Rudolph Friedrech Kurz

 

 

Christmas came a little early this year, this was sent to me by email by Isaac Walters and I felt like a kid on Christmas morning.

 

 Kurz made his sketches and wrote his journal in the years 1846 and 1852. Some might not consider this solid documentation for the rendezvous period, but there is so much evidence that these guys are just remnants of the decade before I believe it can be really useful in research.

   It is not often trappers out west this early were trapping anything but aquatic animals, this is rare sketch of the earliest dirt sets known out west.

   Kurz jumps around in his journal, from topic to topic , I only copied from two pages what is pertinent to this sketch topic :

   

October 25. With the remains of a lap dog we entrapped our first

wolf. In laying the smare they dig a hole 3 inches deep so that

the trap lies even with the ground, and then they cover it with earth,

grass, buffalo chips, etc.

A wolf or a fox, attracted by carrion, steps unawares upon the

springs and his leg is caught. To prevent his running off with the

trap the latter is fastened by means of an attached chain to a

heavy log or trunk of a tree. For fear of unnecessarily piercing

his pelt, an animal caught thus is never shot, but killed by a blow

on the head with a bludgeon…. 

I was here interrupted by Morgan, who wished me to accompany

him to his traps. We found, this time, a gray fox that I struck

dead and brought home to paint for Morgan. These animals are

full of fleas…..

When we went again to look after our traps we found that the

carcass had been dragged quite a distance away by wolves. Our

Spanish horse guard told us in his Spanish-French-English jargon:

"Jamme wolf dragge de carcasse way from de trappe. No seen una

pareilla chose. Ni now putte horse's snoute on de pickette, de wolf

no more carry awaye."

Night scenes here are decidedly picturesque. Armed with guns

and hunting knives and provided with lanterns, we moved across the

dusky prairie that seems to have neither beginning nor end but to

melt into the wide heaven from which it can be distinguished only

by scattered stars. About us are the captured animals struggling

and gnashing their teeth, the dead just removed from the traps. The

concentrated glow of lanterns, while the traps are being set once

more, the hunters' original attire, the dark background, all combine

to form a picture at once suggestive of animated life and awe.

October 26. At daybreak we found two gray foxes in the traps.

Painted a picture of one of them. In the study of hairy beasts

water colors are of little advantage, pointed brushes of still less.

For reproducing the curl of hair, broad oil brushes are best. By

adroit manipulation of the latter the effect is achieved,

There is actually many things happening here, in the journal and the sketch both, but together it's really great research material for the land set I've wanted to document.  A really good trapping method can be established here,

   I don't think I would use a lapdog for bait, or a horses head, but what they did either means they had only this to work with, or no preferred gland/scent type of bait.

  A hole is dug just big enough for the trap, and covered with dirt, grass or buffalo chips. I'd hazard a guess and say they used the grass under the pan to keep dirt from getting under it , and the dirt and buffalo chips covered the rest of the trap.

    Apparently no metal staking is used here, like we do in modern trapping, even though the trap is buried , the chain is still tied to a heavy log. In modern methods, long metal stakes 3 and even 4 foot long are used and the stake is driven right under the trap. This method isn't seen in history until much later, perhaps metal stakes are too hard to come by, too expensive, just attaching the chain to a heavy log appears to just be efficient enough, not something to improve upon in this decade.

   Kurz then mentions that the animal is never shot , obviously here it is dispatched with a club. We can probably assume it's for the sake of not ruining fur. It might be good to remember, this 'bludgeoning" with a club would be rare for beaver since they were always drowned in ideal situations, you would have to walk up on a beaver set just a few minutes after he is caught to find a live one. Never say never here however, a lot of trappers with years of experience have pulled in live beaver. Our trappers probably did, but most likely they would not be as prepared as for a wolf.

     Next, Kurz mentions the lapdog carcass was carried off, and then the trapper "pickets" a horses head for bait a second time. This is something a lot of trappers would be surprised about, a second chance is sometimes hard to get, but then again, who would ever get to gain this much experience with a wolf anymore. So the second time around he finally catches his wolf , with the horse bait.

   One really interesting part of this comes from the "picturesque" night scenes Kurz is writing about. "We moved across the dusky prairie" , I'm assuming he means late evening, as opposed to the "dawn" of morning. As Kurz seems to describes they keep working with no beginning or end , it would appear they are non stop working trap sets, obviously day and night. Other trapping parties would be leaving beaver sets undisturbed at night, but Kurz may not be describing beaver sets in this particular situation.

   Finally on the Oct. 26 entry he mentions painting a fox. This oil painting , where ever it is , would be an amazing find , especially if there is a trap scene associated with it.