The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1905-02-16
FUR HUNTlN6 m MANI.

Winter Occupation of Many Licensed Guides
Many of the licensed guides who are
busy about Moosehead Lake during
hshlng time. and in the woods with Wis.
lung hunters during the open season
on pig game, spend the winter in the far
north woods, where they seek abandon.
GU Jumper camps and put out lines of
, traps along the WATERWAYS in the hone
OF capturing fur bearing animals
Owing to the fact that most of tho
hsher SKINS taken in Maine 20 to japan,
Whlle large amount of other EXPENSIVE
IurS go to Russia, the war now going
Oh between those two nations has caus.
eu depression in prices, so that the
SKINS which sold for IS wear AGO are
not bringing more than 81 this season,
Whlle this condition is somewhat
discouraglng, says the Bangor News
the man who has once been TRAINER
is SO pleased with his calling that he
seldom abandons it, and though the
outlook Tor great profits from the vent
ures is not>very bright, the number of
men now trapping is fully as large as in
former seasons.
The outfit Of the trapper who pro-
poses to spend two or three months in
| WV VOoNo 40 Va WIG SlulplcSt klIlO. III a
has far to 60 over rough roads. 40 that
the weight of his goods must be yery
light. In fact, the trapper who is be,
ginning business makes two or more
trips to his base of supplies before set
thing down to business.
| This Is done so as to take in as many
traps as he can tend in two DAYS Of
work. AS rule, from 200 to 25O steel
traps are needed. One half of these
will be muskrat traps, with single
springs and wide jaws, such as are en-
ployed in capturing foxes, mink, otter
and fisher.
Then there will be two or three larger
ones for taking bobcats and the luci-
wees, and perhaps one ponderous bear
trap with spiked jaws and spring strong
enough to hold horse. OF late wears,
| however, the bears den up early, leav-
ing small use for traps. and it any of
| the animals roam out late in the winter
it is sure sign that bruin is hungry,
when he can be caught as easily in
deadfall made of logs as in a trap
weighing fifty pounds. For these rea-
sons few wise traprers burden them
selves with implements for taking bears.
| The food carried by fur hunters is in
the most condensed form of heat Civ
ing material. Plenty of fat pork is the
| first requisite, as with this all sorts of
wild meats may be cooked over the
campfire. For starchy foods the outfit
holds a bag of sifted cornmeal. a sack
of wheat flour and baking powders
ready mixed, and possibly a paper of
| buckWheat meal for fritters.
| The foregoing, with salt and pepper
and a liberal quantity of black tea, com
plete the paltry outfit. For implements
there are a sharp axe with short
handle, a light rife, a coarse file and
stout hunting knife. Now put in a
large bottle of matches tightly sealed
from the wet, cover all with pair OF
wooden blankets, and cap this with a
rubber blanket, and the low sled with
wide runners is ready to start.
| The rule is to get away as soon as the
ice on the lakes will hold up the weight
of man, for furs are of best quality
from Nov. 20 to Feb. 20, and if a man
wishes to do good work he must put
out his traps before heavy snow comes
! on. 1t is long and hard pull from
| the foot of MoOsehead Lake, where the
railroad stops, to some tumbledown
camp far up along tributaries of Cham
| berlain Lake or. among the brooks
which flow into the Allagash, but those
who go farthest fare best, and when
labor is the price of success nothing is
too hard for the trapper to perform.
1t is often the case that the trapper gets
a lift along the wood roads from teams
going into the woods for work. but fail
ing in this, he trudges along, walking on
the ice of streams and lakes when he
can, and following wood roads or forest
paths when he must, and covering from
fifteen to twenty miles day until from
one to three weeks after quitting the
villages he reaches the place he has
| chosen.
In nearly every case he takes possess
sion of lumber camp where men have
resided in former years. Here he cuts
off two-thirds of the log structure TO
mend up the latter, using the rotten
logs for fuel and the sound ones for
timbers in making the needful changes.
| In the end he has watertight and
almost alright howell, that is doubly
walled and chinked with moss, while
from the remnants left over he can Sc
cure wood enough to keep his campfire
blazing all winter. Meanwhile he has
set traps enough along the nearest
waterway to furnish bait for the start
Real work begins early some morn
ing when he starts out, dragging a sled
| lodu Of traps anu Cne DOOleS OF score
of muskrats, the latter of which he will
use for bait. Nearly all the animals
which furnish valuable furs are found
lurking near the water.
| For this reason the trapper arranges
his line of traps SO they will follow up
one branch of strea m for fifteen or
twenty miles, and then crosses over to
another stream flowing in the same d.
rection, down which he makes his way,
placing traps at convenient places until
he is back at the camp once more. AS
for the out-camp at the farther end of
his line, that is rude shelter built of
bOughs, which are banked up heavily
with snow later ON.
He is now ready to begin trapping in
earnest. Having cooked up food enough
to last him tor three to five days, in
Guiding big dish of muskrat stew in a
tin can, he makes his regular trips after
furs. Walking rapidly, on moccasins
if the ground is bare and on snowshoes
in case the depth is more than six in
ches, he visits every trap as he passes
along, taking out such animals as he
has caught and putting on new bait and
resetting those which have been sprung.
If he has been lucky he may find TWEEN
ty muskrats and perhaps mink or a
| fichar on hiS ont triY,