CONCERNING TRAPPING, SNARING, ETC. 45 



Luke," said he to father, " I'll bet you a crown 

 there'll be five rabbits out of the six snares, to- 

 morrow morning", when John comes to look for 

 them." He nodded and winked at me, and, 

 sure enough, there were five rabbits caught, 

 next morning. My father thought that Pratt 

 had rubbed five snares with the leather and not 

 the sixth, and he frequently asked me about 

 "that bit of leather that Pratt used," thinking 

 it a very bewitching thing for rabbits. Here 

 father was wrong, for the leather had not much 

 to do with it ; but Pratt had picked out his six 

 runs — " killing runs " as a good snarer would 

 call them — very carefully. All good rabbit 

 snarers should be very particular to have their 

 hands very clean, and free from any smell of 

 gun powder, rabbits' blood, paunches, dogs, or 

 anything of that kind. This was why Pratt 

 used the wash leather, to keep his hands from 

 having actual contact with the snares, but the 

 great secret of his success lay in the fact that 

 he laid his snare in that part of the rabbits' run 



called the " rabbits' jumps," 



Now, Pratt, on the occasion of which I am 



