Trapper vs. Hunter:
Miller, and other mountaineers of the fur trade era, often interchanged the terms “hunter” and “trapper, “and thus created a synonymous meaning. In his personal notes for his painting “Approaching Buffalo,” Miller provided a good example of this word substitution: “The hunters form for themselves a peculiar kind of a cap…under such guise, the hunter is mistaken by the animal [buffalo] for a wolf. The mass of hair covering the forehead of the Buffalo obscures his sight and aids the trapper in his deception. Trapper Zenas Leonard demonstrated this dual usage when he wrote, “two hunters were sent up this stream with their traps and guns on search of beaver, who, if they should be successful in finding game, were not to return till the next day. Likewise, trapper Osbourne Russell and his party “travelled down the stream to Gray's river and set Traps. We remained hunting the small streams which run into this river until the 28 of June.” Ethnographer, explorer, and Prussian ruler Prince Alexander Philipp Maximilian summed it up, saying, “All these people are hunters.”
Hunting Technique:
In this image by Miller, it is hard to imagine these men riding off to hunt game and quirting their horses to a full gallop as that would alert every animal in the countryside. Maximilian, a skillful hunter, described the necessity of sneaking up on prey: “To the right along the bank, a beautiful unbroken, level cottonwood forest with splendid grass below, excellent nourishment for the wildlife; there are elk and deer in large number. We saw three deer. Here it is easy to stalk game.”
When it came to hunting antelope, German-born American physician and naturalist, Frederic Wislizenus described an interesting method used by mountaineers: “The fleetness of the antelope excels the speed of a race horse. They have excellent vision and keen scent, and are very skittish. With such characteristics it would seem almost impossible to get at them; but they have another quality, which commonly seals their fate – boundless curiosity. It is hard to stalk them. At first sight they run away; but if the hunter lies quietly down, elevating a hat, a bright colored cloth, or even an arm or leg, curiosity will bring them back. They approach, run away again, and repeat the performance till they come within range. For this reason hunters for antelope prefer red shirts. Loud colors stimulate their curiosity … On the plains the Indians hunt them at times in a sort of round-up; or else drive them into a fencing made of bushes, wide at first but gradually contracting, till it leads to a swamp or some sort of enclosure, where they can easily be killed. Under all circumstances hunting antelope requires more than ordinary skill and care.”
Trapping Beaver:
Mountain man, Joe Meek, provided concise instructions for taking beaver: “The manner in which the trapper takes his game is as follows: He has an ordinary steel trap weighing five pounds, attached to a chain five feet long, with a swivel and ring at the end, which plays round what is called the float, a dry stick of wood, about six feet long. The trapper wades out into the stream, which is shallow, and cuts with his knife a bed for the trap, five or six inches under water. He then takes the float out the whole length of the chain in the direction of the centre of the stream, and drives it into the mud, so fast that the beaver cannot draw it out; at the same time tying the other end by a thong to the bank. A small stick or twig, dipped in musk or castor, serves for bait, and is placed so as to hang directly above the trap, which is now set. The trapper then throws water plentifully over the adjacent bank to conceal any foot prints or scent by which the beaver would be alarmed, and going to some distance wades out of the stream.
In setting a trap, several things are to be observed with care:–first, that the trap is firmly fixed, and the proper distance from the bank–for if the beaver can get on shore with the trap, he will cut off his foot to escape: secondly, that the float is of dry wood, for should it not be, the little animal will cut it off at a stroke, and swimming with the trap to the middle of the dam, be drowned by its weight. In the latter case, when the hunter visits his traps in the morning, he is under the necessity of plunging into the water and swimming out to dive for the missing trap, and his game. Should the morning be frosty and chill, as it very frequently is in the mountains, diving for traps is not the pleasantest exercise. In placing the bait, care must be taken to fix it just where the beaver in reaching it will spring the trap. If the bait-stick be placed high, the hind foot of the beaver will be caught: if low, his fore foot.”
Jim Hardee & Clay Landry
For Further Reading:
Leonard, Zenas, Narrative of the Adventures of Zenas Leonard
Russell, Osbourne, Journal of a Trapper
Victor, Frances F., River of the West
Wislizenus, Frederic A., A Journey to the Rocky Mountains in 1839
Witte, Stephen S. and Marsha V. Gallagher, The North American Journals of Prince Maximilian of Weid
