Tomorrow will mark the end of the trapping season here for this year in the island portion of the province. Trapping has always been very important in my family. Some of my European Ancestors came to Labrador to work as traders and trappers for the Hudson Bay Company. My Great Great Great Grandmother Lydia was Inuk and she married Daniel Campbell who came over from the Orkney Islands to work with the Hudson Bay Company.
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| Lydia Campbell also wrote a personal account of life on Labrador |
Going down through the generations my family was fisherman and trappers. But trapping in my grandfathers day is much different then now. His generation was the last of the long line trappers. My grandfather would travel far into the country leaving in the fall returning for Christmas and then leaving again sometime after to return in the spring. Now I can cover a full trapline in one day on ski-doo or pick-up. The traps and snares we use today is much different then the traps in the past. All my snares and my traps are quick killing. When I take an animal I do it with respect. I would not like for any animal to suffer.
This year I did not get to trap as I usually do. But I had to make sure that I utilized by Beaver trapline to its full potential. Beaver are clever creatures and often you can see their lodges in ponds, steadies and marshes as you travel across Newfoundland. They often create problems by damming off culverts and causing flooding to roads and chewing down trees in peoples back yards. Also they can pollute water with the Beaver Fever. So to help with these problems its important to manage the Beaver population by trapping.
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| A Beaver swimming across the pond during the summer. |
Its pretty easy to spot Beaver sign they often time chew down large birch and aspen trees, make large dams to flood ponds and marshes to protect their lodges. The beaver build their dam and lodges out of sticks and mud. Many people wonder, how do they carry mud around? These creatures take the mud in their mouth and carry it from place to place. Outside of the Beaver lodge you will often see trees and sticks strewn about in a pile. This is what we call a "browse" pile here in the local dialect. This pile of sticks is the beavers food. They love the bark and tender young shoots of birch and aspen. In the winter they will come out of their house to feed on this.
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| A active Beaver house. Notice the dark thin ice around the house and the twigs sticking up through the ice which is their food. |
So when your trapping you want to find the beavers run. Which is often marked by bubbles and thin ice. You can set a killer trap in this lead or a snare. Some people will use fresh aspen or birch to lure the Beaver into the trap. Its tough work, cutting through the ice looking for leads and setting the trap.
Then after you catch the Beaver it comes time to skin the animal. I have a couple of knives for this purpose but last week i decided to try some stone age technology. I recently made some new slate ulus. Ulu are also known as Uluk in the Inuttut Language is the womans knife. Its half moon shape makes it perfect for case skinning creatures like beaver or seals. So i sharpened my stone knife and went to work.
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| Skinning beaver with slate ulu |
I skinned the animal with the ulu cutting through the fat to free the skin. Beaver are somewhat like seals they often have a large quantity of fat but the beaver i tried it on did not have much fat. The ulu worked perfect slicing through the fat and membrane to free the skin. That was only part of the work. Now comes the fleshing. I just used a piece of board free of any bumps or knots which i stretch the skin across and I scrape and slice the flesh. Again the ulu worked really well. It easily sliced through the fat and membrane taking it off. The knife would bring up on the actual skin. This made it easy to protect the skin from cuts.
Overall the ulu worked well i have a metal one similar to my grandmothers. But when it came to the fat on the lower section of the skin the fat was tough and it required a greater deal of force. I can't wait for sealing season to open so i can try it on a seal!
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| My Uncle out on his trapline many moons ago. Notice the beaver lodge behind. |
