Chapter 38: Learning to Track, Setting a Trap

Feng Chengmin took down all the snares and traps from the vehicle.

He handed a sack to Wang An, took one for himself, and began walking toward the mountain path on foot.

After walking for a short distance, Feng Chengmin carefully examined the animal tracks in the snow beneath his feet; these were from a jumping cat. Following the tracks for about a hundred meters, he finally stopped in front of two adjacent clusters of bushes.

He placed the sack on the snow and pulled out a thin wire snare, the principle of which was the same as the ones used to strangle dogs today.

The wire had been blackened by fire. He spread the wire loop open to a diameter of just over 20 centimeters.

He twisted one end onto a thicker tree branch, positioning the wire loop at a right angle to the ground, suspended in the air above the jumping cat's tracks, with the bottom of the loop about twelve to thirteen centimeters off the ground.

Without disturbing the jumping cat's tracks at all, Feng Chengmin explained why he had to do it this way while setting the snare.

It turned out that if the wire wasn't blackened, it would reflect light—especially when reflecting the light from the snow—making it extremely obvious, which the jumping cat would notice.

Furthermore, when a jumping cat forages, it follows the same path back and forth, so placing the snare between bushes increases the success rate!

If there is anything unusual on the path, or if its tracks are disturbed, the jumping cat will usually just change its route and never walk that path again!

Wang An had set snares before, but he didn't understand these nuances and had never successfully caught a jumping cat.

His desire to learn was incredibly intense!

Once the snare was set, Feng Chengmin broke off a pine branch and swept over his and Wang An's footprints several times, trying his best to destroy them!

He carved a subtle mark on a nearby tree; this wire was good stuff, and even if he didn't catch a jumping cat, he had to retrieve it!

Just a piece of thin wire to make a snare, but the finishing touches were so meticulous! Wang An was filled with admiration!

Circling around the jumping cat's tracks, they continued searching for other tracks.

Wang An performed the same operations under Feng Chengmin's guidance.

However, when they reached a slope, the method for setting the snare changed again.

First, one had to see whether the jumping cat's tracks were going up or down the slope, trying to find tracks that were unidirectional.

If it was a track route that had been traveled back and forth several times, the chance of the snare succeeding was low!

If the tracks were heading down the slope, then the jumping cat would be running uphill when returning; in that case, the wire loop should tilt down the slope at an angle of about 70 degrees to the horizontal!

If the tracks were heading up the slope, then the jumping cat would be coming down the slope on its return; in that case, the snare remained perpendicular to the horizontal, but had to be set higher off the ground, about sixteen or seventeen centimeters!

In places where there was no branch to tie the wire to, one had to cut a piece of wood to make a drag snare!

This meant that once the jumping cat was caught, it would drag a wooden stick along with it, and sooner or later, it would get stuck somewhere and eventually be caught by a person!

There was also how to operate near a jumping cat's burrow, how to set two or three snares on certain routes, what to watch out for in the grass, and how to operate, etc.!

In short, a single piece of wire had to be blackened and required various maneuvers to increase the probability of catching a jumping cat!

You don't know until you learn, and once you do, it's startling! No matter what, it's just a piece of wire!

But without someone teaching you while operating in the field, even if they told you verbally, you would likely remain completely confused!

You would never figure it out, and after setting a whole bunch of snares, you'd wonder why you never caught a single jumping cat!!

The more Wang An learned, the more delighted he became, and the more perfect his operations became!

After setting over sixty snares, they began learning how to set traps. Most of the traps were handmade!

They were also sold at markets, but they were all more or less the same.

Two thick wires were bent into two semicircles, the connection point of the semicircles was bent into a small loop, and a straight thick wire ran through the middle.

A spring was made by winding hard steel wire two or three times, with the ends left long to be tied to the middle of the thick semicircular wires, then supported by a wooden stick.

What held the stick in place was a small wooden hook about one centimeter long, with corn grits, grass seeds, or sorghum tied to it as bait!

These traps were mainly for catching birds like pheasants, flying dragons, and "silly half-jin"!

This kind of thing was relatively simple to learn; it was mainly about finding the right place—bushes with grass seeds underneath, the larger the better.

Once the trap was placed, it was done; no camouflage was even necessary, but one had to tie the trap to the bush with thin hemp rope to prevent it from being dragged away!

There was another type of trap called a "zhai," which was like a mouse trap but slightly larger than the largest mouse trap!

However, it was much smaller than a wolf trap, belonging to the medium-sized category!

It was mainly used for badgers, raccoon dogs, martens, sables, or foxes!

To prevent damage to the fur when catching sables, wooden board traps were generally used, but regardless of the type of trap used, the success rate was not worth mentioning.

If you could catch one or two in a year, it was a sign of incredible luck!

But even if you could only catch one a year, it was enough to cover the family's food and expenses for the entire year!

A pristine sable was more valuable than the iron balls found in bear gallbladders; it was the kind of thing that could instantly solve one's survival needs!

Of course, at this time of year, badgers and raccoon dogs were hibernating, so setting traps for them was useless!

As for wolf traps, also called "large zhai," they weighed about 20 jin and were quite expensive. In the Northeast, they were generally used for defense and were rarely used; if used, they were set in fields to catch wild boars!

What Feng Chengmin was teaching Wang An today was for catching martens and foxes, though Feng Chengmin was somewhat superstitious about hunting "fox-yellow" (a combination of fox and yellow weasel).

So, he only set three traps, mainly to teach Wang An how to operate them for catching badgers in the autumn!

He also told Wang An that tomorrow he would teach him how to set large snares.

After setting the snares and traps, Feng Chengmin led Wang An back the way they came, hitched up the sled, and headed deeper into the mountains!

After walking for over an hour, Feng Chengmin called a halt to the horse again, got off the sled, and went to observe several sets of hoofprints left by wild roe deer on the path.

There were many such hoofprints on the road, but Feng Chengmin had not stopped until now.

He only stopped for these few. Seeing the inquisitive look in Wang An's eyes, Feng Chengmin smiled and said, "Look at these hoofprints. Aren't they different from the ones we saw before?"

Wang An crouched down to observe. After looking for a long time, he felt there was no difference and looked up at Feng Chengmin in confusion.

Feng Chengmin said, "These prints show that the roe deer passed by not long ago; the snow hasn't been shaped by the wind yet, and there are still fine snow particles crushed inside that haven't been blown away."

Wang An looked down again. There were indeed tiny bits of snow, and he couldn't help but nod.

Feng Chengmin spoke again, "In a set, stabilized hoofprints, the snow blown in will be at the bottom, but in ones that were just stepped on, the snow particles are scattered within the print."

Wang An suddenly understood. He compared them to other hoofprints not far away, and they were indeed completely different!

In fact, these were basic skills for mountain hunters, called "tracking" or "tracing"!

Unfortunately, although Wang An had heard of it, he didn't understand it or know how to do it, and no ordinary villager knew how to do such a thing.

Seeing that Wang An seemed to understand a bit, Feng Chengmin signaled for him to get back on the sled and continued following the tracks for a while.

After a short while, they observed the hoofprints again, and Wang An again got down to make careful comparisons.

Walking and stopping like this, Feng Chengmin finally stopped after forty to fifty minutes. He tied the horse to a tree, took down the fodder, and fed it!

By now, Wang An also realized that the hoofprints were very fresh; they were likely not far from the roe deer!

After finishing his work, Feng Chengmin asked Wang An, "Can you tell how many roe deer there are?"

Wang An counted and said, "Four. It should be two large ones and two small ones!"

Feng Chengmin nodded with a smile. "Mhm, that's right. Let's go. We have to go around. Right now, the wind is blowing toward us; you know what that means, right?"

"Mhm, I know. When I hunt those mountain animals, I always walk against the wind, otherwise they would have run away long ago!" Wang An replied.

Feng Chengmin nodded without speaking and led Wang An to walk against the wind.