Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1911-01-05
son County, West Virginia, Thursday, January s. 1911.

boughs or in some such way. Scme-
times he puts little grease on his hunt
ing knife and lays it across the succession
of dots and dashes in the snow which
show that an ermine has passed that way.
Along comes the little white form on
its erratic course again.
The grease appeals to it and it begins
to lick the blade OF the knife; but alas!
that piece Of steel is icy cold and the tiny
red tongue is instantly frozen TO ii so
tightly as to render futile all the frantic
struggling The knife is too heavy for
the little animal to carry away and in his
good time the trapper comes and finishes
his work.
If he manages to take silver fox, the
trapper is II great luck, for the pelt OF
prime specimen OF that valuable animal is
worth 81 800 to the man who buys it
down at Edmonton, and the very best
will bring the buyer as much as 3, 500
But the trapper gets few silver foxes. and
for these he receives a price much small
er than the figures at which the white
trader will eventually make the sale.
The animal OF which the trapper will
probably capture most is the lynx. One
firm of traders brought 5000 lynx into
Edmonton last summer and these formed
only part of the total receipts. Others
which are taken in large numbers are
beavers, bears, offers, wolverines, minkS,
martens, muSkratS, muSk-oXen, fishers,
weaSIes. and white, red, black and cross
fox. Tens of thousands are trapped dur
the course of a season.
The hunter or trapper must carry traps
and supplies into the Temotest regions,
where even lumbermen are unknown.
He builds low, wide sled, holding 300
pounds, and loads this with pork, flour,
undercothing and steel traps. And when
the ice on streams and lakes will bear his
weight he starts into the wilderness,
there to lead hermitS life for seven
months. Arrived at point many miles
from the nearest habitation, the trapper
usually tries to find two parallel streams
running near each other. Here he pitch
eS his home camp, setting traps along
both rivers. The work OF taking game
from the traps is varied by catching fish,
Snaring rabbits and capturing muSkratS
for bait and food. Now and then, perhaps,
the hunter may kill a wandering bear
an event which may lead him to big
store Of wild honey in hollow tree.
In this utter solitude lives the adven-
turer, perhaps forgetting the day OF the
week or the month of the year. He fixes
the date tor breaking camp and turning
back to civilization by the condition OF
the fur on the animals he takes or by the
effects of sunlight on the snow. Now
and then he will shoot deer, or even A
moose. for the sake OF the raW-hlde,
meat and fat, which latter keeps his traps
from ruSting. A file serves him instead
of a grindSto1e to keep axes and knives
keen; and he washes his own clothes
through hole in the ice, drying them
by an open fire. The dazzling glare OF
February often brings snow-bindneSS;
and a month or two later the faSt-thin-
ming fur on his prey shows that further
work is Improbable. He then SecreteS
his traps in hollow logs ready for the next
season, packs his load OF peltS on the
wide sled and trudges off through the for
est TO the nearest post or settlement. On
arriving the trapper sells his furs.