INDIAN MODES OF HUNTING FOXES. 105 



skin and muscles of the leg to be twisted off and 

 Master Fox runs away on three legs, ever after 

 to be too cunning to be caught in a trap. On 

 the other hand, if the trap is too small and weak 

 it catches the fox by the toes, and he either pully 

 his foot clear at once or the toes, becoming 

 frozen and insensible to feeling, are twisted off: 

 ano^ this, if anything, is a harder fox to circum- 

 vent than the one with half a leg. 



The proper trap to use is a Newhouse No. 

 2. When properly set it catches just above all 

 the fingers, as it were, or where the paw or foot 

 would correspond with the thick part of the 

 hand. There is a good, solid hold of muscles, 

 sinews, etc. There, once the jaws are fixed, 

 they hold the fox to the death. 



Fox hunters are very particular to keep 

 everything connected with the trapping away 

 from the house or camp, even wearing an out- 

 side pair of moccasins, which are peeled off and 

 hung up with the snowshoes. 



The hunter generally places his trap or traps 

 on some bare, point jutting out into the lake, or 

 some narrows, or near a clump of willows at the 

 edge of barren grounds, or any other place his 

 judgment tells him a fox is likely to pass. The 

 fewer signs the better; therefore instead of the 

 chain being tied to a picket, a stick 4 or 5 ft. 

 long is slipped through the ring on the chain up 



