268 THE STEEL-TRAP. 



afterwards, when the alcohol had taken effect, his owner 

 introduced the beast into the chamber where the thieves were 

 carrying on their depredations, and with whose persons the bear 

 quickly made very disagreeable acquaintance ; for in spite of 

 their cries and lamentations, he so maltreated the fellows 

 with his paws (his jaws being muzzled), that had not his 

 master come to the rescue, their lives would probably have 

 paid the forfeit. As it was, they were so severely handled, 

 that it was with the greatest possible difficulty they were 

 able, by permission of the widow, who thought them already 

 sufficiently punished, to leave the house." 



Bears are captured in Scandinavia by means of various 

 devices, chiefly perhaps by the common steel-trap. This 

 is of great size and strength, and the jaws garnished with 

 fearful teeth. The engine is most generally set in the 

 spring, when the beast, half-famished with his long winter- 

 fast, is roaming the forest in search of food. Carrion is 

 then left exposed in his haunts at times within a stoutly- 

 constructed fence, forming the two sides of a triangle, and 

 roofed over, so that he can only obtain access to it from the 

 third side which is open. A dead horse is the most common 

 lure. After the trap has been well rubbed over with gum, 

 or with sprigs of the spruce-pine, to take away all taint of 

 the hand, it is placed in a cavity in the ground, between 

 the fore and hind legs of the dead carcase ; and as near to 

 the belly as may be, that being the part of the body usually 

 attacked in the first instance by wild beasts ; afterwards it 

 is covered over with moss, grass, &c., but care must be taken 

 so to disturb the vegetation around the spot, that the whole 

 may have a uniform appearance. 



These traps, however, as mentioned in my former work, 



