204 THE MOOSE 



drying, and in spite of wedges adroitly fixed, the 

 measurement would surely reduce itself two inches 

 or so, the antlers would for ever stand as unusually 

 valuable, picked specimens. 



At the first hint of improved conditions the 

 trapper prepared for his round, towing his sleigh 

 behind him. For the first two miles the traps set 

 alongside the trail yielded nothing. The quaint 

 little three-sided, stick-roofed houses, like doll's 

 houses in the wilderness, built to conceal the 

 marten and mink -traps, were empty, and the 

 bait frozen to a wooden nothingness. He set the 

 snares afresh, placed new bait at the back of each 

 doll's house, and looked to the chain and pole 

 attachment concealed beneath the snow. 



For the lynx he rarely built a shelter- house, but 

 sometimes constructed a low stockade, wherein he 

 set the trap. For the suspicious fox nothing at 

 all but an upstanding stick rubbed over with 

 castoreum, and a trap artfully hidden at the 

 foot. 



The first pelt of the morning was that of a fine 

 lynx. He was sitting down waiting, waiting, with 

 the terrible, deadly patience of all trapped lynxes ; 

 and when his ensnarer sped towards the trap, the 



