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

Gibson, W. Hamilton (William Hamilton), 1850-1896Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.3
Word count
592K words
Chapters
60

Tags

English Originals Crafts Outdoor AdventureTrapping TechniquesNature ObservationCamp LifeWilderness SurvivalSurvival SkillsStep-by-Step GuideHands-On PracticeIllustrated StepsPractical Guide

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Camp Life in the Woods and the Tricks of Trapping and Trap Making by GibsonAuthor: Gibson, W. Hamilton (William Hamilton), 1850-1896,Language: English, Class: SK: Agriculture: Hunting sports, Release Date: Nov 18, 2005

Editor's review

This is an old practical English work on camping in the wild, trapping, and trap making; its author, W. Hamilton Gibson, was a late nineteenth-century naturalist and illustrator. The book's value lies not in literary quality but in its systematic record of pre-industrial wilderness skills: how to choose a campsite, build a shelter, read animal trails, and make various snares and gravity traps. Its illustrations and step-by-step instructions preserve the handicraft knowledge of that era; for today's readers it is both a technical historical source and an old-fashioned sample of the relationship between humans and nature. Note while reading that many of its hunting methods are now out of date or even legally restricted, so it should be treated as a historical text and a reference on wilderness knowledge, not as a manual of operations. Suitable for readers interested in natural history, outdoor history, and traditional crafts to browse indoors in quiet and use alongside field observation.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Start with the table of contents and illustrations, pick trap types of interest, then read the step-by-step instructions section by section.
  2. Keep a notebook, jot down unfamiliar old tool terms as you read, and look them up together.
  3. Read it as a historical text; when encountering hunting methods, learn current regulations first before judging.
  4. You may combine it with field observation of animal trails and signs, but do not follow the book to hunt.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60

FAQ

Can I still follow this book to trap and hunt today? Not recommended. The methods belong to nineteenth-century wilderness skills, and many hunting practices are restricted by today's wildlife protection laws; carrying them out at will may be illegal. It is better to read it as a text on technical history and natural history, to understand the old relationship between people and the wild, rather than as a manual of operations.
Is the old English hard to read? The instructional passages are somewhat old in sentence structure, but most are concrete step descriptions and not too difficult with the illustrations. Start with chapters that interest you, look up unfamiliar tool and animal names together, and do not force a word-by-word reading; reading by topic is more efficient.
Is this book suitable to read with children? It can serve as natural history material for parent-child reading, but adults should guide. The book involves trapping and killing animals, so explain the historical background and modern animal protection ideas in advance, and focus on camp building, observing nature, and handicraft.

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About the author

Gibson, W. Hamilton (William Hamilton), 1850-1896 Author

W. Hamilton Gibson (William Hamilton Gibson, 1850–1896) was an American nature writer and illustrator; public information about him is limited, and many details of his life are difficult to verify. Five of his works are held here, all centering on nature observation and outdoor life: Our Edible Toadstools and Mushrooms and How to Distinguish Them, a guide to identifying wild fungi; Camp Life in the Woods and the Tricks of Trapping and Trap Making, on camping and trapping skills; and Pastoral Days, a remembrance of a New England year. Writing from firsthand observation, he described plants, insects, birds, mushrooms and woodland life with care and warmth, combining practical guidance with the charm of the personal essay. His books suit nature lovers and outdoor readers.