r small traps along the streams for foxes and
mink, taking a few to the ridges to set in likely places to catch a
fox, and at thick laurel patches where we were likely to catch a wild
cat as there was a bounty of $2 on them.

After the small steel traps were set we began building a line of
deadfalls for marten and fisher. After the deadfalls were built we
divided our time between hunting deer and tending the traps.

We caught three bears, two fisher, which were very scarce, as I do
not think that fishers were ever very plentiful in this state, a good
bunch of marten, foxes, four or five wildcats and killed twenty-two
deer. The last days of December Mr. Harris said that we would prepare
to go home as the deer season closed the first of January. Although
the law gave until the fifteenth to get your deer we had dragged the
most of ours up to the Bailey Mill at various times. We got all those
around the mill and sent them to Jersey Shore by freight teams to the
railroad, then shipped them to New York. We got 15 cents for saddles
and 10 cents for the whole deer.

Mr. Harris had brought an auger with him so that he could make a
sleigh to go home with and from birch saplings we made one and on the
thirteenth of January I went and got the horse. He was as fat as a
pig and felt like a colt. We hitched him up to the sleigh and got our
stuff up to the Bailey Mill where we loaded the wagon onto the sleigh
and piled on the furs and the rest of our outfit and early on the
morning of the fourteenth we started for home. This ended my first
real experience as a hunter and trapper.

I received two or three letters from Mr. Harris, the last one in
which he stated that he was not feeling very well and I never heard
from him again.

CHAPTER IV.

Some Early Experiences.

In 1871 or 1872 I had several bear traps made by our local blacksmith
and I started in as a bear trapper and went it alone. After being out
with Mr. Harris I had taken some valuable lessons on trapping bear
and other animals. I built a good log camp on the West Branch of Pine
Creek and went to trapping and hunting without either partner or
companion, but after being in camp the first season I bought a
shepherd dog that was a year old and broke him for still hunting and
trapping. I found that a good intelligent dog was not only a
companion but also a valuable one. I have noticed that some trappers
do not want a dog on the trap line with them, claiming that the do