272 Practical Game Preserving. 



Foremost among the many traps adapted to vermin 

 catching stands the common steel trap or gin, which, 

 owing to its cheapness and suitability for nearly all situ- 

 ations and occasions, is usually adopted, while the others 

 are used as secondary aids, or adapted to instances where 

 they may be more likely to be productive of captures 

 than would the gin. Everyone who may have to catch 

 vermin is familiar with the old-fashioned steel trap, but how 

 to employ it with success and in a systematic manner 

 is not so well known, and but few persons, other than 

 experienced gamekeepers and trappers, are sufficiently 



FIG. 12. IMPROVED DOESET TEAP FOE VEEMIN. 



well versed in the niceties of the subject to warrant 

 their taking upon themselves the destruction and keeping 

 down of the vermin which may infest their preserves. 

 By the old-fashioned steel trap must be understood the old- 

 fashioned style of trap, with its latest important improve- 

 ments, for the original steel gin was but a poorly constructed 

 clumsy article compared to the highly finished excellent 

 Dorset traps and other " makes" of to-day, of which we 

 give illustrations at Figs. 12 and 13. It is not necessary 

 that a trap should be large and heavy to be a useful 

 one, nor need the spring be very stiff in order to last 



