DCHP-1 Online

trapline Fur Trade

• 1 n. a series of traps set and maintained by a trapper who periodically runs the line, removing the trapped animals and resetting the traps.

  See also: line ((n.)) (def. 5)  marten road  trap road  

  • 1913  He said that he and his partner, the murdered man, had been met by Charley Seguis while running their trap-line. . . .
  • 1938  As best she could, Rose Marie took up the double duty of trap-line and of teepee.
  • 1965  Make and use a bow and arrow, run a trapline, learn to drive a dog sled, and take part in a seal hunt.

• 2a n. the route or trail followed by a trapper maintaining his series of traps.

  See also: fur path (def 1)  fur trail (def. 1)  trapping path   

  • 1921  Some trap lines are very long, seventy, eighty, ninety, or even a hundred miles, but there are short ones also.
  • 1929  In winter Charlie is away a good deal on his twenty-mile circular trap-line.
  • 1966  Because trappers have long trap-lines the animal may lie caught in the trap for days. . . .

• 2b n. the general area in which a trapper has trapping rights. See also fur path (def. 2) and path.

  • 1931  . . . in a few days they will disperse to their trap lines. . . .
  • 1958  . . . as this area was his registered trapline--36 square miles.
  • 1961  For the annual Treaty Party an Indian agent, a Mountie, a government officer and a doctor come to pay the treaty money, and the Indians for miles around gather from their trap lines.

• 3 n. the trapper's way of life.

  • 1931  A man who has successfully overcome the difficulties, and endured the privations of the trap-line for a few years, can no more quit it than the confirmed gambler can leave his gaming.
  • 1953  When the Red Cross reporter visited them some three weeks later they were both sitting up chatting happily, looking forward to getting out of hospital and back to the trap-line.

• 4 n. a trail connecting a series of traps.

  • 1954  The clearing was a more open and orderly place than when I had last seen it--and, in addition to this, a lot of trapline had been cut out.