CHAPTER X
LIFE ON THE FUR TRAILS
Supper out of the way the boys made themselves comfortable and gave Alecthe word to take up his yarn.
"To begin with," said Alec, throwing a log on the fire, "when a trapperis thinking of going into new country he generally prospects it first,same as a prospector for gold, only he looks it over for signs of furinstead of for minerals. Sometimes he does this in summer or early fall,and sometimes he does it in winter, planning for the next winter. Friendo' mine went up into Brunswick last winter, and looked over some countrywhich never has been trapped to amount to anything and this year he's upthere with a line over one hundred miles long."
"Jerusalem! where did he stay nights when he was looking it over?" askedHal.
"Wherever he happened to be," replied Alec.
"Didn't he have no tent nor nothin'?" Sparrer was round eyed withwonder.
Alec shook his head. "Nothin' but a week's supply of grub, his axe,rifle and blanket. That's all any good woodsman needs."
"But was it as cold as it is now?" asked Hal.
"Colder, because that part of Brunswick is consid'rable farther north.When night came he would just dig away the snow, build a fire and whenthe ground was het up move his fire back, lay some boughs down where thefire had been, make a little bough shelter over it, build a good bigfire to reflect the heat, and turn in. Sometimes when there's a big rockhandy or an upturned tree we warm up a place a little way in front ofthat and then move the fire over against it and turn in without anyshelter at all. More'n once I've slept in just a hole in the snow.Tisn't so bad when you're used to it. Have to get up a few times in thenight to put wood on the fire, but that ain't nothin', is it, Pat?"
"Tis no more than a reminder av how good it is to shlape," returnedPat.
"When a man's prospectin' for fur he not only looks for signs of thebeasties but he looks the lay of the land over and gets the landmarksfixed in his mind," continued Alec. "He picks out a place for his maincamp, locating it where he can get his supplies and stuff in and hisfurs out at the end o' the season without too much difficulty. If it isin lumbered country he picks out a place that can be reached by some oldtrail with a little clearing out so that a team can get in. More often,though, he locates on a river where he can get his stuff in by canoe,and can get out again the same way in the spring.
"At the same time he tries to choose a location that will be to his bestadvantage in working his trap lines. If he's got a long line laid out healso picks out likely places for temporary camps, places handy tosprings and fire-wood. Early in the fall he gets his stuff together andgoes in to build his camps. Trappers mostly work in pairs, but sometimesone goes it alone like my friend up in Brunswick. He took his traps an'stuff in in September, so's to get his camps built and be ready forbus'ness as soon as fur got prime."
"Can one man build a log cabin without any help?" asked Walter.
"Sure," replied Pat, "if he's reasonably husky, and most woodsmen are. Asmart axeman can roll one up in four days, but of course it's easier andquicker if there are two."
"The main camp is made stout and comfortable as possible, same as 'tishere, only usually 'tis no so big." Alec resumed the thread of hisstory. "The other camps are just big enough for a bunk an' to cache somesupplies, and are one to two days' journey apart, accordin' to thecountry. In good weather a feller disna mind sleeping oot one nightbetween camps if he must, though he disna aim to if he can help it. Afew supplies are left in each camp, and fire-wood cut and left handy.When this work is done it's usually 'bout time to be gettin' after thecritters.
"A long line is usually planned on a sort of loop when the country willpermit, so that the trapper may go out one way and return another. Whentwo are trapping together, pardners like Pat and me, one works the lineone way and one the other. Of course two can work a longer line than onecan, and cover it the way it ought to be covered. I've put in more'n onewinter alone, but ye ken it's michty satisfying to hae speech wi' someone once in a while. When I'm alone it gets so that I talk to thevarmints just to hear a human voice, even though it be my own."
"I shouldn't think it would be safe for a man to be all alone for solong," Upton interrupted.
"Tisn't altogether safe," replied Alec. "There was old Bill Bently.Never was a better woodsman than old Bill. He used to trap way up northof here. Used to go it alone mostly, but one winter he took a pardner.Lucky thing for Bill he did. They had a long line that year and Billcovered it one way and his pardner, Big Frank, covered it the other.They would meet at the upper end and then again at the main camp. Well,one time Big Frank was a day late getting to the upper camp. A big barhad busted a swivel on a trap and gone off with the trap. Took Frank awhole day to catch up with him. When he got to the camp he expected tofind Bill waiting for him, but nary a sign of Bill could he find.
"This wasn't su'prisin' considerin' his own luck, but somehow it madeBig Frank uneasy. He hit the trail 'fore daylight the next morning anddidna stop to look at traps, but just made tracks watching out for somesign of Bill. Long about noon he found him by a deadfall alongside of abar. Of course the critter was dead, and Bill would have been if he hadto lay there much longer. Seems in resetting the deadfall the lever withwhich he was raising the 'fall' log broke, and somehow Bill got one legunder it and there he was caught in his own trap and with a broken legto boot. Lucky for Bill it was early in the season, or he would havefrozen to death long 'fore Frank got there. As it was he was in prettybad shape. If he'd been trapping alone it would have been the end ofhim.
"But I'm getting off my story of how we catch fur. Of course we have tohave a number of sizes of traps. For muskrats we use No. 1; for mink No.1 or No. 1-1/2. This is also big enough to hold fox, coon and fisher,but No. 2 is better. For marten we use mostly No. 1, but if there aresigns of fisher or lynx we use No. 1-1/2 so if one happens to get into atrap it will hold him. These critters are so strong that they would pullout of the smaller trap."
"It's marten that you are after mostly, isn't it? I understood you tosay that," Upton interposed.
"We're after anything we can get, but most of our sets are for marten,"returned Alec. "In the fall we took a good many rats and will again inthe spring, but at this time o' the year when everything is frozen 'tisonly around spring holes that we can get a rat now and then since thelaw will no let us trap them at their houses. I dinna ken what theselawmakers want to meddle with a poor man's business for. So long as therat is killed I dinna see what difference it makes where he's killed orhow. We used to get good fur when it was no against the law to trap atthe houses."
"Walt, here's a subject for a little missionary work. Alec is still anuncivilized savage in some things, especially when what he calls hisrights to hunt and trap are concerned," Pat broke in.
Upton looked a bit puzzled. "I don't quite get the point about the housetrapping," said he.
"You've seen muskrat houses a-plenty, haven't you?" asked Pat.
Walter nodded. "Well," continued Pat, "before this law was made trappersused to chop a hole in the side of a house and set a trap on the bedinside. Of course this drove the rats out, but they would soon be back,because there was nowhere else to go. By visiting the traps night andmorning it was no trick at all to get all the rats. Now the law forbidsthis kind of trapping. Alec here doesn't approve of the law. He thinksthat there are rats enough and to spare and he can't see that that kindof work is cutting his own nose off and killing the goose that lays thegolden egg. Says you can clean all the rats out of a place and in timemore will come to take their places, and I can't make him see it anydifferent."
"How about beaver?" asked Walter, turning to the Scotchman. "Nowherenear as plentiful as they used to be, are they?"
The trapper shook his head. "Been trapped pretty near out of thiscountry. I'm for protecting the beaver, all right, but rats isdifferent. Ye couldn't trap out all the rats in a million years. There'srats enough and there always will be."
"Ever hear of the passenger pigeon?"
asked Upton.
Alec signified that he never had. "Guess they dinna live in thiscountry," he added.
"I guess they don't," replied Upton drily. "Fact is they don't live inany country any more. What is supposed to be the very last specimen diedin captivity in Cincinnati last year. A reward of several thousanddollars for proof of a single pair nesting anywhere in America has stoodfor several years. But the bird is believed to be absolutely extinct.And yet seventy-five years ago they were numbered by millions andextended over America from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains. Probablybillions would be nearer the truth. The ornithologist Wilson oncewatched a flock which he estimated to be a mile wide, moving at the rateof a mile a minute, and it took four hours to pass. Allowing three birdsto each square yard there must have been more than two billion birds inthat one flock. In 1869 one town in Michigan shipped to market in fortydays almost twelve million birds. They were so plentiful that they soldas low as twelve cents a dozen and netters made money at that. When thefirst efforts to protect them were made they were fruitless becausepeople said that the numbers were so great that it would be impossibleever to reduce them to a serious extent. And to-day there is not oneliving. It doesn't seem possible, but it is a cold, hard fact. And manalone is to blame.
"The same thing is happening right now with a lot of animals and birds.Just as sure as that fire is burning fifty years will see a lot off themextinct unless they are better protected. The hunters of the pigeondidn't believe it any more than you believe it about the rats. On thelevel, Alec, do you think it a square deal to take a rat in the onlyplace he's got to stay in the winter?"
"Oh, I'm not taking them that way," Alec protested with some haste. "Ibelieve in respecting the law, even if it is a fool law."
"But is it a fool law? I don't think so," said Walter quietly. "In aboxing match it is a foul to hit a man when he's down."
"'Tisn't in a lumberman's fight," Alec broke in. "If a man's down somuch the better. Then you've got him. That's the thing to do--get himdown and then do him good."
"Aw say, youse don't mean that!" Sparrer's eyes were round withindignation, for even a street gamin has better ethics than this.
"It's the way they fight up here, Sparrer, I'm sorry to say," said Pat."In a rough and tumble fight here they kick, bite and gouge, and you maywell pity the under man. But they're learning better."
"Would you hit a man who was bound and helpless?" asked Walter quickly.
"Certainly not!" cried Alec indignantly. "That's different."
"Not so very different from your rats in their houses," protested Upton."They come pretty near to being helpless. Besides, they have no reasonto suspect harm there, and they don't. Put it up to any Scout and he'dsay right off the reel that it is unfair, and that is something that noScout will stand for. But this is nothing to do with marten. You weresaying, Alec, that you trap for marten, mostly."
"Aye," replied Alec, rather glad to have the subject changed, if thetruth were known. "And it's the prettiest and most comfortable kind oftrapping in the winter. Ye see the beasties are found in heavy timberand broken country, and that gives the trapper more protection from coldand storms. Then the beasties are no so hard to trap as some others.When ye find marten sign ye may be pretty sure that the critter will bealong there again. They live on mice, rabbits, birds and squirrels. Fishmakes good bait. When the snows are not too heavy I build a littlecubby, a pen, ye ken, of sticks, at the foot of a big tree, the treeforming the back, and roof it over with evergreen branches to keep outthe snow. On a little bed of boughs I set the trap just inside theopening of the cubby and cover it lightly with tips of evergreen. Thebait is placed on a stick at the back of the cubby. I hang a couple ofboughs partly over the opening so that if Whiskey Jack happens along hewon't see the bait and steal it."
Here Pat interrupted to explain for Sparrer's benefit that a WhiskeyJack is the common name in the north for the Canada Jay.
"I shouldn't think the marten could get his peepers on the bait, then,"said Sparrer.
"He disna need to, laddie," replied Alec. "His nose finds it for him.Another set which I like and use a good deal is this. I cut a smallspruce of about four inches through so as to leave a stump about twofeet above the snow. In the top of this I cut a V or crotch, and aftertrimming off the lower limbs of the tree I rest it in this crotch sothat the butt end projects some distance and is three or four feet abovethe snow. About a foot from the butt end I flatten off a place for thetrap and tie it in place with a bit of string and loop the chain aroundthe trunk of the tree. Then I make a split in the end of the butt and inthis fasten the bait. Mr. Marten runs up the tree to get the bait, stepsin the trap and falls off and hangs there. He can't twist a foot off orpull free in any way. Once he steps in the trap he's a goner.
"Deadfalls work pretty well with marten. Ye'll have a chance to seesome, as I've got some right handy here, in some draws off the Hollow.Ye'll understand them better by seeing than by me trying to tell youabout them."
"How about otter?" asked Hal.
"Steel traps for them, and we have to be some pertic'lar how we set 'em.There's nary a critter that I know of more suspicious of man," repliedAlec. "In the fall and spring we get 'em with water sets. I got one thisfall up at one of the beaver dams. I cut a hole in the middle of the damso that the run-off from the pond was all through this but not enough tolower the pond and bring the beavers to stop up the hole. I made thepassage only eight or nine inches wide and set the trap in the water atthe upper end. The first otter to come along tried to go through thatopening and I had him. Sometimes when we find a point of land runningout into a lake or big stream we'll find an otter trail across it wherethe critter has taken a short cut. Then we set a trap in the water atone end. Water sets are best, because there is no human scent. In thewinter we set under the ice, and I'll show you a couple of sets of thatkind before you go back."
"And foxes?" prompted Upton.
Alec grinned. "They're worse than otter," he confessed. "Ye think ye kenall about the critters, and then ye meet up with one that just gives yethe laugh, like the silver that's hanging around here. I've tried everyset I know of for that feller, but he's still grinning at me. And thiscrust ain't going to help matters any. It's bad enough in dry snow, butwith a crust there won't be anything doing. In the fall I use water setswhere I can. One of the best is at a shallow spring, four or five feetacross. About a foot and a half from the shore put a moss-covered stone,or a sod, so that it will come just above the level of the water.Half-way between this and the shore set the trap, covering the jaws,springs and chain with mud or wet leaves from the bottom. The pan shouldbe just under water and on this place a little piece of moss or sod sothat it will come an inch above the water. On the outer stone or sod puta small piece of bait and a little scent. Mr. Fox comes along, smellsthe bait and promptly investigates. He disna like to wet his feet, andthe bit of covering on the pan of the trap looks like a goodstepping-place. Then you have him.
"Ye must take care to leave everything in a perfectly natural state. Iwade up the outlet and take care not to touch the banks. Some trappersboil the traps in hemlock boughs to kill the scent. Others just leavethem over night in running water. I wear clean gloves to handle thetraps. There are a lot of dry sets, some with bait and some without, thelatter being used in frequented runways. A very good set is to find anold moss-covered log or stump and set the trap on the highest point,covering it so that the whole thing looks just as it did before. Thentoss a big bait like a muskrat or rabbit eight or ten feet from it. Mr.Fox is always suspicious, and before he goes too near anything like thathe will go to the highest point to look the ground over. That's when yeget him. Of course, there mustn't be any other high point for him to geton."
"You spoke of scents, Alec. I've read about them. What are they,anyhow?" asked Upton.
For answer, Alec got up and went to a corner of the cabin and broughtforth an old fruit jar. Pat grinned. "Here's some," said Alec simply ashe unscrewed the cover while the boys crowd
ed around. They took onewhiff and then fairly tumbled over each other to get away.
"Cover it up! Take it away!" howled Hal, holding his nose. "I won't beable to eat a square meal for a week."
"Me too!" yelped Sparrer. "Dey has some awful smells in New York, butdis is de limit."
"Jumping crickets! I should think that stuff would drive things away andnot attract 'em!" exclaimed Upton. "What is it, anyhow?"
"Skunk fat and mice cut up and put in the jar and hung in the sun untilthoroughly rotted, and then some skunk and muskrat scent added. Sorryyou don't like it," replied Pat. "A drop or two judiciously used seemsto be a great attraction for foxes and some other critters. Alec has gotanother brand if you would like to sample it--fish oil made by cuttingup fish and letting them rot in the same way. It's a mighty good scent."
"No, thanks!" cried Hal hastily. "We'll take your word for it. Whatabout those stretching boards?"
"I'm coming to that," replied Alec. "Raw furs are handled in two ways,'cased' and 'open.' Mink, marten, fox, fisher, weasel, muskrat, skunkand bob cat are 'cased.' That is what these boards are for. We skin 'emby cutting loose around the feet and then cutting down the back of thehindlegs to and around the vent and then skin the hindlegs carefully,and also the tail. Then the skin is turned back and stripped off thebody wrong side out to the ears, taking as little fat as possible. Theears are cut off close to the head, and the skin is cut loose around theeyes and nose. The easiest way is to hang the critter up by the hindlegsafter skinning out these and the tail.
"These small boards Pat and I are making are for muskrats in the spring.For marten, mink, otter, fisher and such like we use longer, narrowerboards; that is, they are narrower in proportion to their length. I'llshow you some presently. The best boards are those with a narrow stripripped out of the middle for the whole length. This makes a wedge ortongue. Of course it should be tapered. This makes it possible to usethe board for various size animals and to stretch the skin to itsfullest extent. It also makes it easy to remove a skin from the board,as taking out the wedge at once loosens the whole board.
"The skins are put on the stretchers fur side in. Then with a bluntknife they are fleshed. That is, they are scraped clean of everyparticle of fat and flesh. Then they are stretched to their fullestextent and put to dry or cure in a cool, airy place. As soon as dryenough to prevent shrinking or wrinkling they are taken from the boards.Lynx and fox are then turned fur side out, but the others are left asthey are.
"Beaver, coon, bear, wolf and badger are skinned 'open.' That means thata cut is made from the point of the jaw straight down the belly to thevent. A cut is made down the inside of the forelegs across the breast tothe point of the brisket and another down the back of the hindlegs. Biganimals like bars, wolves and wolverines should be skinned out to theends of their toes and have the feet left on. These skins are stretchedflat, a coon nearly square, a beaver round, and others to their naturalshape. The best way is by lacing them with twine in a frame. Manytrappers lose money by careless handling of the furs. All dirt, bloodand lumps should be carefully removed. Lots of skins, prime when caught,grade way down because of careless handling. Now I guess you chaps havegot your fill of furs. What about to-morrow? It's Christmas, ye ken."
"That's so, and it will be the queerest Christmas I ever have spent,"said Hal thoughtfully. "We ought to celebrate, somehow. What's theprogram, Pat?"
"How about a rabbit hunt in the morning, a big dinner and ashooting-match in the afternoon?" replied Pat.
"Bully!" cried all three together.
"What's the matter with a Christmas tree in the evening?" added Upton."We ought to do something Christmasy."
"I was going to suggest that very thing," retorted Hal. "We'll make itthe greatest Christmas this old Hollow ever saw. Now, let's turn in. Iwant to be out for those rabbits right early. By the way, Alec, I hopethere's some of that venison left for the big feast."
"Dinna ye worry, laddie. I hae saved a roast special," replied Alec ashe prepared things for the night.
The Boy Scouts in A Trapper's Camp Page 11