Note (return) — Chapter XV

The signs having been discovered, the trappers next select a suitable location for a camp, which they soon occupy. After the pack animals are unloaded, a part of the men start out to set the traps, while the remainder busy themselves in looking after their wants and in cooking and guarding their property, etc. The trap is very much like the same instrument used in different sections of the United States for catching foxes, wolves etc, excepting, that it is smaller and perhaps made with more skill. Old trappers were very superstitious in regard to the makers of their traps, for they entertained the idea that much of their good or bad fortune depended on the tools they worked with; hence, they always had their favorite makers, and would pay more for their traps than for those of any other maker. This is true also with their rifles. For many years a rifle was condemned at first sight if it did not have the name of Hawkins23 stamped on it, and it was not uncommon for them, when boasting of the good qualities of their riding animals, if they considered them of the maximum degree of superiority, to style them "regular Hawkins horses", thereby showing how far, in this respect, their predilections grounded their opinions.