TRAPS. 227 



in the ice ; but if you can watch them unobserved you 

 may see them whisk up and down hill with evidently no 

 other motive but fun. Their pastime, however, ceases 

 to be funny if the hunter discovers their slide. After 

 setting his trap near the foot of the slope and covering 

 it with loose snow, he is almost sure of securing his 

 game on the first sunny morning. Otters are also caught 

 in traps smeared with oil of anise, for the smell of which 

 they evince a queer passion. The olfactory predilections 

 of different creatures are, indeed, almost as contradictory 

 as their musical preferences. Chinamen confess that 

 they can find neither system nor euphony in what we are 

 pleased to call music ; and beavers can be baited with 

 assafcetida as readily as with castoreum. It is by no 

 means impossible that our favorite perfumes, rose oil, 

 cologne, and orange-water, may be downright torture to 

 the noses of our domestic animals, which would partly 

 explain the ill humor of lap-dogs and similar pets that 

 have to endure such luxuries all day long. Wild-cats, 

 that disdain all other baits, can be trapped with valerian 

 roots, and muskrats with stinkwort (Anthemis fcetida). 



But it is a strange fact that such " medicines" serve 

 their purpose only at their first introduction to a new 

 district. After a certain number of muskrats have been 

 victimized with stinkwort, the rest seem to arrive at the 

 conclusion that the enjoyment of perfumes is one of the 

 pleasures that kill. There is hardly any doubt that 

 animals must possess some means of communicating 



