74 THE TRAPPER'S ART. 



cavation, just above the passage, and replace the sod. The 

 Gopher while at work will run into the trap and be taken. 



THE RAT. 



This pest of all countries may be taken in any or all of the 

 following ways : 1. Set your trap in a pan of meal or bran ; 

 cover it with meal and set the pan near the run-ways of the 

 Rats ; or, 2, set the trap in a path at the mouth of a Rat's hole, 

 with a piece of thin brown paper or cloth spread smoothly 

 over it ; or, 3, make a run-way for the Rats by placing a box, 

 barrel, or board near a wall, leaving room for them to pass, 

 and set the trap in the passage, covered as before. In all 

 cases, the trap should be thoroughly smoked over a fire or 

 heated over a stove before it is set, and at every re-setting ; 

 but care should be taken not to overheat the trap so as to 

 draw the temper of the spring. Also the position of the trap 

 should be frequently changed. 



To conclude these instructions for capturing animals, I will 

 introduce the trapper to one or two of a larger and nobler 

 family, which he will find well worthy of his attention, not 

 for their skins or furs (though these are valuable), but for 

 their flesh, which, in his more distant and adventurous excur- 

 sions, will often be the only resource of his commissai'iat. 

 The soldier must look out, not only for his means of fighting, 

 but for his means of living — for his larder as well as for his 

 enemy — and happily I can show the soldiers of the trap how 

 to supply themselves Avith food by the same weapons that they 

 use in taking animals for their furs. 



THE DEER. 



This family of ruminating animals embraces a great variety 

 of species, ranging in size from the Pigmy Musk-Deer of Java, 

 which is not larger than a hare and weighs only five or six 

 pounds, to the gigantic Moose-Deer of America, whose height 

 is seven or eight feet and its weight twelve hundred pounds. 

 But the species with which American trappers are most prac- 

 tically concerned, are the common Red or Virginia Deer, and 



