1892-93.1 



NOTES ON THE WESTERN DENES. 



97 



eventually effect its escape. To guard against such an accident, two 

 stakes e are driven in the ground on each side of the falling apparatus. 

 The use and working of the weight pole f need no explanation. 



Much more complicated, as may be seen from fig. 8i, is the action of 

 the lynx trap. The device causing the capture, if not the death, of the 

 game, is identical with that of the preceding, save that two weight poles 

 instead of one are used. But the principle of the apparatus itself is 

 altogether different, and might be pointed out as an evidence of no mean 

 ingenuity. Although I have faithfully outlined in dots the working of 

 the trap while in the act of springing, some further explanation of it 

 may be necessary. 



The general principle governing its action is the balance principle. 

 The fall stick being pressed down by the weight sticks, thereby forces up 

 the furthest end of the lever a, which is balanced on the post b^ acting 

 as fulcrum. As an immediate consequence, the string button c (fig 82) 

 is started up and at once arrested in its flight by the 

 horizontal sticks d engaged between the button and the 

 » perpendicular pole e. The reason of the springing of 

 the trap is now easy to understand. The lynx, or fox, 

 upon trying to get at the bait laid on the ground a little 

 distance off within a picket enclosure, is bound to tread 

 on the trip stick e which is thereby disengaged from the 

 pressure of the button, which immediately whirls up 

 yielding to the action of the weight poles on the lever, as shown in the 

 dotted outlines. Both the post and the perpendicular pole e are stuck 

 in the 'ground, and the latter, as well as the weight sticks, are set up 

 through the branches of the tree under which the trap is prepared. 



Fis. 82. 



■ Fig- 83. 



A somewhat different setting of the same trap is obtained by engaging 

 the trip stick above, instead of belozv, the middle of the button piece. In 

 this case no bait is provided for the game, but the trip stick is thorough- 

 ly rubbed over with castoreum, by licking which the animal springs off 

 the lever, whereby the fall stick slips down on the base. 



