THE TAKING OF THE BEAVER 109 



traces of the man-smell. For it the beavers have a 

 curious infatuation, licking everything touched by it, 

 and said, by some hunters, to be drugged into a crazy 

 stupidity by the very smell. The hunter daubs this on 

 his own foot-tracks. 



Or, if he finds tracks of the beaver in the grass 

 back from the bank, he may build an old-fashioned 

 deadfall, with which the beaver is still taken in Lab 

 rador. This is the small lean-to, with a roof of branches 

 and bark usually covered with snow slanting to the 

 ground on one side, the ends either posts or logs, and 

 the front an opening between two logs wide enough to 

 admit half the animal s body. Inside, at the back, on 

 a rectangular stick, one part of which bolsters up the 

 front log, is the bait. All traces of the hunter are 

 smeared over with the elusive castoreum. One tug at 

 the bait usually brings the front log crashing down 

 across the animal s back, killing it instantly. 



But neither the steel-trap nor the deadfall is wholly 

 satisfactory. When the poor beaver comes sniffing 

 along the castoreum trail to the steel-trap and on the 

 first splash into the water feels a pair of iron jaws 

 close on his feet, he dives below to try and gain the 

 shelter of his house. The log plunges after him, hold 

 ing him down and back till he drowns ; and his where 

 abouts are revealed by the upend of the tree. 



But several chances are in the beaver s favour. 

 With the castoreum licks, which tell them of some 

 other beaver, perhaps looking for a mate or lost cub, 

 they may become so exhilarated as to jump clear of 

 the trap. Or, instead of diving down with the trap, 

 they may retreat back up the bank and amputate the 

 imprisoned foot with one nip, leaving only a mutilated 



