in
spite of thunder storms, wolves or all the rest of the excuses that
they could make, they finally said that I could watch the lick which
I have mentioned and get eaten up by wolves.

There was a blazed line from camp to the lick and when the men
started for the licks that each one had decided on watching, I
started to the lick that was given me to watch.

There was one man left in camp to watch the horses and to keep camp.
This man said that when he heard me shoot he would come up and help
me bring in the deer.

The blind at the lick was a scaffold built up in a tree twenty or
thirty feet from the ground. I climbed to the scaffold and placed the
old gun in the loops that were fastened to limbs on the tree to give
the gun the proper range to kill the deer, should one come to the
lick after it was too dark to see to shoot.

Nothing came round the lick before dark, but as soon as it got dark I
could hear animals walking and jumping on all sides of me and one old
inquisitive porcupine came up the tree to see what I was doing. He
perched himself on a limb not more than two feet from my face and sat
there and chattered his teeth until I could stand it no longer. I
took the large powder horn that I had strung over my shoulder with a
cord and gave the porcupine a rap on the nose that sent him tumbling
down the tree. I remember well how other animals scampered from under
the tree when the porcupine tumbled down. At that time I wondered
what it all was, but later I learned that all these animals were only
flying squirrels, rabbits and porcupines, but I imagined that the
noises were made by anything but squirrels and rabbits.

Well, about eleven o'clock I heard something coming towards the lick
with a steady tread like that of a man and again I was taken with a
chill that caused the scaffold to shake, but the chill only lasted
for a moment. Soon I heard the animal step in the soft mud and
directly it began to suck the salt from the dirt and I was sure that
it was a deer and that it was the right time to pull the trigger,
which I did. When the report of the gun died away all that I could
hear were the same noises that were made when I knocked the old
porcupine from the tree. I now feared that I had pulled the gun on
some other animal rather than a deer. I thought the report of the gun
would frighten all the deer in the woods, so that no deer would go to
the licks the men were watching. I was afraid I would get a terrible
scolding by the men who were watching the other licks when they came
to camp in the morning.

After waiting some time and hearing no noise of any kind, I concluded
to get down and go to camp. Upon getting down from the tree I decided
that I would go and look in the lick and see if I could tell what it
was that I had heard there and had shot at. As it was so dark that I
could not see from the blind, you can imagine my surprise when I got
to the lick to see a large buck deer lying broadside as dead as could
be.

I immediately lost all fear of being scolded by the other men, so I
claimed first blood. I began calling for the man who remained in camp
but could get no answer from him so I went down to camp and found him
fast asleep. I awakened him and we immediately made a torch and went
to the lick and dragged the deer to camp. Then we took out the
entrails and bunked down for the rest of the night.

The next thing that I knew, one of the men who had watched a lick not
far away was kicking me and saying, "Get out of this, you old deer
slayer, you, and get some venison frying for breakfast." We were soon
up for the sun was shining brightly and more than an hour high. Soon
the other watchers came in and reported that not a sound of a deer
had they heard about their licks. Two or three of us (I say "us"
because I was now counted as one of them) went to catch trout for
breakfast, while the others were at work taking care of the venison
and preparing breakfast, boiling coffee, frying venison and trout.
And so the day was spent, sleeping, cocking and eating until it was
again time to go to the licks, as the men wished to get another deer
so as to have plenty of venison to take home with them. When the men
were about ready to start to their watching places, one of them
inquired of me what I would do as there was no further use of
watching the lick where I had killed the deer, as it was blooded from
the deer I had killed.

The man who had watched the lick nearest the camp, and quite an old
man, said that I could watch the lick that he had watched and he
would stay in camp. (The men now acknowledged me as a thoroughbred
hunter, you see.) Well, I was getting there pretty lively, I thought,
when an old hunter would give up his lick to me, when only the
evening before none of the men thought that I was up to watching a
lick at any price.

I was pleased to again have a place to watch. Taking some punk wood
to make a little smoke to keep off the gnats and mosquitoes, I
started for the lick and climbed the Indian ladder to the scaffold,
built in a hemlock tree.

I had barely got fixed in shape to begin to watch when I chanced to
look towards a small ravine that came down from the hill a few yards
to my left and saw what I took to be a black yearling steer. I will
add that the woods in that locality were covered with a rank growth
of nettles, cow cabbage and other wood's feed, and people would drive
their young cattle off into that locality to run during the summer. I
thought I would get down from the scaffold and throw stones at it and
drive it off lest it might come into the lick after dark and I might
take it for a deer and shoot it.

As I started to climb down I again looked in the direction of the
steer, and this time I saw what I thought was the largest bear that
ever traveled the woods. He had left the ravine and was walking with
his head down, going up the hill and past the lick. I cocked both
barrels of the gun and raised it carefully to my shoulder, and,
breaking a little dry twig I had in my hand caused the bear to stop
and turn his head around so as to look down the hill. This was my
time so I leveled on his head and shoulders and let go both barrels
of the gun at once.

The bear went into the air and then began tumbling and rolling down
the hill towards the tree that I was in, bawling and snorting like
mad. But if the bear made a howl from pain he was in, it was no
comparison to the howl that I made for help and it did not cease
until the men in camp came on the run thinking that I had
accidentally shot myself. Well, this was my first bear and it was the
greatest day of my life.

We took the bear to camp, skinned and dressed it and then went to
bunk for the night, but it was very little I slept for I could only
think what a mighty hunter I was (in my mind).

The men came in in the morning with no better luck than they had the
night before, and they all declared that if I had not been with them
they would have had to go without venison.

The men said that we had meat in plenty now and that we would not
watch the licks any more that time, so they put in their time jerking
the venison and also some of the bear meat. They built a large fire
of hemlock bark, and when it was burned down to a bed of coals so
that there was no longer any smoke, they made a rack or grate of
small poles, laid in crotches driven in the ground, so as to have the
grate over the coals, and then laid the slices of venison on this
grate and stood green bark about the grate to form a sort of an oven.
The strips of meat were first sprinkled with salt and wrapped up in
the skin from the deer and allowed to remain wrapped in the skin for
a few hours until the salt would strike through the meat so as to
make it about right as to salt.

The men remained in camp about a week. They would shoot at a mark,
pitch quoits and have jumping contests and other amusements,
including fishing, eating trout, venison and bear meat along with
toasted bread and coffee and potatoes roasted in the ashes.

* * *

The time had arrived when I thought that I must take to the taller
timber to trap and hunt. I searched among the boys of my age, in the
neighborhood, for a partner who would go with me to the Big Woods, as
the section where I wished to go, was called. I finally found a pard
who said he would go with me and stay as long as I cared to.

The middle of October came. We packed our knapsacks with a grub
stake, a blanket or two, and taking our guns started for the Big
Woods, with a feeling that is not known to those who are not lovers
of the wild.

As we only had a limited number of steel traps it was our intention
to spend the first week in camp, building deadfalls for coon and mink
and use the steel traps for fox. Our intention was to build as many
deadfalls as we would be able to attend to before we baited and set
any of them. We had built our traps on many of the small brooks and
streams to the south and east of the camp, and had built traps on the
stream on which the camp was located nearly a mile below camp.

About a mile and a half below camp there was another branch coming in
from the north. Pard and I started early one morning to finish the
line of traps on the camp stream and then go up the stream that came
from the north and build as many traps as we could during the balance
of the day. We had finished the line of traps on the camp stream, and
had built a trap or two on the other branch, when pard complained of
having a bad headache, but refused to go to camp. We built another
trap or two, when pard consented to go to camp, if I would build
another trap on a little spring run where coon signs were plentiful,
which I readily consented to do. When I got the trap done it was
nearly sundown.

It was about three miles to camp so I hurried to see how pard was
feeling. I had not gone more than a half mile on my way from where
pard turned back to go to camp, when I found him lying on the ground.
He said that he was feeling so sick that he was unable to go any
further and complained that every bone in his body ached.

After explaining to pard the conditions under which we were placed,
it was with difficulty that I managed to get him up, and by
supporting and half carrying him I managed to get him along a few
rods at a time. I could see that he was continually growing worse.
After I had helped until we were within about three-quarters of a
mile of camp, he begged me to let him lie down and rest. I tried to
urge him along by explaining that I must go for a team to get him out
of the woods, and that I could not leave him lying there on the damp
ground. It was of no use; I could not get him to go any further.
While I was somewhat older than pard, he was much the heavier, and I
was unable to carry him.

Taking in the situation, there was only one thing for me to do and
that was to leave him and go for help. After making him promise that
as soon as he rested he would work his way to camp I took off my
coat, and put it under him, again making him promise to get to camp,
I started for help.

The night was dark and it was miles through the woods to the first
house. When I came to camp I stopped long enough to get a bite to eat
which I took in my hand. After lighting a fire so if pard did manage
to get to camp he would have a good fire, I started for help.
Wherever the light would get through the trees enough so that I could
see the path, I would take a trot. After the first mile and a half I
came to the turnpike road where I could make better time although it
was dense woods. After about six or seven miles I reached the first
clearing and from there the rest of the way was more or less
clearings and I could see the road better and was able to make better
time.

I reached pard's home about a mile before I came to my home, rattled
at the door and called for pard's father. I told him the condition of
his son. He requested me to go to my home and get some of my family
to take a team and start back at once after his son; he would go
after a doctor and have the doctor there when we got back with the
boy. I lost no time in getting started back. We could not get nearer
than a mile and a half to the camp, as we were obliged to leave the
wagon road at that point, and go down a very steep hill and only a
trail cut through the woods. When we reached the camp, contrary to
expectations, we found Orlando (that was pard's name) lying in the
bunk in camp but he said that he was feeling no better. It was after
midnight and we lost no time in getting him on one of the horses and
started back to the wagon which we reached with some difficulty. On
reaching the wagon we laid him on a straw bed which we had brought
for the purpose and got back to his home sometime after daybreak.

The doctor was there and after examining pard said he feared it was a
bad case of fever. I waited a few days to see if he would be able to
go back to camp and then the doctor told me that he would not be out
of bed in two months and advised me to keep out of the woods or I
would be brought out on a stretcher. I had my mind on all those
deadfalls that we had built and all the coon, mink and fox that we
could catch, and was determined to go back to camp notwithstanding
our friend's advice to the contrary. After looking around for another
partner which I was unable to find as no one wished to go and stay
longer than a day or two (what we call summer trappers), I again
packed my knapsack and went back to camp. The next morning, after
catching a good lot of trout for coon and mink bait, I began the work
of setting the hundred or more deadfalls that pard and I had built.
As soon as I had all the deadfalls set I hunted up good places to set
the traps that we had. I was so busy all the time that there was no
chance to get lonesome. Every day there were coon and mink to skin
and stretch. Now and then a big, old coon was so strong that he would
tear the deadfall to pieces and I would be compelled to build it all
over and make it stronger.

What a difference there is now with the many styles of traps and the
H-T-T to guide the young hunter and trapper. If I could have had a
couple dozen of the No. 1 1/2 Victor traps made as at the present
time, I would have been as proud as a small boy with a new pair of
boots, although I think what was lacking in modern traps was fully
made up by the number of furbearing animals.

I had been so busy during the two weeks I was in camp that I had
forgotten the day of the week; neither did I take time to kill a deer
or to go up to the road to see if anyone had written, to see if I was
dead or alive. There was a stage passed over the road twice a week. I
had nailed a box with a good tight lid on a tree by the road so that
I could send a line out home for anything I wanted or my family could
write to me.

I had two or three traps set for foxes up towards the road along the
edge of a laurel patch where there were plenty of rabbits and the
foxes worked around to catch rabbits. I thought I would go to the
road and be there about the time the stage passed along and see if I
could hear anything from pard and the folks at home and then I could
tend the traps on my way back to camp.

  [Illustration: WOODCOCK AND SOME OF HIS CATCH.]

I was at the road shortly before the stage came along and was
surprised as well as delighted to see a neighbor boy by the name of
Frank Curtis aboard the stage as he had said he would come over and
stay a day or two with me in camp. Frank had not been allowed to
spend much time with a gun or traps, but like most boys, he liked a
gun. My mother died before I was eleven years old and father allowed
me to trap and hunt about as I liked.

When we got down near the traps we set our packs down--I say we, for
my folks had sent me a new supply of provisions--and went to look
after the traps. The first one had a rabbit leg in it and it was
plain to be seen that some animal had eaten the rabbit. We reset the
trap and went on to the next trap which was set in a little gorge or
hollow. A few yards below the trap two large trees had blown down
across the little hollow. The tree on the side farthest down the hill
from the trap had broken in two where it fell over the hollow and
dropped down so that it laid close to the ground while the tree on
the upper side, the side nearest the trap, lay a foot from the ground
in the hollow.

The trees were two or three feet apart right at the hollow but were
close together on one side. When we came to where the trap had been
set we found trap and drag gone and nothing in sight. We soon
discovered the animal which we supposed was a coon, had gone down the
ravine toward the two large trees that had fallen across the hollow.
We went to the logs and looked between them. There we could see the
clog but the animal was crowded back under the logs so we could see
but little of it.

Frank said that he would get between the logs and poke the coon out.
I told him that he had better let me go, as I was afraid that he
would take a hold of the clog and pull the trap loose from the coon's
foot, but Frank grabbed a stick and jumped between the logs. He had
hardly struck the ground when he gave a fearful yell and there was a
spitting, snarling animal close at his heels. He scrambled out from
between the logs, as white as a sheet. I then saw that it was a
wildcat and a mad one. I cut a good stout stick and while Frank stood
on the bank with his gun, I poked the cat from under the log by
punching it, until Frank could see it enough to shoot it. We pulled
the cat out from between the logs, took the trap from its foot, reset
it and took the cat with our traps and went to camp, declaring in our
minds that there was no other such mighty trappers as we.

Frank declared that he was nearly famished with hunger so we had
supper and then skinned the cat. We did not sleep much that night as
Frank had to tell me all about things at home. He also told me that
pard was no better. Every time an owl would hoot, or a rabbit or
porcupine or a mouse would make a noise in the leaves, Frank would
give me a punch and ask what it was. Frank remained three days in
camp and then he took the stage back home, that being as long as his
parents would allow him to stay. I went to the road to see him off.
When leaving he made many declarations that he would come back to
camp, although he never did.

The snow now began to lie on the ground as it fell and it began to
get cold at night. Coon did but little traveling and some way, after
Frank had been over to camp and stayed those three days, I seemed to
get homesick. I had not become expert enough to make a business of
deer hunting and marten and bear trapping, so I sprung the deadfalls
and took up the few steel traps that I had and began to take my furs
and other plunder to the road to take the stage home. After going
home I went to school for a few weeks.

I no longer remember how many coon, mink and other furs I caught, but
it was quite a bunch for furs were very plentiful in those days.



CHAPTER VI.

A Hunt on the Kinzua.

Comrades, as I have not been able to trap any for the past two
years--1905 and 1906--and as I have previously served for more than 50
years almost without cessation, along the trap line, I beg to be
admitted to your ranks as one of the "Hasbeens."

I will therefore tell of one of my trips on a hunting and trapping
expedition in the fall and winter of 1865-6, a party of two besides
myself. My two companions' names were Charles Manly and William
Howard. We started about the 15th of October for Coudersport with a
team of horses and wagon loaded with the greater part of our outfit
and went to Emporium, Cameron County, where we hit the Philadelphia
and Erie Railroad. The only railroad that touched Northwestern
Pennsylvania at that time. Here we took the railroad to Kane, a town
in Southwestern McKean County, where we stopped one day and made
purchases for three months' camping. We hired a good team here to
take our outfit about seven or eight miles on to Kinzua Creek.

Almost the entire distance was through the woods and over the rock.
There was no sign of a road only as we went ahead of the team and cut
a tree or log here and there. The outfit was lashed onto a bobsled,
and as we had bargained with the man to make the trip for a stated
price, he did not seem to care whether there was any road or not, so
that he got through as quickly as possible.

We reached the stream about noon. The man fed his team some oats,
swallowed a few mouthsful himself and was soon on his way back to
town, while we began laying plans for our camp. We selected a spot on
a little rise of ground near a good spring of water, and where there
was plenty of small yellow birch trees handy to cut logs out of for
camp. We placed a good sized log down first at the end of the shanty
that we intended to build the fire place in. Another was placed at
the end that was to be the highest, so to give the right slope to the
roof, which was a shed roof. We always kept the large ends of the
logs one way, so that when we had the logs rolled up it made the
lower or eaves end of the camp about five feet high.

There was a slope of about two feet for the roof. We felled bass wood
trees which we split in half, and then dug or scooped them out so as
to make a trough. We notched the two end logs down and then placed
the scoops or troughs in these notches so that they would lay firm
with the hollow side up.

After placing these scoops across the entire width of the shack we
then placed another layer of the scoops (reverse) on the first set.
That is to say, the rounding side up. This made a very good roof but
required a good deal of chinking at the ends to keep the cold out,
but as moss was plenty, it was not a long job. The second day after
we got into the woods we had the camp in pretty good shape, well
chinked and calked.

The third day we worked on the fire place, laying it up to the jam of
stone, then we finished the chimney with logs and mud. We had a
fairly comfortable camp with but two exceptions. These were, no
windows, and for a door we had what I called a "hoghole," that was a
door so small that one had to get down on all fours to get in or out.
On the fourth day we intended to cut wood all day, and were at it
before it was fairly light, but before 10 o'clock it began to snow.
In a couple of hours there was a good tracking snow and the boys were
bound to go out and see if they could not kill a deer. I tried hard
to get them to stick to the wood job, but it was no use, they must go
hunting.

There was no partnership business in this hunt. It was every man for
himself, and the dogs, take the hindermost. I told the boys I would
stay in camp and do something at the wood job.

I had been along the creek a little the day before, poking my nose
under the banks and old drifts to see what manner of signs I could
see, and I had noticed several mink tracks. The boys had no more than
gone when I had a fishing tackle rigged out. It consisted of a line
braided from horsehair, out of a horse's tail, and a hook baited with
some bits of fat pork. It did the business, for the stream fairly
swarmed with trout. Taking three or four trout for bait, I was soon
at work building deadfalls. It was not long before I had three or
four built close up under the banks and behind logs where I thought
the boys would not see them.

I then scampered back to camp and went to cutting wood like a good
boy. I had only just got to camp when I heard a gun shot away up the
creek, and in about an hour Charley came dragging a yearling deer.
Will did not show up for some time after dark, but had nothing,
though he said that he had a fair standing shot at a large buck, but
his gun snapped on him and he lost.

The next morning we were out at the peep of day, each one going his
own way. I went down the creek so that I could take a peep at my
traps. None had been disturbed until I came to the last one. There,
to my satisfaction, I found a mink. As I had passed a small run that
emptied into the main creek I noticed that some animal had gone over
a pole that lay across a little run and partly in the water. The
animal had brushed the snow off the pole in going over it. I gave it
no particular attention, thinking that it was a coon, but when I got
the mink I thought I would go back to camp, make a stretching board
and stretch the mink skin and get a trap and set at the run for the
coon, as I supposed.

I will mention that furs were bringing about the same prices then as
at the present time, 1907, a good No. 1 mink being worth about $10.

Near the camp was a large elm tree that was hollow, and the fire had
burned a hole out on one side up the tree, nearly as high as a man's
head. After I had stretched the mink skin I hung it up in this hollow
tree, and it was a very good place to dry the pelts that I caught.
The boys never mistrusted that I was doing any trapping for small
game.

To get back to my job, I took one out of three steel traps No. 3, and
all the traps that we had brought with us. In fact, the other boys
did not care to trap. When I got back at the run I gave more
attention to the trail of the supposed coon, and discovered that it
was an otter. With greater caution I waded up the run until I found a
suitable place to set the trap, knowing that he would be back that
way again sooner or later.

After setting the trap I climbed the ridge to look for deer and got
two shots during the afternoon but missed both. All came to camp that
night without killing any deer. I had seen a number of marten tracks
during the afternoon. The next morning it was thawing and the boys
feared they would lose the tracking snow, so Charley and Will hurried
to localities where they expected to find deer. I sliced some strips
of venison from the fore-quarters, or rather what was left of the
fore-quarters, of the deer Charley had killed the first day out. I
made tracks to the ridge where I had seen the marten tracks, and I
lost no time in putting up deadfalls at the best pace I was capable
of getting into.

In the afternoon on my way to camp I came to the creek some ways
below where I had set the mink traps, so I put up two or three more
deadfalls for mink. I also found a big flood drift which otter were
using for their feeding grounds. I selected places to set the other
two steel traps which were in camp, and then went to camp, looking at
the mink traps on the way, but found that none had been disturbed.

When I got to camp I found both Charley and Will there, and each had
killed a deer. Will had killed a good sized buck close to camp, so he
dragged it down to the shanty to dress and hang up. The boys gave me
the laugh because I had not killed any deer. I told them to hold
their breath and I would get into the harness after a bit. In the
morning the snow was all gone and the boys were afraid that it was
going to get so warm that their venison would spoil. Cuts were drawn
to see which one of them should go to Kane to get a team to take out
their venison. It fell on Charley. They tried to have me join in the
draw, but I told them that I did not see where I came in as I had no
venison to spoil.

The weather kept warm for several days, so I kept building deadfalls
on the different ridges for marten and along the creek for mink and
coon. Charley and Will continued to still hunt, killing several deer.
When the snow came again I had all the traps up I intended to build,
but it turned out that later I built two deadfalls for bear. I now
put in my time still hunting, shaping my course as much as possible
so as to tend to my traps. I killed a deer occasionally as did the
other boys. I set the two steel traps on the drift where I had seen
the otter signs, and the second time I looked at them I found an
otter tangled up in one of the traps.

I was also getting mink, marten and coon now and then, and
occasionally I would get two mink or marten in one day. I would cut a
long slender withe to stretch the skins over, bending them in the
form of a stretching board the best I could and hang the pelts in the
old elm tree and kept mum. I remembered the old adage, "he that
laughs last, laughs best," and was bound to have the last laugh.

One night Will came in and said that a bear had eaten up the offal
where he had dressed a deer. I asked him if he was going to set a
trap for him, and he said that he had no trap to set. I told him to
build a deadfall. Will said that I could have that job if I wanted
it. I told him all right if he would tell me where to find the place.
He said that he would go with me in the morning and show me. In the
morning I took the best axe, some bait and went with Will to the
place where the bear had eaten the offal. We saw that the bear had
been back there during the night and cleaned up the remains left the
previous night.

I selected a good sized beech tree, where I could fell it so that I
could cut a piece from the butt for the bottom piece and have the
remainder of the tree come so that I could use a small tree for one
of the stakes or posts. When I pulled off my coat and began chopping
on the tree Will gave me the laugh again, and said that I had more
days' work in me than brains, or something to that effect.

It was my intention to get the trap all ready and then get one of the
boys to help me set it. I got the trap done and saw that by using a
long lever or pry I could set the trap without the aid of another.
With the pry I raised the dead piece up as high as I wanted it. Then
tied the lever to a sapling to hold the dead log in place, using the
figure four trigger. I placed a bit of log in the bait pen to rest
the bait spindle on. I then placed the trigger in place and pressed
them between the logs to steady them until I could release the lever
and let the weight onto the trigger. I then put some poles onto the
dead log to make doubly sure that I had weight enough to kill any
bear that traveled those woods. I now went to camp giving myself
credit of doing a good job.

When the boys came in the night of the day I built the first deadfall
for bear, they both reported seeing bear tracks and they said the
tracks all seemed to be going south. I told the boys that the bear
were looking up winter quarters, and that if we would all go at it
and put up several deadfalls we would stand a fair chance to get a
bear or two, but it was no go.

They said they would give me a clean title to all the bear I could
catch, but they did not care to invest. So I took the axe and some
bait and went to the head of a small draft where the boys had seen
the bear tracks. I found at the head of this hollow what seemed to be
a bear runway or crossing, for three or four bears had passed around
the head of this basin in the past few days.

With some hard work and heavy lifting I got another good deadfall
built that day. The next day I went the rounds of the marten and mink
traps, and I think I killed a deer and got two marten. I remember
that at this time we had a good snow to hunt on, and that it was not
an uncommon thing for us to cut wood for the camp long after dark,
and sometimes it was pretty scant at that. I think it was the third
day after I had set the first bear trap when Will came in, shortly
after Charley and I had got to camp, and as he stuck his head through
the hoghole (as I called the substitute for a door) he says, a fool
for luck.

I suspicioned what was coming and said, "Well, what kind of luck have
you had?"

Will said, "It is not me that has had the luck, but you have got one
of the Jed-blasted bears up there in that rigging you built, you ever
see."

I remember that I had some kind of a hipo that night, so that I would
laugh every now and then "kindy" all by myself. I do not think that I
slept much that night, though it was not the first bear I had ever
caught. I thought it was beginning to look as though the laugh was
coming my way all right.

In the morning the boys went to the trap with me and helped get the
bear out of the trap and helped set the trap again, and then went on
with their deer hunting. I went to skinning the bear, and it was all
I did that day to skin that bear and stretch the skin on the shanty.
I told the boys when they came in that night that I thought we were
going to have a hard winter, and so I concluded to weatherboard the
camp with bear skins. The carcass of the bear was, of course, a
complete loss, and that is a serious objection to the deadfall as a
bear trap.

I think that it was about this time that Will met with an accident in
his foot gear, so he went out to Kane after a pair of gum shoes. At
this time we had several deer so thought it best to have the team
come in and take them out and ship them.

When Will came back that evening he said that some kind of an animal
had crossed the path about one-half mile from camp, dragging
something. He said that he could not make up his mind what it was,
but thought it was some kind of an animal in a trap, but we knew of
no one trapping in that locality.

I did not know but it might be possible that some animal had gotten
in one of my otter traps and had broken the chain and gone off with
the trap. Early in the morning I went down the creek to look at the
traps and see if they were all right. When I came to the Spring Run I
saw that my otter (or at least I called it my otter), had again gone
up the run, on his usual round of travel. When I came to where the
trap was it wasn't there at all.

I had fastened the trap to a root that was two or three inches under
water and a root that I supposed sound. I was mistaken, for the root
was pretty doty and the otter had broken the root and gone with my
trap. I lost no time in taking up the chase. The trail led up this
run to its source, then over a spur of ridge and down the hill again
into a branch of the main stream, then up this branch for a distance
of a mile or more, where I came up with him.

He had gone under the roots of a large hemlock tree, and it took me
two or three hours to get him out with nothing to work with only my
belt axe and a sharpened stake. It was nearly night when I got to
camp. I made a stretching board from a spault I split out of a
basswood log and stretched the otter skin, and put in the balance of
the day in chopping wood. One of the boys killed three deer that day.
I do not remember which one it was.

The next day I made the rounds of nearly all the traps and got what I
have many a time before--nothing. I put in three or four days still
hunting and had the luck to kill a deer or two, but Charley and Will
killed more than I did. I remember, during this time, they were all
the time joking me because they were getting more deer than I did. I
claimed that they had the best grounds to hunt on, they hunting east
of the camp and up nearer the head of the stream, while I hunted west
of the camp.

We would see bear tracks nearly every day, and Will and Charley would
try to get around in their hunting course so as to look at the two
bear traps, the traps being in the direction in which they hunted.
They found the traps undisturbed. I had about made up my mind that I
would get no more bear that trip. I was getting a marten, mink or
coon now and then, so that I kept a stiff upper lip if the boys did
kill a few deer more than I did. Finally one night when I came to
camp I found the carcass of a bear, skin and all lying at the shanty
door. I thought it was one that either Charley or Will had killed. I
found that the boys by chance had met near one of the bear traps, and
going to the trap found the bear. As it was a small one they took it
out, set the trap and brought the bear to camp.

It was now getting along in December and the snow was getting rather
deep and the weather was pretty cold and the game did not move about
very much. We all seemed to get a little lazy, and did not get out
till after noon. In fact, some days, if the weather was pretty sharp,
we did not go out at all but would stay in camp and talk of the hunt
and tell where we thought we could find a bunch of deer over in this
basin or on that ridge.

The most of the deadfalls set I had not covered so to keep the snow
off. A good many of them had snowed under, so I did not care how soon
we broke camp and went home. Deer were quite plentiful, and we could
find them nearly every day, when we would get a move on, so we
continued to stay day after day, and putting in about one-half the
time hunting and the other half telling what we would have done if
there had not been so many "ifs" in the way.

I would usually shape my course in hunting so as to come around where
some of the deadfalls were and spring them. One day I came to one
that was pretty well snowed under. I saw that a fox had done a good
deal of traveling around the trap and had dug in the snow some about
where I thought a marten would be, providing one was there. I kicked
the snow away, and to my delight and surprise I found as good a
marten as I had caught. I thanked the fox for the favor. I examined
all the traps then to make sure that there was nothing in them, but I
found no more marten.

We now began to get our venison into camp, taking turns to help each
other. I do not just remember how many deer we killed, but I think
that Charley and Will killed 15 or 16 apiece, and I killed either 11
or 12.

The boys said I had done pretty well considering the two bear and
otter, but when I went to the old elm and brought out the marten,
mink and another otter and five or six coon, the boys looked greatly
amazed and Will said, "I knew the fool was doing something besides
hunting," Charley said he thought he could smell something that
smelled like mink around the camp three or four times. I think I got
13 marten, 8 mink, 5 coon, 2 otter and 2 bears. As near as I can
remember, I got a little over a hundred dollars for the fur. I do not
remember what we got for the venison, but it was war prices. We
shipped our venison to George Herbermann, New York.

I tried to have the boys help cut a lot of wood for the next season's
hunt, but they said they were not counting chickens as far ahead as
that. They hit it right, for neither of them hunted in there. I think
Charley hunted on Hunt's Run in Cameron County, and I do not know
whether Will hunted at all the next season, but I took a partner and
went back on the Kinzua.

This time we were in "swacks," and I will try to tell what luck we
had some time, but one thing we did was to put a window in the camp
and make the door large enough so that one did not have to get down
on all fours to get in or out. Will and I stayed in camp while
Charley went out to Kane and sent in the team to take out the venison
and the furs and the camp outfit. We got home for Christmas and found
all well.



CHAPTER VII.

My Last Hunt on the Kinzua.

As this hunt was about 1868, before there were railroads in this
section, we went to Emporium, Cameron County, Pennsylvania, and there
took the train to Kane, in McKean County, then by team and bobsled
route to camp. This making the journey much farther, we concluded to
go by wagon the entire distance, which would shorten the distance
nearly one-half.

This time conditions were different than on previous occasion. While
there were three in the party before and every one hunted on his own
hook, this time I had a partner and we were to share alike in profit
and loss. My partner's name was William Earl, and he had recently
moved from Vermont, or, as he would jokingly say, from "Varmount." He
was somewhat older than myself, and a man who was ever ready to carry
his end of the load at all times.

We hired a team and took a full line of grub and the camp outfit,
with about sixty small traps and eight bear traps. We went by way of
Port Allegheny, Devils Blow and Smithport, taking three days to get
to camp, as we had to cut out the road a good part of the distance of
the last day's travel. They had just begun to operate in the oil
industry in the neighborhood of what is now the city of Bradford, and
as they used wood altogether for fuel to drill with, there was a
great deal of wood being cut for the purpose. Bill, as my partner was
familiarly called, used to say that if we could not get fat on
venison and bear meat we would take a wood job, but we found plenty
to do without the wood job.

On reaching the camp the first thing noticeable was that the old
hollow elm that I had used for a dryhouse to hang up skins in, had
met with foul play, for it lay on the ground, having blown down. This
made it necessary to build a sort of leanto against one side of the
shanty to hang up our furs, as we did not like to have them hung up
in the shanty where they would get more or less smoked.

But the first thing we did was to enlarge the door, for it will be
remembered that we were obliged to get down on all fours in order to
get in or out of the shanty. As we had a good crosscut saw, it did
not take long to enlarge the doorway so that one could go in standing
up, man fashion. We next cut a window-hole large enough to take a
single sash window. Then we replaced the chinkings that the
porcupines had gnawed out, calked and mudded all cracks. When this
was done, Bill looked it over and said, "By gum, don't it look like
living?"

As it was only about the middle of October we went to work at once on
a good supply of wood for the camp. We did not quit until we were
sure that we had plenty to last the winter, for we intended to stay
as long as it was either profitable or a pleasure. After the wood was
cut and piled up near the shanty door, we next set the bear traps, as
we had brought bait for the purpose.

After the bear traps were set we next looked over the deadfalls that
I had built for marten the fall before, putting in a new stake where
necessary. We also set crotches and laid poles on them, then covering
with hemlock boughs to keep the snow from falling directly on the
trap. We fixed up the two deadfalls I had made for bear, as we wished
to get all the bear traps out that we could, as we had already seen
several signs.

We also built a number more deadfalls for marten on different ridges
farther up the stream where I had not set any the fall before. We
built a number of deadfalls along the streams for mink and coon. It
was now getting well along towards the last days of October, so we
put in a couple of days hunting deer, as we had to have bait to set
our marten and other traps with.

The first day's hunting we did not get a deer, though we each got a
running shot but missed. The second day I did not see any deer but
Bill killed a good sized buck before noon. We now began setting the
traps that we had built. Bill baiting and setting the deadfalls,
while I commenced on the steel traps. We had not baited and set any
of the deadfalls that we had built up to this time. The steel traps
we set for fox and wildcats, as there was a bounty of two dollars on
wildcats at that time.

In setting out the fox traps the knowledge that I had got of the
locality was of much benefit to me. I had kept a watch out for warm
springs and other good likely places to catch a fox or other animals.
After we had all the deadfalls and steel traps out but three or four
otter traps, we set one or two at the drift where I caught one the
fall before. The others we set where we found otter signs.

While setting the traps we got a marten or two, as well as one or two
mink and coon. We had had one or two little flurries of snow, but we
did not leave the traps to hunt deer. Now that the traps were all
set, we divided up the trap lines as best we could for each one to
attend to while hunting deer. In dividing up the lines in this way we
saved much time, as we would not both be working the same territory.

Now business began to get quite lively, and we were seldom in camp
until after dark, and we were up early and had breakfast over and our
lunch packed in our knapsacks. The lunch usually consisted of a good
big hunk of boiled venison and a couple of doughnuts and a few
crackers, occasionally the breast of a partridge, fried in coon or
bear oil. Sometimes the lunch would freeze in the knapsacks and it
would be necessary to gather a little paper bark from a yellow birch
and a little rosin from a hemlock, black birch or hard maple tree and
build a little fire to thaw the lunch. This, however, was quickly
done, and was a pleasure rather than a hardship. I have delighted in
eating the lunch in this manner for many a winter on the trap line or
trail, as have many other hunters and trappers.

Bill and I always had our lunch packed and ready to take up the trail
at the first peep of day. Sometimes when we would get in late, tired
and wet and our clothes frozen, I would suggest to Bill that we shut
up camp and take a wood job, just to see what Bill would have to say.
He would say that there would be time to take a wood job in the
spring or after he had killed a certain large buck which is usually
called "Old Golden." There were but a few days but what we either
caught some fur or killed a deer, though sometimes we would have a
bad streak of luck by wounding a deer, or having some animal take a
foot off and escape, but this would make us all the more eager to
follow the trail or trap line.

  [Illustration: WOODCOCK ON THE TRAP LINE.]

As we had gotten by this time several deer and had caught three bear
(one in one of the deadfalls that I had built the fall before, that
Will Howard called that "dashed dinged riggin'," when he found the
bear in it) we wanted to get them out to Kane, that being the nearest
point to a railroad. We started early one morning, Bill taking an axe
and I carrying the saw, so that if we found any large trees across
the trail that we had cut out the year before we would have the saw
to do it with.

After carrying the saw some distance and not finding any trees of
much size across the road, we left it and only took the axe. We found
but very little in the trail to cut out.

We got to Kane in time to engage a man with team to come to camp the
next day and take out the venison and bear and bring in some
necessary commissaries that we were getting short of. It was only a
few days after this that I found that a bear got in one of the traps.
The trap chain having a swivel that was pretty well worn, broke, and
the bear went off with the trap. I followed the trail until the
middle of the afternoon, when I became satisfied that Bruin was
disgusted with that locality, as he had continued his course nearly
due east without a stop. I could see no signs that led me to think
that Bruin intended to stop for the next fifty miles.

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.

The next morning we were out early and had breakfast at 6 o'clock and
started for the trail which we reached before daylight. We had gone a
little way when we heard voices coming along the road. We listened a
moment and saw that it was a party of three men who had come to take
the bear's trail. We waited until they came up to us and one man
said, "What in blazes are you fellows doing on this bear's track?"
Bill replied rather sharp, "That's our business, but what are you
here for?" Then they said that one of the men had seen the track the
evening before and as there was no one after it, they had come out to
follow up the track and kill the bear. They insisted on going after
the bear but after some talk we convinced them that we did not need
any help and they turned back.

We took up the trail and followed it pretty lively for a time, as we
did not know but those men would cut around and take the trail ahead
of us, though they did not do so. We were now on the waters of Potato
Creek and there was a good deal of laurel and here we found the first
place that Bruin had stopped and made a bed.

It is usually the case that a bear that has a trap on his foot will
not travel any great distance before they stop and make a bed and
then move a short distance and make another bed. Bruin now began to
act more natural, to his family. We began to think that we would soon
come to fresh signs at least, but were disappointed for we did not
follow the trail far, after we came onto his bed before two men's
tracks fell in and took up the trail.

After following for some time on the trail of the men and bear, we
came to where the bear had made another stop and we could see that
the bear's track was much fresher showing that it had stopped some
time. We expected that the men would divide here, one taking the
trail while the other worked on the side, but both men continued on
the same trail. After following the trail for three or four hundred
yards farther, we came onto another bed and this time the bear went
out on the jump and Bill said some cuss words about the men. It is
possible that I did too.

The trail here turned north. This took us into a section more thickly
settled and hunters more numerous. The greater part of the time there
was from one to two men on the trail ahead of us and all that was
left for us to do was to follow on as fast as we could. The second
night we were on the head of Salt Run and we followed the trail till
dark. We now had the bear trail to follow instead of the men as all
the men had left to go to their camps or homes. Bill said that we
would sleep "dash-dang" close to the trail after this, so we soon
found a large log to build a fire against. First we would build the
fire out a few feet from the log after scraping the snow away. Then
we would throw a few hemlock boughs over a pole laid in crotches and
then move the fire down against the log, throw a few boughs on the
ground where the fire had been moved from and the camp was complete
in a very few minutes.

We now began to fear that some one would get in ahead of us and kill
the bear and we would lose bear, trap and all. Bill said that we
would follow so "dash-darn" close that we would be up in time to
attend the funeral. We were so close up that we were no longer
bothered only a little while at a time as we would soon overtook any
one who hit the trail ahead of us and followed it.

The bear again turned east which took us across the road which runs
from Coudersport to Emporium in Cameron County. We were now back in
Potter County and only 15 miles from home. Bruin here turned south
and true to his nature, led us through all the windfalls and laurel
patches to be found and occasionally would break down a few laurel
and act as though he intended to camp for a time but apparently would
change his mind and go on again.

We were now on the waters of the Conley and night was fast coming on.
The trail led across a little bog and we were looking for water and a
suitable place to camp, when Bill called my attention to a man
standing on the trail watching us. When we came to him it proved to
be a neighbor of ours. Mr. Ephraim Reed, who was hunting in there and
said that his camp was only a little way down the hollow and asked us
to go down and stay over night. We were glad to do so. Mr. Reed said
that there were a good many hunters in that locality so we were up
and on the trail before it was fairly light.

We were in a section where there was a great deal of laurel and Bruin
continued to make camps but as often would change his mind and move
on and Bill thought he had concluded to go to the can brake in
Virginia. Often when he would go into a wind jam or laurel thicket,
we would separate, one taking a circuit on one side of the thicket,
the other on the other side, meeting on the opposite side from where
the trail had entered but we would always find that Bruin was still
on the go. We were in a locality where there were apparently a good
many deer and we saw signs of marten quite often.

We were now on the head waters of Hunts Run in Cameron county and we
decided to make that section our next hunting ground. While the trail
would wind about some, yet bruin's general course was south. Often
when bruin would vary considerably from his general course and go
into a thicket or wind jam, we would feel sure that this time we
would find him napping, but we were disappointed each time. Once when
we were circling one of these thickets, I drove a deer out and it ran
to Bill who gave him his finish. We were near a lumber camp and sold
it for ten dollars and our night's lodging and some grub. We were now
getting pretty well down to the railroad near Sterling Run. We were
sure that bruin was going to cross the railroad so we left the trail
and went down to the railroad and followed along the road until we
came to the trail.

The bear had crossed the road during the night and no one had noticed
the trail. Here I suggested to Bill that we take a train to Kane and
go to camp and go out and take a wood job, but Bill thought that we
had about all the job on our hands that we were able to attend to. He
was right, for as near as I can remember, the trail led us nearly a
half day's tramp before bruin made a stop. The foot that the trap was
on began to bleed considerably. We began to fear that the foot would
come off and bruin relieved of the trap would escape after all.

We now had some more help, two men took the trail ahead of us
following it until nearly dark when they apparently held a council of
war, judging from the way they tracked about where they left the
trail. We were now in a pine slashing and concluded to camp on the
trail, though we knew that we were not far from a lumber camp as we
could hear men chopping and driving oxen. We were lucky in finding a
good place to camp and water close at hand. As we had a small tin
pail with us and coffee, we made a pail of coffee and ate our lunch
and fixed our bunk, then we sat down before the fire for a time and
talked over what we thought we might do the next day. Then we rolled
up in our blankets and it was time to get the coffee boiling again
before we were hardly aware that we had been asleep.

Bruin now began to act more like a sensible bear and would zigzag
about from one thicket to another. We now got close enough to him so
that we heard him in the brush several times. Bill said that he
thought that bruin was about to make up his mind to let us take off
that handcuff. He proved to be right, for it was not long before
bruin's trail led down onto the side of a steep ravine. The sides
were not more than one hundred yards apart and were quite clear (only
for the piles of pine tree tops) from fallen trees, that had been
taken out for logs.

We were standing a little way down the side of the ravine, laying
plans as to our next move, as we had come to the conclusion that
bruin had either turned down along the side of the ravine or had gone
into camp. We had planned that one would go up around the head of the
ravine while the other waited on the trail until the one that went
around should get on the opposite side. While still laying plans, we
saw bruin come out on the opposite side and began to climb the hill.

We had followed the bear for six days and this was the first time
that we had seen his lordship. He would go a few steps and stop and
look back. We watched our opportunity and when he made a stop, we
both fired. Bruin made a jump or two up the hill then tumbled back
down again and the fun had ended. We took the entrails out and left
him lying across a log and went down the ravine to where there was a
lumber camp and there we found that we were on Dent's Run, a branch
of Bennet's Branch and in Elk county.

This was the fourth county we had been in since we had taken the
bear's trail. They told us at the lumber camp that there would be
three or four teams go down to the railroad station at Driftwood the
next morning with spars which they were hauling to the river to raft.
We got a man with a yoke of oxen and a bobsled to go with us and get
the bear and the next morning about 5 o'clock we got the bear
strapped onto one of the spars and started down the stream to the
railroad and we shipped it, without removing the skin, to New York,
where we got either $26 or $28 for it.

We took the train to Kane where we stayed over night. The next
morning we went to camp and found all well with one exception, that
being, that the shanty was swarming with "deer mice" and a porcupine
had tried hard to gnaw his way through the door. The following day we
stayed in camp and rested before starting out to see what would turn
up the next day.

We first looked at the bear traps, tending what small traps came in
on the way. On going the rounds of the bear traps, we found them all
undisturbed except one, which might better have been as it only had a
porcupine in it and we did not see any signs of bear. We began to
think of taking up the bear traps as we thought that bruin had gone
into winter quarters. We did not get around to take them up for
several days, being busy tending the smaller traps.

It was now getting along into December and the snow was quite deep.
We concluded to put in the time hunting deer as we wished to get all
we could, to send out with the team, when we had it come in, as it
did not cost any more to take out a full load than half a load. The
law closed on deer the first of January, although allowing the
hunters 15 days to dispose of his venison after it was unlawful to
kill deer. We hustled from early morning until long after dark, when
we would get to camp and there was hardly a day that we did not kill
at least one deer and some days two or three between us.

I will tell of a little scrape I had one day with a yearling buck
that I thought to be dead. I was following the trail of three or four
deer along the side of a ridge, expecting every moment to catch them
feeding, when I heard a noise behind me and looking back, I saw this
little buck coming full tilt right towards me. The deer saw me about
as soon as I did him and wheeled to run back when I fired and he went
down. I set my gun against a tree and started to cut the deer's
throat. I took the deer by the ear and straightened his back. About
this time that dead deer began to get pretty lively and was trying to
get on his feet and as I could not reach my gun, threw myself onto
him, thinking to hold him down.

Well I held him about as long as lightning would stay on a limb. When
I got through gazing at the hole in the brush where I last saw him, I
found that I was sadly in need of a new pair of trousers and vest, as
well as a jack knife. I searched a long time in hopes of finding the
knife, but did not. I had another knife at camp and after about a two
hour's job with needle and thread, I managed to get the trousers so
that they were passable in a pinch and all the time that I was
repairing the trousers, Bill sat there laughing at me. Now this was
the first time that I had supposed dead deer come to life and give me
the go-by, though it was not the last time.

I had given him what is called a fine shot, that is I had shot him
just across the back and the ball had struck one of the joints or
knuckles of the backbone as it proved. I had the satisfaction of
killing the same deer two or three days later or at least we thought
it was the same one. We had three or four days of mild weather and as
we had not been the rounds of the traps for several days, only
tending those that came handy while hunting deer, we thought we would
reverse the plan and go over all the traps and pay but little
attention to deer hunting unless we struck a hot trail. We thought we
would take in those traps first in the direction where the bear traps
were and go to the traps farthest from camp and bring in some of the
traps. We did not expect to get any more bear as it was too late in
the season for bear to travel until they had their winter's sleep.

We were in luck this time for as we had usually tended the bear
traps, the one that we went to first would have been the last trap to
come to. When we came in sight of where the trap was set we saw that
there had been a bear dance going on. As the snow was several inches
deep, we saw at a glance which way the bear had gone and we only had
to step to the brow of the ridge and look down the hillside a little
way to see bruin fast among some small saplings. He was rolling and
tumbling about trying to release himself.

He looked like a great black ball as he rolled about. We lost no time
in putting him out of his trouble. We skinned the fore parts and hung
them up in a sapling to use for bait for fox and marten and took the
saddles to camp, skinned them out and stretched the skin on the
shanty. Later we shipped the saddles to market.

The next day we looked at the balance of the bear traps but found
them undisturbed but we concluded to leave them set a few days
longer. On going the rounds of the smaller traps, we got a fox or two
also a marten or two, but as I remember it, we got no mink or otter
at this time. We now had the traps all looked after, so we put in the
time hunting deer as the time for deer hunting was soon to close. The
weather had turned and frozen so that it had formed a sharp crust and
we were compelled to use the driving method of hunting. One of us
would stand on the runways, in the beds of basins and in low places
on the ridges while the other would follow the trail and drive the
deer through to the hunter. I wish to say right here, that I do not
like this way of hunting deer but little better than I do of hounding
and running deer with dogs. The dog is all right but I want no
dogging of deer for me.

We would get a deer nearly every day. It was now the first of January
and time to get our venison to camp or out to the road where we could
pick them up on the way out to Kane. After we had gathered up the
venison and had gone the rounds of the traps that had not been tended
while hunting, we went to Kane. Here we engaged a team to come in
after the venison and bear and bring in a grub stake to last us until
the middle of March when we would break camp and go home. We both
went back to Kane with the team to assist in getting over some of the
rough places and see that our venison and bear meat was tagged and
shipped all right. Then we came back to camp to put our entire time
in tending to the traps which we did to good advantage. We had found
other good warm springs while hunting, and some that we thought were
lasting springs, had gone dry or had frozen up, so we shifted a good
many of the traps to the other springs.

Then we took it a little easier only going the rounds of the traps as
we considered it necessary and on such days as the weather was
favorable. We waited for February when we knew that the old dog coon
would begin his rounds of calling on his friends.

We managed to pass the time away fairly well as we would get a fox,
mink, marten or something nearly every day so that we busied
ourselves. About the middle of February we had several warm days and
the time had now come for us to get busy and we were out as soon as
it was light. We would follow up all the spring runs until we found
the trail of a coon, then follow it up until it went into a tree.
Sometimes it bothered us which tree to cut down for the coon would go
from one tree to another so that it was hard to tell which was the
tree that was the home of the coon (some call it a den). One day we
chopped down a great large oak, three or four feet in diameter and
nearly sound all the way through and nary a coon to be found. I asked
Bill why he did not say cuss words and he said he thought we had
spent enough wind in chopping the tree down, without wasting any
unnecessarily.

Well, as I said, the coon had been up and down so many trees that we
did not know which one was the most likely one. We went to a large
basswood tree that had only one track going to it and one away from
it but when we pounded on it with the axe, we saw that it was very
hollow. I suggested to Bill that we chop it down. Bill thought there
were no coon in it and I had but little faith myself but I told him
that as he had been wanting a wood job, here was his opportunity and
Bill agreed with me, so we laid off our coats and went to chopping.
The tree was only a shell. We soon had it down and to our surprise,
coon began to run in all directions. Not having had much hopes of
finding any coon in the tree we had not prepared ourselves with clubs
to kill the coon. We used the axe handle as best we could but one
coon got away and went into a hollow stump which we had to cut down.
We got five coon. We then took up the trail of the coon that left the
tree and after following it about a mile it went into a large hemlock
tree that had a hole in it close to the roots. Pounding on it we
discovered that it was hollow.

There had been several coon tracks both out and into the tree. We
circled around some distance from the tree and found no tracks
leading away from the tree farther than a small spring a few rods
away. As it was getting well on towards night we did not fell the
tree but went back to the old basswood where we had left the coons
and took them and went to camp. Bill said that he had a dash-dang
sight rather chop wood than to tote those three coons. I carried two
and told Bill not to complain and I would let him skin all of them
when we got to camp. He said, "Oh, you are a clever jade, aint you?"
We skinned the coon that evening but did not stretch the skin until
the next afternoon after we had gone out and cut the hemlock and got
three more.

We kept up this coon hunt as long as we could find any tracks. It was
now getting along into March and we had written home for a team to
come in and take our camp outfit and furs out. As we had not been out
over the road through the woods, the way we came in, we made a trip
out to the main wagon road so that the man who came after us would
have no trouble in following the trail to the camp. We now began to
spring all the deadfalls that we had set for marten, mink and coon
and take up all of the steel traps as we had written to the man to be
there about the fifteenth of the month. I think it was a day or two
later when the team came and our hunt on the Kinzua was ended.

We got some thirty odd deer and either five or six bear and I think
four otter. I do not remember the number of fox, mink, marten and
coon, but we did well for there had been but very little trapping
done in that locality at that time and furbearing animals were quite
plentiful. I have never been back to that camp since. I gave the camp
to a man by the name of Ball.



CHAPTER VIII.

Fred and the Old Trapper.

Yes, Fred, you can go with me to attend my traps, come down early as
I wish to start at 5 o'clock." Fred was on hand next morning at the
appointed hour. We leave the road here and go up this stream; this
will take us to several traps and also to camp.

"Are these woods very large?"

"Yes, Fred. It is about fourteen miles either way through them."

"Does any one live in them?"

"No one only the lumberman. Well, Fred, here is the first trap."

"I don't see any trap."

"No, but it is there, just in front of that little stone pen; the
bait is in the pen."

"Why don't you take that bush away?"

"Oh! that is part of the knack in trapping; see that is just far
enough from the pen to let the animal pass through."

"Oh! I see, and it will step in the trap in going through!"

"That is it, exactly."

"Won't the water take the brush away?"

"Yes, if it gets too high, but you will see that I have put some
heavy stones on the limbs that are down in the water; you also see
that I turn the water above the trap by throwing up a few stones;
this is done to keep the water so that it just covers the traps. You
see that bunch of leaves that are a little higher than the rest of
the leaves--the pan of the trap is just under those leaves."

"Did that moss grow on the stone pen?"

"No, I put it there to make the pen look old; you see a fox can
easily step on that bunch of dry leaves that are on the pan of the
trap from the bank. A fox does not like new things. You see this trap
is set for mink, coon or fox, whichever may happen along."

"What is the trap fastened to?"

"See that limb that has moss all grown over it. The trap is stapled
to it."

"Can't a fox or coon drag it away?"

"Yes, but not far. See the chain is stapled about the middle of the
limb, and the animal would not go far before it got fast.

"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?"

"You see this trap sets in the mouth of a small spring run; we will
cut some little twigs and stick them up in the ground, in place of
the brush, to make the runway, as we call it. We will now skin the
mink. Rip straight down the hind leg from the heel to the vent. Now
lay the knife down and start the skin loose on the legs with the
thumb and finger; work the skin down the leg to the root of the tail
then take knife and cut the skin loose around the vent working the
skin free around the roots of tail until you can get your fingers of
the left hand around the tail bone. Now with the right hand near the
body of the mink pulling with the right and you will strip the tail
clean from the bone. With the knife make a slit on either fore leg
about one inch from the heel and around the leg. You are now ready to
strip the skin down the body to the fore legs and with the thumb and
finger work the leg out. Strip the skin down to the ears and with the
knife cut the ears close to the head, continue to strip the skin down
to the eyes, cut around the eyes close to the bone and use the knife
on down to the end of nose. That was a short job. Now we will put
this mink carcass in the back end of the pen and cut the balance of
the rabbit up and put it in the pen back about six inches from the
trap."

"Don't you use any scent; I have heard people say that you use some
kind of scent?"

"I use none, only of the animal itself. It did not take long to take
the pelt off that coon; we will strip some of that fat from the
carcass and do it up in the skin and put it in the knapsack; hang the
carcass up on that sapling. We must be moving now. Our next trap is a
bear trap; it sets up in that little sag you see and in a spring that
comes out of the side of the hill. I like to set traps in those
springs for they never freeze up and the bait keeps much longer. No,
there is nothing in it, I can see the clog there all right. Yes,
there is something in it; it is a coon and it is dead. Look, there is
a fox in a trap."

"Where was the trap set, I do not see any bait pen?"

"Fred, you take this stick and walk up slowly to him; go up close and
give him a sharp blow across the back of the neck--that will fix him.
You see that big mossy log laying on the bank over there? That was
where he was caught. We will now set the trap again. See this little
sink in the log? That is where the trap was set; this limb is what
the trap was fastened to, one end on the ground and the other comes
just up to the log where the trap is set and we will staple the trap
to it. We will now cover it with moss, just like on this log, but we
will get it from another log. No one could tell that there was a trap
there."

"Will not the fox smell it?"

"He might if it was not for this fox carcass. We will skin the fox,
just as we did the mink. Look out there Fred, do not disturb the moss
or anything on that log where the trap is. Keep away from that. We
will put this carcass in the little hollow and will drive a crotched
stake straddle of its neck; drive it well down; now take this stick
and rake some leaves over it, cover the neck where the stake is quite
well, the rest of the carcass only slightly. You have done it very
well and the fox will not notice what scent there is on the trap as
long as that carcass is there."

"But you had no carcass there when you caught this one and I have
heard that a fox was afraid of the scent of iron?"

"That is all bosh. Keep your traps free from all foreign scent and
you need not be afraid of the scent of the iron, but if you catch
some animal in the trap, then you should have some of the scent of
that animal around near the trap, this will overcome what scent there
is on the trap. This, however, is only necessary with shy animals
like the fox. Coon and skunk are not afraid of what they smell."

"Do you ever wear gloves when setting your traps?"

  [Illustration: LOG SET FOR FOX.]

"No, that is all nonsense. Get the clamps out of the knapsack and we
will set the bear trap. We set the trap this way so that the bear
goes in lengthways of the jaws, not crosswise of them. We will now
place the trap in this hole that we have dug out, so that the water
will be deep enough to cover the trap and be sure that the jaws rest
firmly on the ground, so that if the bear should step on the jaws,
the trap would not tip up. Some trappers do not do this and then they
think that the shy animal turned the trap over. We will now cover the
trap with those water soaked leaves after which we will take this
piece of moss as large as your hand, and with this forked stick put
the moss on it, and place it on the pan of the trap."

"Would the bear smell it, if you put it on with your hands?"

"No, but if the trap should accidentally spring it would be better to
catch the stick than your hand. Now we will cut this coon carcass
into two or three pieces and put it back in the bait pen about three
feet from the trap. There we have it fixed all right. We will now go
over the ridge to where there is another bear trap set and will eat
our lunch as we go along."

"How did you know that a fox would go on that log where that trap was
set?"

"By knowing the nature of the animal. When the fox smelled the bear
bait in the pen there, I knew that he would get on the highest point
near the pen to investigate and that point was that log."

"Is this the only way you catch foxes?"

"No, that is only one of the many ways. Here we are; the trap is
right down in the head of this hollow; that is a dark place down
there, yes, that is the kind of a place that bears like to travel
through. I can see the pen, but I do not see the clog. Yes, the clog
is gone, I guess that Bruin has put his foot in it this time. Now go
still and look sharp and see if we can find him anywhere for a bear
will try hard and get away when they first see you. He has gone this
way, see how he has torn down the brush and has turned up those old
logs. He will not do that long and after a little we may be obliged
to circle in places to find the trail. Here he has gone up this steep
side hill but he will not go far that way. See how he has torn this
old tree top up and gnawed those logs and those trees, he has been
past here. He has gone straight back down the hill. Now he will keep
along this side hill, for he may cross this hollow back and forth
three or four times before we find him fast. Here is the trail again,
he has gone back up the hill. We will work up the hill so as to keep
on the highest ground."

"You have followed these bear trails a good many times, haven't you?"

"Yes, in 1900 I followed one seven days that broke the chain and went
up with the trap, and then another party ran across the bear and
killed it. I did not even get my trap back. They said they hung the
trap up in a tree and some one stole it."

"Hold on Fred, what is that away down there in the hollow?"

"That is the bear, he is trying to climb that tree, I do not think he
will make it, for the clog is fast between those two small saplings
that stand by the large tree. We will go a little closer, there now!
when he turns his head sideways take good aim and put the ball square
in the ear. A good job, Fred, he never knew what hurt him. Now make a
slit in the skin, right at the point of the breast bone, and then
stick him as you would a hog. Do not cut the skin too much. Now Fred
get the clamps out of the knapsack and we will see if we can get him
out of the trap. Now we will skin him as you would a beef with the
exception, we will leave the claws on, for the skins are a much
better price where the feet are left. We will be very careful not to
cut the hide, for they skin about as mean as a hog does. Well now we
will hang the foreparts up in this tree and take the skin and the
saddles and pull for camp."

"Are you not going to set the trap?"

"No, it will be dark before we get to camp now and we have got a
heavy load to carry, in fact, if it was anything but bear, we would
think we could not carry it."

"My, but this is getting heavy."

"Yes, Fred, but this all goes in with trapping and besides it will
improve the appetite."

"I guess so, for I am as hungry as a wolf."

"Well, here we are at camp. Fred, you will find the lamp on that
shelf close up in the corner. You light it while I start the fire.
Now Fred you will find the key to the camp chest behind that ridge
post. Open the chest and take the blankets out so that they will be
airing. Now in the other part of the chest you will find some tin
cups, plates, knives and forks, also some crackers, cheese and ginger
snaps. The cheese is done up in waxed paper. You can put those things
on the table while I go to the spring and get a pail of water. Now,
Fred, you raise that lid and you will find a box sunk down in the
ground, where you will find potatoes and bacon. Get some out. You
will find the coffee in a sack in the chest and the coffee pot is
hanging on that nail. You put the coffee on while I get the
potatoes."

"Oh, we cannot wait for potatoes to cook."

"Yes, we can, I will pare three or four and slice them up and put
them in the spider with a little water and some bits of pork and by
the time the coffee boils, the potatoes will be ready. Fred, just
hand me that lid so I can cover these potatoes over. You will find a
can of condensed milk and the sugar in the chest. Please set them on
the table while I fix the fire."

"You have plenty of good dry wood."

"Yes, I always come over to the camp before the trapping season
begins and cut up a good lot of wood. And those old elevated stove
ovens make the best kind of a stove for a camp. Fred, you pour the
coffee while I take the potatoes up and we will partake of this
frugal meal. In the morning for breakfast we will have bear steak,
boiled partridge and buck-wheat cakes."

"Well Fred, I feel better, how is it with you?"

"Oh, I feel like a fighting cock now, but I was too hungry for
anything. Well Fred, the dish water is hot in that pan on the stove,
if you will wash the dishes, I will stretch those skins and dress
those partridges. Now if you will spread the blankets on the bunk, I
will mix the cakes for breakfast, and then we will be ready for bed."

"How large is this camp?"

"The logs were cut fourteen and sixteen feet long, so that makes it
about twelve by fourteen on the inside. The roof is good and steep.
Yes, I like a ridge roof and half pitch them, you do not have to make
the body so high. Yes, I always chunk well and calk good with moss
before I mud it, then you have a good warm camp. Yes, I like to have
a 12 x 20, two small sash in each gable."

"Does that roof leak?"

"No, a roof put on with good hemlock bark like that will not leak and
will last a long time. Fred we must bunk down for we must be moving
early in the morning."

"Come, Fred, turn out, I have breakfast about ready."

"Why it is not morning, is it?"

"Yes, it is six o'clock and we must be moving as soon as we can see,
for we have a big day's work before us. Yes, Fred, everything tastes
good in the woods. I suppose a keen appetite has something to do with
that. Well, it is light, so that we can see to travel, so we will be
going. Yes, Fred, you can come over with me again and I will show you
how to set traps, many different ways, to catch different animals,
and we might have a bear in a pen."

"Do you catch bear in a pen?"

"Yes, and I like a pen for a bear better than a steel trap. No
getting away if the pen is properly made."

"Well, here is the bear trap and there has been a wild cat at work at
those inwards, so you see I did not bring that trap along for
nothing. Fred, you place a few of those bushy limbs around on the
upper side of those inwards, while I set the trap. There, that is all
right, we will staple to this limb. Yes, he will be quite likely to
get into the trap if he comes again, for he can't get at the bait
very well from any other way, only over the trap."

"How far is it from where the bear trap was set?"

"About one-half mile. Yes, I suppose he dragged that trap three or
four miles to get that distance. Here we are, it will not be a long
job to set that trap as he has not torn the bait trap down. Fred, you
get the clamps from the knapsack, while I cut that bushy tree for a
clog. Yes, we let those limbs stick out about ten inches so that they
will catch in the brush and on logs, and that bothers, you see. Yes,
those lungs and liver are all right for bait as long as it is fresh.
A bear does not like tainted meat. Well, that is all right now, we
will go to camp and get a bite to eat, and then pull for home and get
the horse and wagon and come out and take the bear meat and the skin
in. Yes, we always ship the saddles to New York, they bring a good
price.

"Yes, it is more of a knack to stretch a bear skin right than any
other skin. Here we are at camp again, we will eat a bite and then
pull for home. Good bye, Fred, yes, you shall go again."



CHAPTER IX.

Bears in 1870, To-Day--Other Notes.

One not familiar with the conditions of a wild woods life would
naturally think that bears would diminish in proportion to deer and
wild animals. However, this does not seem to be the case. Forty years
ago, trappers of bear were not as numerous as at the present time.
People at that time, hunted more for profit than sport and their
forte was the slaughter of deer. In those days it was nothing
uncommon to see sleigh loads of deer pass every day on the way to
market.

After the first tracking snows of the season, the deer killed in this
county (Potter) were hauled by team thirty and forty miles to the
nearest railroad station and shipped to New York and Philadelphia but
this is not what we wish to write of. We only speak of this to show
that the man of forty years ago was of the trail, rather than the
trap line.

Forty years ago, the writer was acquainted with nearly every hunter
and trapper who made a business of hunting or trapping in this and
adjoining counties. Men who made a business of trapping bear as well
as hunting deer could be counted on the fingers of your hands, and
the grounds on which they operated were the counties of Clinton,
McKean, Cameron and Potter.

The names of these men who perhaps were the most interested in bear
trapping in the section above mentioned were, Leroy Lyman, Horatio
Nelson, Lanson Stephan, Isaac Pollard, Ezery Prichard and one or two
others, including the writer.

The traps mostly used were bear pens and deadfalls. It was considered
a fairly good day's work for two men to build one good bear pen or
two good deadfalls. Most bear trappers, however, had a few steel bear
traps for it may be said that nearly every country blacksmith knew
how to make a bear trap and how to temper a trap spring. This cannot
be said of the average blacksmith of the present day.

Bear forty years ago would migrate then as they do now. We used to
think that bear would travel from the Virginias and from Northern New
York if not from the New England States to Pennsylvania or from
Pennsylvania north or south as the case may be. This was proven from
the fact that if there was a good crop of mast in one locality, while
a scarcity in another, the bear would all seem to be moved north or
south as the case may be as though they had some way of informing one
another where plenty of food was to be found. At such times when bear
are on a migratory tramp it is not an uncommon thing to find a bear
track near your house or barn on going out in the morning when there
was snow on, so that the track is plain to be seen. This was no
uncommon thing forty years ago, neither is it at the present time
(1910) when there is a general scarcity of forage crops such as beech
nuts, chestnuts and acorns. I have seen it stated by some writers
that at certain times bear will move in a drove and at such times it
was not safe for a man to meet a bear for they were very dangerous
and would attack any one who chanced to be in their way.

In my upwards of fifty years experience of woods life, I do not call
to mind of ever seeing more than three bears on one trail at the same
time and these were an old bear and cubs. It has been the writer's
observation that when bears were on these migratory trips in search
of food or from other cause, they travel singly and not in droves or
even in pairs.

During the summer when bears are existing on nettles, wild turnips,
berries and other green food, it is not out of the ordinary to find a
bear in pretty close proximity to the farm house and close around the
fields where he can occasionally get a sheep or lamb.

I have seen and heard much written and said of bear raising from
their hind feet to attract people's attention who chanced to come in
their way when in the woods. I have never seen a bear raise on his
hind feet for battle, in any case, when a hunter or trapper
approaches them. I have often seen them sit upon their haunches to
listen when they heard a noise and were not sure of its origin.

As to the number of bear at the present time and forty or fifty years
ago, through Northern and Central Pennsylvania, there seems to be
about as many now as there were then. This I attribute to the fact
that much of the country in other localities has been cleared up and
thus deprived bruin of his natural haunts.

Forty years ago,--in the early 70's--it was customary then as now, to
keep tab on trappers as to what they were doing along the trap line.
Trappers of years ago would average from three to twelve bears,
according to how plenty they were and to what the condition of the
weather was.

It often happens that when bear are plenty on the trapper's trapping
grounds, he does not have the best of luck in taking the game. If
shack is very plentiful it is sometimes difficult to get the bear to
take ordinary bait. The bear will also den up or go into hibernation
much quicker if they get fat, than they will if shack is a little
scarce so that they do not get quite so fleshy. If the bears get real
fleshy early in the season they will den up at the approach of the
first cold and freezing weather and sleep until spring. On the other
hand, if the bear continues to be a little lean, as he generally is
during the summer, he will continue to search for food during quite
severe weather. They will leave winter quarters and come out in
search of food when there are a few warm days, or a slight thaw,
which they will rarely do if they go into the den in good flesh.

The bear is not like the raccoon. Their rutting season in this
latitude is in August and not in February and March as with the
raccoon and groundhog. Now all of these conditions has much to do
with the number of bears that a trapper may get during a season. The
number of bear taken in Pennsylvania by the average trapper at the
present time and forty years ago may be slightly less now than then
but the difference is not great.

There are more bear trappers today than forty years ago. During the
months of October and November, 1909, there were nearly one hundred
bears caught in traps and killed with dogs in the above counties
mentioned. Bears were more plentiful through this section than usual
this season, although they did not work north into the beech timber
until about the first of November, owing to a heavy crop of chestnuts
and acorns farther south.

Comrades of the trap line, if I was in a section of country where
large game was as plentiful as it was here fifty years ago, I would
not be able to get very far into tall timber, but as it gets
monotonous to write of skunk, muskrat and rabbit hunting of to-day, I
will tell of some of my experiences of fifty years ago, when it was
my custom to hunt deer and bear for profit and pleasure. In those
days I made it a point to be in the woods with my bear traps and
rifle by the middle of October each year, if health permitted.

In those days all that a trapper and hunter had to do was to get a
few miles out into tall timber, build a good log cabin and hit a
permanent job for the season. Deer, bear and fur-bearing animals were
so plentiful that it only required a small territory to find game
sufficiently plenty to keep the trapper on a lively gait all the
time. In those days we made it more a specialty of hunting deer for
the profit there was in it. We had built our cabin on the divide
between the headwaters of the Cross fork of Kettel Creek and the
headwaters of the East Fork of the Sinnamahoning. I had built a few
deadfalls and bear pens for bear and also had three or four steel
bear traps set, but beech-nuts, chestnuts and other nuts were so
plentiful that the bear would not take meat bait and I had no other
bait at hand. The bear would pass within a few feet of a trap and pay
no attention to the bait.

Now at this time, furs were so low that there was but little to be
made from the sale of the pelts of the fox, mink, skunk, etc. But it
was my custom to carry one or two steel traps in my pack sack and
when I killed a deer, I would make a set or two for the fox, marten
or fisher, whichever happened along first. As I have stated I spent
the greater part of my time in deer hunting. On this particular day I
was following a drove of four or five deer, but the wind was so
unsteady and whirling about in puffs so that as near as I could get
to a deer was to see his white flag, beckoning me to come on as they
jumped a log or some other object. Striking the trail of a bear that
had gone back and forth several times, nearly in the same place
within the past three or four days, since a light snow had fallen, I
was satisfied that it was a bear going back and forth from his
lodging quarters to his feeding grounds.

So I left the trail of the deer and took up the trail of the bear,
taking the track that I thought had been made last. I did not follow
the trail far, which led along the brow of the ridge, when I saw that
the several different bear tracks were forming into one trail and
making in the direction of several large hemlock trees that had been
turned out by the roots and lay in a jumbled up mess. I followed the
trail carefully until I was certain that the bear had entered the
jungle of timber. Here I worked carefully around the jam of timber
until sure that the bear was in the jungle and that it would be
impossible for me to get near the bear. The density of brush and
undergrowth was such that I would drive the bear out before I could
get close enough to Bruin to get a shot at him. And this was a time,
when I longed for a pard.

Being convinced that I could do nothing alone, I got out on one side
of the trail the bear had made in going back and forth and watched
until dark, in hopes that Bruin would come out on his way to his
feeding grounds. But in this I was mistaken so was obliged to give up
the hunt for the time being and make tracks for the shanty. My camp
was about five or six miles from Edgcomb Place, this being the
nearest point to where anyone lived, where I might get help to rout
Bruin. The Edgcomb Place was a sort of a half way house, it being
about fourteen miles either way to a settlement. The stage made one
trip a week over this road and stopped at Edgcomb Place for dinner
and often some one would come out from town in the stage and stop
there for a few days' hunt. It was one of these parties that I was in
hopes of getting to help me out in this bear hunt.

I started in the morning before daylight as the stage had gone the
Kettel Creek way the day before, which was in my favor of catching
help at the hotel. As good luck proved to be on my side, I found a
man at the hotel by the name of John Howard, who was stopping there
for a few days' hunt. He was more than anxious to join me in the bear
hunt. We hastened back to camp so as to get onto the job as quickly
as possible. We got to the shanty about noon and got a hasty lunch
and started out to wake Bruin up if he was still sleeping where I had
left him.

When we got to the jam of timber, we found that he had been to his
feeding grounds and had returned to his lodging apartments during the
night, so we now thought that we would soon make sure of our game. We
located the spot the best we could where we thought Bruin was
sleeping and began to cautiously work our way in from opposite sides.
It only took a short time to work our way into the jam sufficiently
to locate a large root, where Bruin's tracks showed plainly that he
was sleeping under this root. We continued to work our way up closer
to the root with gun in hand for ready action. But still Bruin did
not show up, neither could we hear the least bit of a noise from him.

When we were within a few feet of the root, Mr. Howard on one side
and the writer on the other side, suddenly, without any warning
whatever, Bruin came out of his hole like a shot out of a gun and
nearly landed on Mr. Howard, who sprang backwards to escape him. Mr.
Howard's feet became tangled in the thick brush, he fell backwards
and before he could regain his feet, Bruin had gone over the brow of
the ridge, into the laurel out of sight. Mr. Howard was not able to
get in a shot at Bruin, as I was on the other side of the root and on
higher ground, I managed to empty both barrels of my rifle at him
through the thick brush, but Bruin went on down the hill, through the
laurel, apparently unhurt.

After following the trail of Bruin for some distance, we began, now
and then, to find a little blood, where the bear had crawled over a
log or rubbed against the laurel. We followed him until we found one
or two places where he had broken down a few laurel and scratched
about in trying to make a bed, so we thought the better plan was to
let Bruin go for the night and let him make his bed.

But we did not go to camp empty handed for good luck favored Mr.
Howard in killing a good, big deer on our way to the shanty. After
leaving the trail of the bear, we followed up a spur of the main
ridge that led to camp, Mr. Howard going up one side of the spur
while I took the other spur. Just before reaching the top of the
spur, I heard Mr. Howard shoot and in a few minutes I heard him
shouting for help. When I got across the ridge to where he was, I
found him dressing a good sized buck. As it was getting dark we lost
no time in taking the entrails out of the deer, cutting a withe with
a hook, which we hooked into the lower jaw of the deer. We hooked
ourselves to the withe and made lively tracks to the shanty, where we
could talk and laugh of the day's hunt.

* * *

We were up early the next morning and had our lunch packed in our
knapsack, ready for an early start. It had turned warm during the
night and the light snow that was on the ground, was fast
disappearing. So we lost no time in getting back to where we had left
Bruin's track the night before. We could still manage to follow the
trail on the snow and we soon found where Bruin had broken down a few
laurel and tried to make a bed. But he would not stop long,
apparently, when he would move on for a short distance and again
break down a few laurels as before to make a nest. We could see a
little more blood at each place where he stopped than the one before.

We were working the trail as cautious as we could, when we heard a
noise in the thick laurel to our left and got a glimpse of Bruin
going through the laurel. We emptied both barrels of our guns in the
direction where we could see the brush wiggle, but all of our shots
failed to take effect. Bruin now left this laurel patch, crossed a
ravine and began to climb another spur of the main ridge. We did not
follow the trail long, when we discovered that it was becoming hard
work for Bruin to travel far at a time, as he would stop to rest. The
snow was now gone so that it was a little more difficult to follow
the trail of the bear. We thought that it would be better for one of
us to go up the ravine to the top of the ridge and stand about where
he thought that the bear would come out at the top of the ridge. Mr.
Howard went to the ridge, while I was to follow the bear's trail.

After waiting long enough to give Mr. Howard time to get to the top
of the ridge, I took up the trail of the bear. I had not gone far
when I came to a bed, where the bear had stopped for a time. I was
now sure Mr. Howard would get to his watching place before the bear
reached the top of the hill. I was not mistaken, for it was not long
until I heard Mr. Howard fire both barrels of his gun in rapid
succession. I thought when I heard the two shots that the bear hunt
was surely over, but after listening a few moments and hearing
nothing from Mr. Howard I was then unable to give a guess what he had
done. I worked along on the trail until near the top of the hill when
I saw Mr. Howard standing with head down and bearing the expression
of a motherless colt.

When I got up to him he said that the bear had stopped near the brow
of the ridge and when he came in sight, the bear started across the
ridge and he fired both barrels of his rifle at him but the bear was
so far away that he could not reach him. The bear now crossed the
ridge in the direction of Windfall Run, a branch of the Cross Fork
and toward a large windfall. We followed the bear a short distance in
to the windfall. Briers and brush were so thick that it was almost
impossible to work our way along in the brush and one could scarcely
see ten feet ahead. We had followed the trail but a short distance
when we could hear Bruin whining like a little puppy and soon we
could see him sitting up on his haunches and keeping up the whine. We
soon put an end to his troubles. When we removed the bear's entrails,
we found that one of the shots that we fired at him at the beginning
of the hunt, had passed through the lungs but had not struck any
large artery or any vital point. But the wound had weakened him so
that he was no longer able to make his way through the thick briars
and brush. We had two days of sport but now the real work began.

We were about three miles from camp and any hunter who has toted a
three hundred pound bear or a good big deer, lashed to a pole and
where the route was up and down steep hills, knows what sort of a job
he has on his hands. But comrades, we were not as old at that time as
we now are and we could tote a bear or deer as easy then as we could
a rabbit now.

  [Illustration: WOODCOCK AND HIS CATCH, FALL 1904.]

Mr. Howard stayed with me for about two weeks and we had other bear
hunts and killed two other bear and we did it almost without knowing
that there was a bear within ten miles of us. We also got five or six
deer during Mr. Howard's stay with me. Deer were as plentiful in
those days as rabbits. Comrades, look over the accompanying picture
and note the difference at the camp of a trapper from what you can
imagine it was about one's hunting camp at the time we write of.



CHAPTER X.

Incidents Connected with Bear Trapping.

Several years ago, I was trapping for bears on the East Fork of the
Sinnemahoning River. I usually went on horse back as far as I could
when tending the traps. But boys, don't be bad, as I was, for this
was on Sunday that I went to look at the traps. I found the bait-pen
of the first one torn down, bait gone and everything showed plainly
that Bruin had been there. As I had no bait at hand, I went to the
next trap. I found things quite different, for the old bear had
surely "put his foot in it" this time, as the trap was gone. On
taking the trail I did not follow it far, before I found bruin fast
in an old tree-top. I soon dispatched him and taking off his coat,
hung up his carcass. Now the bait was gone at this trap also. Let me
tell you that this is something that rarely happens, for when the
bear puts his foot in a Newhouse trap, he seldom tarries to monkey
with bait. I suspected that another bear had been there after this
one had got in the trap. As I had no bait I took the lungs and heart
of the one I had caught and baited the traps the best I could, then I
took the skin and started for home. Well, when I got near the horse
you can bet there was some tall prancing and loud snorting. After a
long time I managed to get on his back and home with the skin.

The next morning I began to have some doubt whether bears were
cannibals or not. I thought I would take some fresh bait and go back
and bait the traps up good.

When I got near the trap in which

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