He knew where were the tender cuts.

He knew how to cook them deliciously.

And he had an appetite to relish them.
Having thus provided himself with a habitation, he took his traps and, either on foot or on horseback, as the character of the region or the distance to be traversed might render best, followed along the windings of the stream till he came to a beaver dam.

He would examine the water carefully to find some shallow which the beavers must pass in crossing from shoal to deep water.

Here he would plant his trap, always under water, and carefully adjust the bait.