What did fur traders carry?

A knife, a gun, some snacks and maybe a dragging rope is the common gear of a modern eastern and Midwest hunter in America. In the west, one might take a few more items like a jet boil, fire starter and a small emergency kit, knowing that the land was far larger than the east. Some western hunts still use pack mules to navigate the mountains carrying on a tradition born of both necessity and style. However, the eastern states and much of the Midwest no longer employ many of these tactics. The land is developed and many hunters hunt on their private farms or a friends small parcel of land in which both navigating and walking are very easy. Some hunters will drive directly up to their tree stand or a few dozen yards away and leave all their equipment excluding their rifle in the vehicle. It makes hunting a lot easier, more efficient and sometimes it makes hunting feel like anything but. The trappers and traders of the old days would marvel at the way we hunt. They had to walk in on foot, with a horse or mule, or canoe and spend days, weeks, months of even years in pursuit of their game. That begs the question: What is necessary to carry out such an endeavor? In a lot of ways, it is the same kind of gear as a modern hunter, in other ways, it is bringing along enough equipment to build a temporary home.

• Flintlock musket: In the case of long hunters this rifle was often the Kentucky Long Rifle or Pennsylvania Rifle. This rifle was specifically designed for hunting and has grooves in the barrel giving the bullet a slight spin, this spin makes it more accurate. Think of a quarterback throwing a football and how the football actually spins in the air. There is no doubt that some traders may have used smoothbores.  However this rifle was a favorite among frontiersman because of the high degree of accuracy compared to a smoothbore rifle. 
  
• Tomahawk or hatchet: These tools were essential to building civilization and in many cases, fighting. There is a distinction between the hatchet and tomahawk. A tomahawk is specific for fighting while a hatchet is specific for chopping wood. 
• knife for both fighting and skinning: A good knife is somewhere in the top 10 items for a survivalist. It is important for skinning game, making other weapons like
  
   spears, or fighting. 
• Sewing awl: A frontiersman may not have been an expert seamstress but he certainly knew how to sew. The trader's buckskin clothing and haversack was going to inevitably get holes. Without storefronts to buy a new one these items needed fixed right away. 
• Buckskin clothing: Because of the soft nature of whitetail hides this clothing was the choice of many hunters and frontiersman. 
• Traps: Traps in the 1700s were almost the same as today. Conibears (bodygrip), foothold traps and snares are all common types of traps used both today and in the 1700s. However, methods of obtaining hides from otters and especially beavers used then would be considered either unethical or even illegal in modern fair chase hunting and trapping. 

These are rudimentary items but necessary for long term survival. Other items frontiersman carried would likely be molds to cast ammo, extra cloth to use as wadding, as well as material to make their own gunpowder. Maps and compasses were either unavailable or of no value. Traders used common routes or waterways as means of navigation. If they got lost they had to rely on their woodsmanship in order to find their way out. One such case in which Alexander Henry found himself lost while trying to trap beaver resulted in him being gone for two days. He relied on moss growing at the base of trees and the sun to guide him back to a familiar place. 

 Other items may have included extra flint to start fires or replace the flint on their rifle, blankets, rum, and a canteen to carry a small amount of water. It is reasonable to assume based on the culture at the time that these men would have used liquor, likely rum, to purify their water if needed. 

In essence, the traders and frontiersman carried the tools necessary to build and sustain them for long periods. What the most essential item they carried was the "know-how" which weighed nothing, but was of the most importance.