300 WILD LIFE AND THE CAMERA 



been made. The trap is attached to the middle of 

 a stick, so that when the animal is caught and 

 makes for the water, the hole in the ice not being 

 large enough to allow the stick to pass, he soon 

 drowns. For otter the trap must be set beneath 

 water at a place where the current is swift enough 

 to prevent the forming of ice. The water must be 

 shallow, so that the otter will have to walk, and 

 twigs are placed on either side of the trap, with the 

 idea of leading the animal directly over it. As a 

 good otter skin is worth to the trapper about 

 eighteen dollars, it will be understood that no 

 trouble is spared in arranging the traps, the 

 result being that the otter is becoming very scarce 

 in most localities. 



Before the time for the first snow the trapper 

 has all his traps set and has his cabin ready for 

 winter. As a rule the cabin is made of hemlock 

 or spruce logs, the crevices being well clinked with 

 moss or other suitable substance. As heat is the 

 all-important thing to be desired the cabins are 

 made very small. The one shown in these illustra- 

 tions belonged to a one-armed trapper who through- 

 out the winter lives in the woods with his two dogs, 

 large, smooth-coated St. Bernards, as his sole com- 

 panions. The diminutive cabin, when I saw it, was 

 so covered with snow that it was scarcely visible. 

 Its tiny door, scarcely large enough to admit a man, 

 even though he enter on all fours ; the window not 

 more than nine inches square, the old stove made 

 out of a large tin canister, the single, small three- 

 legged stool made from a single piece of hemlock 

 whose b ranches happened to grow in the desired 



