[Page 5]
title of "The Trapper," we shall present full and ample directions
for baiting traps, selections of ground for setting, and other
hints concerning the trapping of all our principal game and wild
animals, valuable either as food or for their fur. In short, our
book shall form a complete trapper's guide, embracing all necessary
information on the subject, anticipating every want, and furnishing
the most complete and fully illustrated volume on this subject
ever presented to the public. In vain did the author of this work,
in his younger days, search the book stores and libraries in the
hopes of finding such a book, and many are the traps and snares
which necessity forced him to invent and construct for himself, for
want of just such a volume. Several of these original inventions
will appear in the present work for the first time in book form,
and the author can vouch for their excellence, and he might almost
say, their infallibility, for in their perfect state he has never
yet found them to "miss" in a single instance.

As the writer's mind wanders back to his boyish days, there is
one autumn in particular which shines out above all the rest; and
that was when his traps were first set and were the chief source
of his enjoyment. The adventurous excitement which sped him on in
those daily tramps through the woods, and the buoyant, exhilarating
effect of the exercise can be realized only by those who have had the
same experience. The hope of success, the fears of disappointment,
the continual suspense and wonder which fill the mind of the young
trapper, all combine to invest this sport with a charm known to no
other. Trapping does not consist merely in the manufacture and setting
of the various traps. The study of the habits and peculiarities of
the different game--here becomes a matter of great importance;
and the study of natural history under these circumstances affords
a continual source of pleasure and profit.

Among the most useful, although the most cruel, of inventions used
by the professional trapper are the steel traps; so much so that
the author would gladly omit them. But as they are of such unfailing
[Page 6]
action, of such universal efficacy, and in many cases are the only
ones that can be used, any book on trapping would certainly be
incomplete without them. The scope of our volume not only embraces
the arts of trapping and trap-making, but extends further into the
subject of the wild life of a t