206 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



fifteen minutes' walk from home, and by the time we got 

 him there he weighed at least fifty pounds. 



But if the settler does not care to hunt his tortoise in 

 this manner, there is another way. Take a number of 

 stout, short stakes, pointed at one end, and tie to each one 

 a very strong, flexible cord, whose length must be regu- 

 lated by the size of the hole where it is to be placed ; make 

 a slip-knot or running noose in the cord, drive down the 

 stake in the solid ground to one side and back of the go- 

 pher's entrance, and then let your cord be of just such a 

 length as shall allow a loose, open noose to be arranged 

 across the mouth of the tunnel in such a way that the tor- 

 toise can not leave his hole without becoming entangled, 

 and as he continues his unconscious onward waddle he is 

 suddenly brought to the end of his tether by the drawing 

 tight of the noose either around his neck or leg, as the case 

 may be. 



Back and forth he travels in a semi-circle, sometimes in 

 a circle, until he winds himself up close to the stake, and 

 then, disgusted with life, he draws back into, his shell and 

 quietly awaits his fate. At other times, if the trapper is 

 too long in visiting his nooses, he may find the cord worn 

 away by attrition against the edges of the hole and the 

 prisoner escaped ; but usually, visitiug the snares, which 

 need to be marked by strips of white cloth tied to a stake 

 near by, the gopher is found quiescent, and as far down 

 in his tunnel as the cord will allow. Then you seize the 

 cord and essay to draw him out ; but, unless the former is 

 very strong, you will only succeed in sitting down rather 

 ungracefully with a broken cord in your hand, while the 

 released prisoner scuttles aAvay, rejoicing, to the very low- 

 ermost point of his subterranean castle. Therefore it is 

 always well to visit the gopher traps armed with a spade 

 and a basket, the first to dig out the captive and the second 



