TRAPPING, SNARING, NETTING, C^c. 131 



visions, and deal with some of the vexed questions of 

 construction which have arisen in respect of it, and 

 have been authoritatively decided by courts of law. 

 We shall then have occasion to say something more 

 on the law relating to trapping. 



Before dismissing the subject here, we would say 

 a word or two on the score of humanity, for we take it 

 that every reader who reflects at all on the matter must 

 admit that trapping as ordinarily practised by game- 

 keepers and professional rabbit-catchers has a detest- 

 able element of cruelty in it which cannot be gainsaid. 

 What greater barbarity, for example, can there be than 

 to allow a poor frightened rabbit (or any other 

 animal for that matter) to remain for hours in an iron 

 trap, struggling until exhausted, or possibly contriving 

 to get away with the loss of a limb ? The modifica- 

 tions which have been suggested at various times 

 to lessen the injury done by a trap, by covering the 

 teeth with list or india-rubber, have not proved wholly 

 successful, for this plan has been found to lessen the 

 grip to such an extent as frequently to permit of the 

 animal escaping. Much more humane and quite as 

 efficacious as an instrument of death is the wire snare, 

 so well known to gamekeepers and to poachers. 



If properly made of fine brass wire, and adroitly 

 set in a ' run,' it means speedy death to the first 



K 2 



