nk had gone.

I had never had a mink foot itself in this way before and did not
think that the mink did, although here in Alabama, we had two mink to
foot themselves in one night. Had I heeded Mr. Ford's warning, I
would have been several mink pelts ahead.

While there was considerable fur to be found in the vicinity of Camp
No. 2, it was a hard place to camp, owing to the scarcity of camp
wood and the inconvenience of getting water, so we moved on to Beaver
Dam creek, in Limestone county, where we were in hopes of finding a
few beaver and quite a plenty of mink and coon. But we were sadly
disappointed; we found but little to trap, but found trappers and
trap-lifters in abundance, so made haste to get out of that country
while we had our boats left. Our catch was only two mink, twelve
rats, five coon and one or two 'possum.

We moved from this place back into Madison County and pitched our
camp at a point known as the Sinks, where we did a better business.
But the rainy season soon set in, so we were compelled to break camp
and get out, leaving a good part of our traps where we had set them,
now under several feet of water. We shall never see them again.

Well boys, you will excuse me from telling just how many coon we got
in an hour and seven minutes. I can only state that during the
five weeks that Mr. Ford and the writer were in camp that we got
twenty-six mink. I do not remember the number of coons, opossums and rats
caught.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Some Early Experiences.

Comrades of the trap line and trail, as I have gotten too old, March
1913, and too nigh played out to longer get far out into the tall
timber, I will, with the consent of the editor of the H-T-T, relate
some of my experiences on the trap line and trail of some years ago.

A young man by the name of Frank Wright was hunting and trapping on
the Crossfork waters of Kettle Creek. Frank was a young man barely
out of his teens, and had been in the woods but little, but Frank was
a hustler and was not afraid of the screech of the owl; the days were
altogether too short for him.

We went into camp early in October as we had to do a good deal of
repairing on the camp as the cabin had not been used in two or three
years, and the porcupines got in their work in good shape. The cabin
was built of logs and the "porces" had gnawed nearly all of the
chinking out from between the logs and the mud was all gone from
around the chinking. Some of the shakes