THE RARE FURS 311 



feet are smaller than otter's and mink's, but easily distinguishable 

 from those two fishers. The water animal leaves a spreading foot- 

 print, the mark of the webbed toes without any fur on the padding 

 of the toe-balls. The land animal of the same size has clear cut, 

 narrower, heavier marks. By March, these dotting foot-tracks 

 thread the snow everywhere. 



Coming on marten tracks at a pine log, the trapper sends in 

 his dog or prods with a stick. Finding nothing, he baits a steel- 

 trap with pomatum, covers it deftly with snow, drags the decoy 

 skin about to conceal his own tracks, and goes away in the hope 

 that the marten will come back to this log to guzzle on his prey 

 and sleep. 



If the track is much frequented, or the forest overrun with 

 marten tracks, the trapper builds deadfalls, many of them running 

 from tree to tree for miles through the forest in a circle whose circuit 

 brings him back to his cabin. Remnants of these log traps may be 

 seen through all parts of the Rocky Mountain forests. Thirty 

 to forty traps are considered a day's work for one man, six or ten 

 marten all that he expects to take in one season ; but when marten 

 are plentiful, the unused traps of to-day may bring prize to-morrow. 



The Indian trapper would use still another kind of trap. Where 

 the tracks are plainly frequently used runways to watering-places 

 or lair in hollow tree, the Indian digs a pit across the marten's trail. 

 On this he spreads brush in such roof fashion that though the marten 

 is a good climber, if once he falls in, it is almost impossible for him to 

 scramble out. If a poor cackling grouse or "fool-hen" be thrust 

 into the pit, the Indian is almost sure to find a prisoner. This 

 seems to the white man a barbarous kind of trapping ; but the poor 

 "fool-hen," hunted by all the creatures of the forest, never seems to 

 learn wisdom, but invites disaster by popping out of the brush to 

 stare at every living thing that passes. If she did not fall a victim 

 in the pit, she certainly would to her own curiosity above ground. 

 To the steel-trap the hunter attaches a piece of log to entangle the 

 prisoner's flight as he rushes through the underbrush. Once caught 



