TRAPS OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 



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it had reason —the thought of the hunter had to be locked up in its 

 parts ready to spring at a touch. As population increased, wants 

 became more varied and animals became more scarce, more intellec- 

 tual and wary. If any reader of this may himself have been a trapper 

 he will remember the scrupulous care with which lie proceeded at 

 every point, to make the parts stable or unstable, to choose out of 

 innumerable places one that to a careful weighing of a thousand indi- 

 cations seemed best, to set the trap in the fittest manner, and at last 

 to cover his tracks so that the most wary creature would not have the 

 slightest suspicion. 



To catch a fox it was necessary to win its confidence, and this the 

 savage knew. So he prepared a trap that was perfectly harmless, and 

 let Reynard walk about over the ashes or fresh earth or chaff, picking 

 up dainty bits until all suspicion was removed. Then was the time 

 to conceal the trap. Hut all vestiges of human hand or foot must 

 be removed, and the apparatus must be cleaned and smoked most 

 effectually. 



PARTS OF TRAPS. 



The trap has two classes of parts, the working part and the mechan- 

 ical, manual, animal part. The victim finds itself in a pound, deadfall, 



Fiu. 1. — Marmot trap. 



(Age, hole. box. toil, noose, or jaw; on hook, gorge, pale, or knife, 

 and so on. This dangerous element, to repeat, may not need any 

 accessories. The fish swims into a fyke, the animal walks into a pit or 

 pound, the bird or climbing animal finds itself in a cage with ratcheted 

 entrance to prevent egress; that is all. 



In a higher stage of invention, where the forces of gravity and 

 plasticity are invoked to do the incarceration, arrest, or execution. 



