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No. 1-SELECTING TRAPPING GROUNDS
By WALTER S. CHANSLER
Author's Note: This series of articles is written with the view of helping young and inexperienced trappers to begin right. It does not go deeply into the finer points of the art of trapping, but touches upon those points so frequently overlooked by the beginner but so very necessary to the attainment of success. It takes up the subject of trapping at the point of selecting the trapping grounds and carries the reader through to the marketing of the pelts.
The selection of the trapping grounds is one of the first considerations of the young trapper. It matters little how well equipped for trapping he is, how much thought, money and time he has given to the preparation for trapping, if the young trapper has made an unwise selection of trapping grounds he is heading directly toward inevitable failure, and will eventually see his dream-castles fade into nothingness. And not always is the young trapper who selects his trapping grounds in the wilderness the wise one; sometimes the wise one is the trapper who sets out his traps in the settled district where he lives; for the proper selection of trapping grounds is a problem that can be solved only by each individual after he has weighed the advantages and disadvantages of each location from all points of view. If one holds a dime very near the eyes and at the same time holds a dollar at a little distance from the eyes, the dime appears to be larger than the dollar; young trappers are too prone to weigh their home trapping grounds with the distant trapping grounds by the use of just such distortion of viewpoint.
So the first question to be answered by the young trapper is: "Where shall I trap?” Not so very far back in the past this problem of selecting trapping grounds did not get much thought by young trappers; for everywhere the answer was in evidence. But as the country became more thickly settled and all kinds of game became scarcer and more difficult to trap, good trapping grounds were not to be had in every section. Then it became necessary for trappers to prospect in various sections in order to know where fur game might be found most plentiful. So young trappers found it necessary to learn how to prospect for fur game, as well as to know how to trap fur game after it had been located. In fact, locating good trapping grounds became an important part of the trapper's work; and the success or failure of a trapping campaign hinged largely on the ability of the trapper to prospect the trapping grounds in an efficient manner. And conditions remain very much the same to this day; therefore, the selection of the trapping grounds looms large and important on the horizon of the young trapper's activities.
Generally speaking, trapping grounds have no classification; but for the sake of better comparison they will here be considered under two great general divisions — wilderness trapping grounds and settlement trapping grounds.
Wilderness trapping grounds are those trapping grounds that lie out in those regions that are yet to a great extent free from those changes that come with the peopling of a country. Only a very few sections offer such trapping grounds today; and each year these sections are becoming scarcer and more difficult of location. The restless fingers of civilization and progress are continually reaching out and taming these untamed regions, peopling them, changing their dark, somber forests to fields of waving grain, making the shriek of the locomotive and the clang of the noisy wheels of industry within their borders to supplant the cry of the loon and the call of the moose, and so changing them that the wilderness is in them no more. So we are becoming accustomed to attaching the name of wilderness to all the regions that have not too strongly felt the influence of civilization's guiding hand. Quite a number of these sections offer no better trapping grounds than may be found in the settled districts. Trappers from all parts of the country have located in them, laying out their trapping lines wilderness fashion and trapping the sections systematically until fur game is no longer found there in plenty. However, other sections in this so-called wilderness country offer good trapping. Much depends upon the location of the wilderness section; the more inaccessible the section is to man, the better the trapping, as a rule.
The other general division — settlement trapping grounds — comprises all those trapping grounds that lie in the settled districts. They may be in the agricultural districts, in the mining districts, or in the hills, the bottomlands, or the prairies; but they are in those sections where the changes that come with the peopling of a country are everywhere in evidence, where the hand of civilization has been laid heavily upon the land. In some sections such trapping grounds have long been largely depleted of fur game; other sections have trapping grounds that offer good trapping of all kinds. Usually the trapping grounds that offer good trapping are found in sections where for some reason or other trapping has not been carried on for a number of years, or has been carried on only by a few trappers and in a somewhat desultory manner. They are usually found in the less densely populated sections.
Whether he selects his trapping grounds in the densely populated sections or hies himself away to the wilderness trapping grounds where he has unlimited freedom, the young trapper will do well to remember that the character of the trapping grounds has a great deal to do with the kinds of fur game found therein, also with its plentifulness or its scarcity. Sections that are heavily timbered and hilly usually are well stocked with most species of the woods-loving animals, especially if trapping has not been carried on too extensively within their borders. If lakes, ponds and streams are found in plenty, then one .may reasonably expect to find the water-loving animals inhabiting the region in goodly numbers. Clay and sand countries usually harbor good numbers of skunks, opossums, and other den frequenting animals, as such sections commonly have great numbers of ground dens. Rocky cliffs and ledges often harbor many foxes and raccoons, the latter, especially, if near low land, and not near too much' big timber. Low-lying bodies of water that have more or less aquatic plant growth are nearly always frequented, if not inhabited, by goodly numbers of muskrats, minks, raccoons, etc. Of course, aside from their character, the geographical location of the trapping grounds has a decided bearing on the kinds of animals found within their borders. One would not expect to find opossums in the wooded sections in Canada; neither would one expect to find martens in the wooded mountains of the Southern States. But within the limits of the geographical distribution of these species of animals,' such sections probably would have the animals in fair numbers, if not in plenty. So in figuring on the kinds of fur game to be found in any given territory and the comparative number of each that one is liable to find there, the geographical location, as well as the character of the trapping grounds must be considered.
To thoroughly familiarize himself with both the nature of the trapping grounds and the feeding and traveling habits of the game found therein, the young trapper will do well to cover his proposed trapping grounds several weeks in advance of the trapping season, prospecting them for signs of fur-bearing animals. Along the banks of streams and ponds he will find signs of muskrats, minks and raccoons; and in the wilder regions he may occasionally find the signs of otters and beavers in like places. He should carefully examine the mud at the edges of all water holes for signs left by raccoons and minks. These animals love to wade in the shallow water and mud at such places in search of minnows and crawfish. Minks, too, frequently go about drifts and under overhanging banks. Such places should always be examined for signs, as should all small branches where they empty into larger streams, outlets, old culverts, hollow logs, etc., should be examined also. Low, grassy banks, bayous, sluggish streams and shallow ponds are frequently the feeding grounds of great numbers of muskrats. Careful examination usually reveals signs of these animals at such places. In the wooded bottomlands the young trapper will do well to look for signs of skunks and opossums, as well as for signs of raccoons and minks. Hollow logs, paths through the woods from one stream or pond to another stream or pond, hollow trees, drifts — all these places should be carefully examined for signs. Logs that bridge streams are frequently used by foxes and raccoons. Rapids that connect water holes should be examined. In the hills, foxes, skunks and opossums are the animals commonly found in most sections, though in the wilderness sections one usually finds lynx, wolves and martens in such places. In prospecting such places, one will do well to watch for dens in rocky ledges, trails in the canyons and at passes from one canyon to another, and feeding grounds along the streams and in the deep woods where the undergrowth is dense. The open fields and the prairies are usually the feeding grounds of foxes, coyotes, skunks and opossums. Old, dilapidated, briar grown fence rows, the dry beds of streams, haystacks or old strawstacks, furrows in plowed fields, etc., should always be carefully examined for signs of fur game, as many species of animals love to frequent such places. Feeding grounds should be searched out and studied with the view of learning something of the traveling habits of the animals that frequent them. Dens should be noted; trails and runways should be located; and the entire trapping grounds should be gone over carefully in order that the young trapper may become familiar with the character of that particular section as well as with the habits of the fur game found within its borders.
After the trapping grounds have been selected, and prospected with favorable results, the trapper should, if possible, spend two or three weeks in preparing them for the opening of the trapping season. Artificial dens and runways should be made; bait cubbies should be constructed; deadfalls and snares should be built; traps should be distributed; and' everything should be made ready for the rush of work that always comes with the opening of the trapping season. Much of this work — especially that of building bait cubbies
and artificial dens and runways — should be done several weeks in advance of the trapping season in order that it may lose its appearance of freshness before the time for trapping arrives. Then, too, when such work is done early, fur game becomes accustomed to its presence, and approaches it without fear or suspicion. Time spent in doing this work is time well spent; for not infrequently such work adds greatly to the success of a trapping campaign.
So the selection of trapping grounds is a problem that each young trapper must solve for himself, and by himself. His aim, his personal likes and dislikes his dream-castles — these are factors that enter into the young trapper's problem of selecting trapping grounds. And only after considering the problem from all points of view and weighing the advantages and disadvantages offered by the various trapping grounds under consideration is the young trapper in a position to make a wise selection of trapping grounds.
Hunter-Trader-Trapper. October: 1921,
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