The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1949-02-10
Fox Hunting
Mountain Style


Fox hunting, mountain style, was
featured in the rotogravurc section
of the Baltimore Sunday Sun Of Janu-
airy %. The author was Frank Henry,
and concerned Garrett county trap
pers. The story follows.
There are two ways Of catching
foxes in Maryland through the lore
of the woodsman and through the
scientific methods devised in the
laboratory.
The fox is the slickest animal in
the woods. But on the lonely, wooded
mountains in Garrett County, fox
wiles are old stuff to trappers. Every
day they match wits with him to lure
him into the steel jaws Of their hid
den traps 1t is a game with them as
well as business. An exciting game,
too, as it was recently for James Beal,
of Accident, when he caught one of
the biggest foxes in CARROTS history
as big as a medium-sized shepherd
dog.
Trappers get bounty moneys
from the county and 50 from the
State-for each fox, and an addition
al $1.5O for each pelt they sell to fur
riers.
But all of the trappcrs don't get
the full amount of bounty money.
There are some old-timers living
hermitlike in remote mountains cab
ms, who haven't yet heard that the
State in 1916 began to match the
county's payments. The reason for the
extra bounty money is that foxes are
so numerous in Garrett-and in some
other counties-and that they kill
great quantities of game and do
nestle fowl each year.
Mr. Beal, who is SO years old, is
one Of the younger trappers famous
in Garrett But 75-year-old Harvey
burst, who has lived all his life in a
little dale on long rambling Negro
Mountain, is legend among trappers
in the county Just recently he heard
about the bounty money being paid
by the State. Only once in a while
does he leave the fastness of his
scheduled cabin; then he walks near
ly five miles to Grantsville to buy
groceries.
Mr.. burst has outwitted many foxes
in his day. And he has learned many
a lonely lesson from them in his
years in the same little mountain hol-
low where, just 800 yards from his
present cabin, he was born. The Old
tlapper has long lost count of all the
foxes he has caught. He remembers
that away back, Sc years ago, he was
catching plenty of them.
Then, as a boy Of 10, he built the
log cabin for himself and his bride, a
girl born "a short piece" down the
little wooded valley She lived with
him for so years. She died in 1912
Cold rain slashed at the windows
while Mr.. burst sat in the one fair
sized room of the cabin and talked
about the habits Of the fox, and Of
other animals. An old oil lamp shed
a mellow light, and he held his palms
out to the warm stove.
ooh, I guess I have caught more
than a truckload Of foxes on this
mountain" he said "And l made it
pay, too. Back there, around the first
World War, I used to get $50 skin.
I'd bundle the skins up, put them on
my back and wall, into Oakland go
miles one way) and sell them.
I was raised with the animals on
this mountain. I guess I've had my
education from them. 1t was too far
and too cold to go to school when l
was boy So l never did learn to
write. I can read just little bit"
Zone thing l learned early" he con-
tinues-and his speech is well modu-
lated, pleasant and precise zone
thing | learned was that foxes travel
on CROSSINGS You don't know what
crossing is? It's kind of path.
Foxes keep to the path by smell. One
fox smells another and they just keep
on going back and forth with their
noses to the ground like a hound dogs.
GOTTEN you'll find that fox cross
ing goes over rocks or logs. That is
because the fox likes to get up on
something high to look around.
"Now, to catch fox you must find
a crossing. Finding it is one of the
tricks you learn in the woods. On the
ground you look for tracks. Foxes are
really dogs, and they make tracks
like dogs. You look for other things,
too. For instance, the fox might have
left hair on BUSH l can see the
hairs, oh yes!
But it is when you come to the old
logs that you really begin to get after
the fox You look for the tiny claw
marks he leaves when he climbs up
the log to take a look. And right
there on top, where he pauses for a
little, you put your trap.
GOTTEN l cut out a hollow spot in
the log right where his clawmarks
are. put the trap in there and cover
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