White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1923-04-29
WILD LIFE STUDIES
ON TRAP LINE

mated as tame life and wild animals,
with the verdict favoring the latter
as associates.
1T might be an exaggeration to
say that the majority Of people are
thieves under some circumstance or
other, but there is such an immense
number who are entitled to that rat
ing that it Is startling says an Ely
trapper, ''and for hat reason | have
often said and will stick 10 1t that
l prefer the society of coyotes TIC that
of hosts of their less honorable two
legged competitors in deyiltry.
Particularly is 1t the trap thief to
whom l am referring. There is the
trap thief. the coyote thief and the
coyote and trap thief-three slightly
different breeds but all of them
about the most contemplate Great
ures that ever were permitted TO
travel within human hides.
1t Is seldom indeed hat 4 trapper
is not in poor circumstances ard he
needs every dollar that he a earn
at his arduous and hazardous oecu-
patton. Rather than that fact hav-
ing n sympathetic effect upon the
part of the persons haYing ii in their
power to further i~mpoyerish him by
stealing his traps and the animals
caught in them. ii seems to act as an
incentive for these human wolves
and they glory all the more in having
despoiled the property and even the
days work of the nan who Is doing
the whole community a favor.
Occasionally ii Is the s%heepn.an
or the rancher, the ones for whom the
trapper exerts his labors and risks
his life, who is the thief. More often
it is their help. who do not give a
whoop for the interests of their em-
ployers. how many OF their sheep are
killed or who is bitten by rabid ami
mails, and not infrequently It is other
trappers, for they are no nearer to
being angels than the rest of man
kind. II is liable to be anybody from
a hnaneier down to a camp Jack or an
Indian, and II there are any Of the
.ast named in the country by the ma
ture of things they are uader eus-
picion
Traps have TO be placed out in
the open country, generally away
from every ~habitation. and II no
other person than the trapper mas
been there in ten years there Is SURF
TO be someone along the frs; few
days after the traps are set. Traps
have to be placed by roads and trails
mostly, for these are about the only
runways for coyotes. and IL a trap
happens to be sprung and Is g e II
is a tossup IL the first fellow passing
that way does not decide-even with
the trap staked down-that IL war
lost there and possibly abandoned
and that 1t Is up to him TO pull IL up
and carry 1t away. Besides the
chances are he will o be caught. sc
IL is all right anyway, according TO
the processes of his reasoning. In
the majority of such cases the traps
are unobserved except when animals
are caught in them. and there Is
where the real loss for the trarper
occurs.
About the first theft that | re-
member since I have been trapping
was just after | began in the fall of
1912. when a fellow walked up the
road between San Antonio and Man
haitian and killed my coyote and cut
of its scalp. He left the unskinned
animal and trap there, but coming
into Manhattan he thought he would
collect the bounty, and finding that
he had To have five scalps under tho
Nevada law Of that period he had
the nerve to bring the scalp to my
partner and tried TO sell II to him
for 81 but was refused. though this
vas before he knew IL was ours.
Smoky valley contains probably
more trap and coyote thieves % the
square inch than any place on tho
footstool outside OF the Navajo res.
eryation. The first time around my
traps In Smoky valley, a string OF
about seventy-five miles, A. B. Millett
told me that a man who was working
for him had skinned one OF my
coyotes, hut he was a good fell
INV anu WDuiu give the niue 10 ME AZ
any time I wanted IL. or curse
did mo- want II. ! was there trap
ping for my health and the fun of
the thing. I heard from that
good fellow about II. Up at the
west base of Mount jefferson a little
OF a Dutch cattle rustler lived.
OF his cattle rustling he mad
a homestead and some poultry and
other things there needing protec-
ton against coyotes, yet that same
trip as | came to a setting In tho
where his road intersected tie
main road he had stolen a coyote
from my trap and the blood was
there on the setting. The next time
around Mr.. Millett informed mo that
1t was the Dutchman and that he had
boosted of having stolen the coyote
and selling the skin ut a Round
Mountain store for $3.50. | have
regretted that | did not go
up to his place and throw a n,onLav