Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-02-01
TRAPPING.
ADVENTURES OF A TRAPPER ON EAGLE
CREEK.
Starving Coons to Death = Adventures
with skunk-Preserving
Skins.

Heres looking al everybody uOWn III Tic
flooded districts from Whiskey Diggin's;
we are pretty well up in the chaparral
here, and know Just about how to sympa-
thize with those afflicted with too much
water, but really the notorious severity of
the present winter has taxed our registered
patience to its fullest capacity, with the
considerable increment of a full-grown
darky on our safety valve.
1t true that the man whose equanim-
ity of temper has always hitherto been
such as to enable him to take things as
they come, and makes the best of them,
even to the extent of carving large I'M
seemly wart on the frontispiece of his neck
into collar-bntton, has not yet been heard
from: but when you meet partner of his,
a good man in his own estimation, carry
ing about an expression which plainly
reads, ~ am meek and lowly one; who
are you ~ you would feel slightly embar-
raised, would you not, reader? But there
is a vast deal of satisfaction, after all, in
being able to swallow ones knife and fork
in wild efforts to appease ravenous de-
mand for more victuals, without being
hauled up before a magistrate for mali
cious mischief, if one only knows how to
get up the requisite amount of steam.
AN ADVENTURE.
Moreover, it is Arctic weather, and ey-
erything is pretty full, reader, when the
writer can't have a little amusement on
his own account. In pursuance Of which
policy, one measly-lookIng morning about
two months ago dug up an old steel-trap
from beneath the accumulated debris of
our goat pen and proceeded TO put it in or
der for whatever might be unsophisticated
enough to step intos it, being further in
cited to the business by having read an
article which has been going the rounds Of
patent insides and outsides all over the
country, in which it was stated that it was
impossible to trap a coon; that coon
would starve to death before he would
come out of his hole and step into trap
placed at the entrance; that the writer Of
the article evidently a"gas-pipe") had,
In fact, starved several to death in the
way indicated; that they could smell the
iron of the trap, etc.
But he added, by way Of self-glorihca-
tion, that he had really caught several by
sinking his trap into the water where the
coons were want to fish for crawfish, in
which case. he averred it was out of the
question for them to smell the iron Of the
traps. aid you ever hear of anybody
trapping a coon ~ said he. Well, rather.
And this is the way it came about:
Having got the trap alluded to into
good working order, 1 went out and shot
half dozen birds, including woodpeckers,
larks and black birds, which scattered
about in the vicinity of an old stump up
the gulch, along which l had observed
coon's trail, but l did not put the trap
there that night. thought | would first
give the beast an opportunity to make
himself at home on the premises, and the
next morning 1 found that most of the
birds had been taken.
DIPLOMACY.
So that evening 1 placed a lark and
woodpecker in the mouth Of an old squir-
rel-hole at the base of the stump, conceal
ing everything but the heads of the birds,
which laid upon the platform of the trap
directly over the mouth of the hole, cover
ing the trap and chain with leaves and
birds remained visible, and wiring the trap
security to the stump. | rightly con-
iectured that the coon would take the
birds to be alive tap the heads with his
paw, and-clip turn double somersaults
until daylight. Next morning | was up
there by daylight, but the CLASSY eyes of
the birds were staring out into the depths
of space unmolested save, perhaps, by a
little meteoric dust which had been sifted
upon them during the night, while all the
other bait around the place had been de-
voured, feathers and all.
PERSEVERANCE.
The next morning was up there again,
but not quite so early, yet | found no
change. The third morning | got around
to the trap about noon, but found every
thing as usual The fourth morning was
pretty well advanced into the afternoon
when / arrived at the trap, only to be dis
appointed for the fourth time, The fifth
morning l did not go to the trap at all, but
did go again on the sixth for luck, but
found no unlucky coon there.
Then | made a resolution that the birds
should return 10 dust and the trap to rust
before took it away, if the blamed things
didn't catch something. l forgot all about
the matter until one day about three weeks
afterwards, when, after having been out all
morning hunting for a COW which had
given up for drowned or spirited away,
happened to pass the stump where / had
left the trap. The stump was still there,
but the birds we're gone, the trap was gone,
and the wire was gonel
SURPRISE.
For fully twenty minutes l must have
stared in blank amazement at the strange
spectacle, not very strange, either, only a
stump after all, yet ! knew that it could
tell a tale if it felt so disposed, but the
stump was dumb, and l didn't coax it
much, but simply said to myself: Some
burned shyster from up the gulch has
been along here, stolen that trap (the only
one | had, too carried off the birds, and
thought he was doing something smart be-
sides. l wonder why he didn't pull up
the stump and take that away also"
About three weeks after this happened
imagine my surprise at finding the trap,
chain and wire tangled up in the willows
with fair-sized coon attached, about $50
wards distant from the stump, where he
had starved to death after having barked
all the willows and trodden the earth
within radius of dozen feet in man
ner which plainly told of the terrible
struggle that he had made for life, only to
come to an inglorious end by starvation.
SUCCESS.
The coon had, as I suspected, tapped
the heads of the birds, got caught, pulled
the wire up over and off the top of the
stump in his wild efforts to escape, and
made away with the whole of the appara-
tus. birds and all. OF course apologized
to the imaginary "shyster" from up the
gulch, and have been happy ever since,
the more so because I felt revenged upon
the coon family for little misfortune that
had occurred to me one night shortly be-
fore putting out the trap.