106 CANADIAN WILDS. 



to the middle. Here it is securely fastened, so 

 that it won't slip either way. A trench the 

 length of the stick is cut down in the snow with 

 the head of the axe, and the pole laid therein 

 about a foot beneath the surface. Snow is then 

 piled in and the whole packed hard. 



The trap is now opened, and the snow packed 

 down with the back of the man's mitt, large 

 enough to lay the trap and spring therein. The 

 trap is now open and about 2 in. lower than 

 the surrounding snow. The hunter now begins 

 carefully to lay fine flat balsam bows or clusters 

 of needles from the palate out to the jaws until 

 the whole is covered ; then very gently he either 

 dusts light snow over this until it has the same 

 appearance as the rest or he takes up two large 

 pieces of frozen snow and rubs them together 

 over the trap until all is covered. 



Chopped up frozen meat or fish, a supply of 

 which the trapper is provided with, is now 

 sprinkled or thrown about, beginning 15 or 20 

 ft. off and gradually getting more plentiful as 

 the trap is neared. 



With a brush broom the hunter dusts his 

 snowshoe tracks full as he recedes from the 

 trap until he is off 30 or 40 ft.; after that no 

 further precaution is necessary for an ordinary 

 fox. But for an extraordinary one I could re- 

 late a hundred different ways of setting traps 



