his pelts ; for often an animal, when caught 

 in a trap, will snap the bone by a twist of 



his body and then cut t h e j eg off w j th his 



teeth, and so escape, leaving his foot in the 

 trap's jaws. This is common enough among 

 fur-bearing animals to excite no comment; 

 and it is sad now to remember that some- 

 times I would find animals drowned in my 

 traps, that had previously suffered at the 

 hands of other trappers. 



I remember especially one big musquash 

 that I was going to shoot near one of my 

 traps, when I stopped short at noticing some 

 queer thing about him. The trap was set 

 in shallow water where a path made by 

 muskrats came up out of the river into the 

 grass. Just over the trap was a turnip on 

 a pointed stick to draw the creature's atten- 

 tion and give him something to anticipate 

 until he should put his foot on the deadly 

 pan beneath. But the old musquash avoided 

 the path, as if he had suffered in such places 

 before. Instead of following the ways of 

 his ancestors he came out at another spot 

 behind the trap, and I saw with horrible 



