he deadfalls,
while I commenced on the steel traps. We had not baited and set any
of the deadfalls that we had built up to this time. The steel traps
we set for fox and wildcats, as there was a bounty of two dollars on
wildcats at that time.

In setting out the fox traps the knowledge that I had got of the
locality was of much benefit to me. I had kept a watch out for warm
springs and other good likely places to catch a fox or other animals.
After we had all the deadfalls and steel traps out but three or four
otter traps, we set one or two at the drift where I caught one the
fall before. The others we set where we found otter signs.

While setting the traps we got a marten or two, as well as one or two
mink and coon. We had had one or two little flurries of snow, but we
did not leave the traps to hunt deer. Now that the traps were all
set, we divided up the trap lines as best we could for each one to
attend to while hunting deer. In dividing up the lines in this way we
saved much time, as we would not both be working the same territory.

Now business began to get quite lively, and we were seldom in camp
until after dark, and we were up early and had breakfast over and our
lunch packed in our knapsacks. The lunch usually consisted of a good
big hunk of boiled venison and a couple of doughnuts and a few
crackers, occasionally the breast of a partridge, fried in coon or
bear oil. Sometimes the lunch would freeze in the knapsacks and it
would be necessary to gather a little paper bark from a yellow birch
and a little rosin from a hemlock, black birch or hard maple tree and
build a little fire to thaw the lunch. This, however, was quickly
done, and was a pleasure rather than a hardship. I have delighted in
eating the lunch in this manner for many a winter on the trap line or
trail, as have many other hunters and trappers.

Bill and I always had our lunch packed and ready to take up the trail
at the first peep of day. Sometimes when we would get in late, tired
and wet and our clothes frozen, I would suggest to Bill that we shut
up camp and take a wood job, just to see what Bill would have to say.
He would say that there would be time to take a wood job in the
spring or after he had killed a certain large buck which is usually
called "Old Golden." There were but a few days but what we either
caught some fur or killed a deer, though sometimes we would have a
bad streak of luck by wounding a deer, or having some animal take