The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1893-01-20
TRAPPING COYOTES.
A Difficult Way For One to Make
q Living.
Setting Traps In the Sierra Foothills
Unwelcome Guests That Are PIenti-
fuI-Traits of the Western Terror.-
Talks with An Old Hunter.


Talks with Old Hunter.
George Peck is an old-timer, having
come to California some time in the
early fifties, and has had the usual ex-
perience of fortune and misfortune,
mostly misfortune. He has Icing since
quit hoping for strike" and is now
a wandering, poverty-stricken old
chap, keeping himself as much as pos
sible out of the way of the world,
never looks At a book or paper, mines
lat odd spells" and hunts the greater
part of the year. Lately he has been
trapping along the Yuba, and has
pitched his tent on a little fiat known
as the Keystone.
There are no valuable furs to be OBJ
tanned in the lower foothills, but the
coyotes are numerous on the keystone,
and as the state pays a bounty of five
dollars Tor each scalp an expert trapper
can make enough To keep body and
soul together and have a little left over.
But he must be an expert The gaunt,
hungry, snarling coyote is more diff
cult 10 catch than Il fox, and hIs habits,
likes and disliAes, runways and noe
turnal prowlings must be learned 10y
the trapper before he can expect to
take more than an occasional scalp
The Keystone is a favorite yelping
ground, and the rugged hills, with
thick undergrowths, chaparral, cliffs
and caves that abound along the Guba
at that point, furnish coy retreats for
hundreds of coyotes, foxes, coons, pole
cats and now and then a mountain cat
or lynx. The polecats are perhaps the
most numerous, and as they are not
suspicious. prudent animals, relying
upon their offensiveness to carry them
safely through life, are a great
nuisance To the trapper, who must,
when he has caught one, thoroughly
disinfect his trap, not pleasant or
easy task in the hills where water Is
scarce and deodorizing mate rials not
easily obtainable-
Coyote" Peck, as he Is called,
thoroughly understands the habits of
COYOTES. When i met him. n week ago,
he was crrrying four traps on his back
and doing his best to keep ont of sight
behind clump of manZunita bushes.
At first he was surly and gave short re-
plies to ali my queries, but persistent
efforts thawed the iciness of his man
ner and he asked me To accompany him
and see how coyote trapping was car
ried on.
1t was quite early in the forenoon,
and the canyon down which we picked
our way was yet cool On either side
were jagged, rocky sleeps, gashed with
innumerable cracks and creviceS in
which many nocturnal creatures We're
probably asleep. In the dust one could
see the tracks of coons, foxes, coyotes,
polecats, rats, mice and beetles.
They preys on one another, said
Peck. Theirs thousands on thousands
o. beetles yere, an the coons an foxes
an polecats is great fer sich things.
They's in the rocks now"
''Do you catch the coons?"
'IIe, he! | should say l do. They's
no harder to catch than skunks. Iou
catch one by the end of his littlest toe
an he'll jist get right down an stay
there loolxin' at his toe an studyin' the
trap, an like as not he won't be
through studyin' when You come in
the mornin'. Coons is easy, an foxes
amt hard, but they h amt wuth nothin
to me, so | generally lets the coons lay,
an the foxes, too, 'cept in the winter
when it's real cold. Then the foxes
hides is wuth thirty cents apiece.
They's no good till the fur's on, see?'
We trampcd on for half an hour, and
then, leaving the canyon, crossed
little ridge where the underground had
been burned away and a few scrubby
pines and oaks clustered about little
spring Handing me his traps Peck
stole cautiously ahead with his rifle
and n minute later made rapid shot
at something sitting in the shade not
far away. The animal shot was jack
rabbit
Il nearly allus gifts one here" said
the old man. ''They's the best kind of
bait for coyotes I've tried venison an
beef an all kinds of meat. but jack
rabbit beats 'em all. Coyotes Is very
particular about their vittles- You'd
think a chicken would be better, cause
COYOTES is awful rough on chickens
when they finds 'em in coop, but
'tain't so. The coyotes knows that
chickens is domestic fowls, an when
they sees one a-hangin by its legs on a
tree four or five miles out in the woods
they list looks at it in a suspicious way
an sez: What you dom out yere, any
how?' an they goes on. They knows
chicken amt got no business hangin'
by its legs to n tree in the woods But
they knows a JIck belongs IN the woods,
and they don't never seem to think
there's anything crooked when they
finds jack hangin' by his legs A
lacks their nat'ral food. for sure
That's why coyotes is sich powerful
runners. Whene yer they catch jack
they's got TO earn him fust, see?"
As Peck talked he gathered his traps
and the jaclSrabblt together, threw
them over his shoulder and trudged on
again We had easier walking now,
and it was not long before another hare
started up in front of u.s. Peck dropped
his traps. and as the jack, which had
not been much frightened, loped softly
up the hill shot it dead. 1t was a fine
shot and well worth praising, but the
old hun.er smiled knowingly and said:
That's nuthin'. A boy kin do that
-arter he knows how. That makes
halt enough for these four traps, SO
we'll jist set one of 'em yere."
With : swipe of the hunting knife
one of the Jackrabbits was neatly di-
vided and then one-half was fastened
to an oak sapling about four feet from
the ground. A few bits of the flesh
were scattered about the foot of the oak
and then a trap was set directly under
the hanging bait and made secure with
the chain. No effort at conceaiment
was made and / asked Peck about IT.
Lord, man, what's the use? If l
digs a hole and buries my trap ever so
nice the coyotes III see there's some
thin buried there an they'll get sus-
picious right away. No, stree. Never
bury your trap fer coyotes. Jist set
the Jaws open an tie it fast and flop 1t
down an the coyotes IL jist think it's
somethin' the jaclSrabbits has dropped
there, an when they jumps after that
iackrabbit down they comes with their
forelegs into it. The way to catch coy
otes is to make 'em think you thinks