now TO CATCH THS OTTEll. 29 



the fish m that way. Ho^y tliat is I don't j^retcnd to 

 knoTT, but he has been seen to climb up on a big stone or 

 log, and after sitting there a httle while, to plunge into 

 the water, soon returning with a pickerel or a sucker, when 

 he vrould sit and eat it, and when finished, make a dive 

 and fetch out another. One mode of hunting or trap- 

 ping the otter is to take a vial of otter musk and go to 

 some place where a log lies in a stream, vrith one end 

 sticking out of the water. Set your trap on the log vrhere 

 the water is about four inches deep, and smear some of 

 the musk on the upper end of the log. Or you may set 

 your trap alongside of a stick or any other object, on 

 which you can put the scent, taking a bush or sapling with 

 the leaves on, shai'pening its lower end and sticking it 

 through the ring of the trap chain ; then set it up in the 

 water as though it grew there, for a clog to your trap and 

 a mark to find it by. 



In all of these preparations you must be careful to leave 

 no sign of your having been around ; every place where 

 you have stood, and every thing you have touched, should 

 be washed by having water thrown upon them. 



It is better to set your traps with a canoe, or, in a smaU 

 stream, by wading. In hunting for the otter, it is of no 

 use to look anywhere, except where there are plenty of 

 fish, for they live mostly on this food. They cat craw- 

 fish, and I think some clams, but I am not able to say 

 whether they eat any kind of fowL They are to be found 

 at the inlets of little lakes, and they frequent small streams 



