370 THE TRAPPER. 



quires years of practice. They must be adjusted in such a 

 manner that a smaller animal, such as a musquash, shall not 

 be able to spring them, and so as to catch a beaver by the 

 middle. When the trap is completed the hunter puts a 

 twig, rubbed with beaver castor, in its vicinity to attract 

 the animals, or, failing the castor, a fresh-cut popple or 

 birch stick will sometimes have the same effect. He next 

 splashes the trap and his footsteps with water to drown the 

 scent. Setting a steel trap also requires some practice. 

 It is set under water at the animal's landing place, and 

 must not be fastened to a stationary object such as a tree, 

 but should be chained to a long dry pole which yields to 

 the animal's struggles. The poor beaver's first efforts on 

 finding himself caught in a steel trap are directed against 

 the trap and chain, on which he breaks and damages his 

 teeth in such a manner as not to be able to cut dry wood, 

 and the pole getting entangled in roots and branches the 

 poor beast soon drowns. 



Having set his traps along 2 or 3 miles of brook, our 

 trapper's time is occupied in visiting and tending them ; 

 also from about three o'clock in the afternoon til] sundown 

 he remains on the watch with his gun at some spot to 

 leeward of, and at some distance from, their habitations. 

 The sound of a shot does not seem to frighten the beaver, 

 provided the animal is killed ; if only wounded, he 

 spreads the alarm among his fellows, who remain hid for 

 the rest of the day. Beavers swim uncommonly fast, with 

 nothing but their heads visible above water, and are by no 

 means easy shots. Large-bodied as they are, they swim 

 and dive as noiselessly as ducks. 



In no case must the trapper light a fire in the vicinity 



