Camp Life in the Woods: And the Tricks of Trapping and Trap Making

First published in 1881, this complete illustrated guide reveals how to catch everything from squirrels and mice to tigers and bears, and offers general advice on camping and hiking in the woods. Among the treasures within are easy-to-follow plans for building dozens of traps; comprehensive directions for the building of shanties and log cabins, and boats and canoes; hints on food and cooking utensils; instructions for the curing and tanning of hides; and much, much more, including these indispensable tidbits of advice:

• Smear oil of cumin on the trail of a wolf to lure him to the trap.
• Repel mosquitoes with oil from a pennyroyal plant’s leaves.
• Do not ＂calculate very confidently on securing a fox on the first attempt.＂
• Combat a skunk’s odor with chloride of lime.
• Use a rabbit’s special fondness for salt to entice it into a trap.
• Make homemade flypaper out of molasses or spruce gum.

W. Hamilton Gibson (1850-1896) was an illustrator, author, and naturalist who illustrated for Harper’s Monthly and for around a dozen books, most of them his own, including Pastoral Days, Highways and Byways, and Happy Hunting Grounds.