Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1922-03-16
HUNTING AND TRAPPING.
PAST AND PRESENT
One Experienced in the Ways of the Wild Folk Tells of
Outwitting Them-HaIycon Days Long Ago

mostly for the same purpose, a few
going into auto robes.
Our Pioneer Forefathers
To conquer the wilderness and cope
successfully with savage men and
beasts required courage and hardi-
hood. During the years that would
pass before land could be cleared and
crops produced, these men needed to
be expert in the use Of rifle and trap.
to know the habits and haunts of the
dwellers of the wild. From them they
obtained food and clothing, most of
the furs would be exchanged for the
necessities of the settlement Such
class of men were our pioneer fore
fathers. Occasionally nowadays there
is boy, who, as he grows up, by his
eagerness, persistence and skill in
hunting or trapping, mis- liking for the
woods and wild places, indicates that
he is throwback TO some of his
pioneer ancestors. Sometimes there
may be two or three in family.
The trappers of the present day are
mostly of this class; it is bred in the
bone and when the frost is on the
pumpkin" and the fur begins to get
prime the call to the trail and trap
line is as strong and urgent in these
off shoots of the pioneers stock as is
the call to go north or south, spring
and fall to the wild ducks and geese.
There is no other recreation in which
the writer derives as keen a pleasure
or as much enjoyment. The hardship,
/ exposure and failures can be met and
/ overcome with a determination and
cheerfulness that he has never been
able to show against such difficulties
in any other pursuit
This Mink Trap-sny
The study of the habits of the diff
ferent species, or of the peculiarities
of some individual, OF ways and means
to outwit and outcraft them, is a new
er failing source of interest, study and
concentration; the more so as the
trapper often finds that he has come
! out second-best in this matching of
wits and cunning. As an illustration,
while trapping this last season the
writer noticed signs Indicating the
"hang-out of very large dog mink.
The tracks showed that three toes
were missing from a fore foot. 1t
was an indication that he had been in
a trap and got the best of tit also
was an indication that he would be
trap-shy and very hard to catch. To
the dyed in the wool trapper such
a mink is of greater value and more
satisfaction in outwitting than a doz-
en- of the rank and file" Knowing
that mink are very partial to mus
krat, one was used for a "bait set",
| just as IL had been taken from the
| trap with its fur on. A shy or "edu-
Gated" mink would be certain to pass
up skinned one on general princf-
pals. The rat was tied very securely
to stake in the bed of the stream in
| such way that it could be dragged
nearly to the shore but not quite.
Three traps were placed in three in
such way that the mink, in dragging
at the rat would be almost sure to
put his feet in one or more of them.
The writer's chagrin and vexation
can be imagined when he found the
| perfectly good dollar and seventy
five cent muskrat taken slick and
clean away and not a trap sprung
Blind setS', those placed without
bait under water at points where the
mink would be nearly certain to
old chap with an unerring regularity
that was, at the least, disconcertfng
II was plain that some method new
to him would have to be brought in
to play. Accordingly a couple of
snow fox SETS, prepared, arranged
and baited as IL for fox were laid on
his range. Apparently the old fell
lows knowledge did not cover this
method. He and two others fell vic
Tins
This Fox Was "Foxy'
A certain old red fox whom the
writer has clashed with, as to wits,
! to the latter's disadvantage several
times in the past this last season.
gave the writer another lesson demon
strating that "Le Renard Subtle" was
still his superior. 1t was at hole
set" prepared and arranged with all
known precaution to eliminate every
vestage of iron or human scent or
indication of hidden menace. Two
traps were concealed in such man.
ner that it seemed impossible that a
fox could secure the bait without
being caught The bait Ga certain It'd
bit aged and scented in such a man
ner that il is rendered to a foxes
nose and palate the very me plus ul-
ira" of delicacies) was placed a foot
behind the traps In a hole. The sign,
easy to read, showed that the fox had
scented and come up to the set, sized
it up and thoroughly understood the