THE LIFE OF THE TRAPPER 299 



untrapped for three consecutive years. Should 

 any other man place a trap on this land, he who 

 has the trapping rights springs the trap and hangs 

 it on a bush as a warning to the intruder. A line 

 of traps extends over a distance varying from five 

 to fifty miles. This line is not a line in the sense 

 that some people imagine, for the traps are placed 

 sometimes a mile or so apart, only the likely- 

 looking situations being chosen, and these are 

 usually in the immediate neighbourhood of lakes 

 and swamps. The trail leading to the traps is 

 usually blazed, for when the heavy snow falls the 

 appearance of the country is completely changed 

 and the trap would be lost if there were no sign to 

 show its whereabouts. For each kind of animal 

 a special trap is constructed. For mink a rough 

 pen is made, usually at the foot of a tree ; old wood 

 is used for uprights and they are placed fairly near 

 together; inside, a meat bait of any kind is 

 suspended, and just inside the entrance to the pen 

 the steel trap is set ; small twigs are placed on 

 either side sloping towards the pen, and often a 

 piece of hemlock or spruce is laid on the outer side 

 of the trap, so that the animal will have to jump, 

 and the chances are he will land on the pan of the 

 trap. Over the pen a roof is made of balsam branches, 

 to protect the trap from the snow. For lynx the 

 same sort of pen is used, except that it is larger 

 and a noose of heavy fish line or wire is often used 

 instead of the steel trap. Marten are caught both 

 with the steel trap and the dead fall. For musk-rat 

 it is necessary to place the trap beneath a rough 

 shelter of branches on the ice where a hole has 



