7» THE HUNTER AND TRAPPEE. 



side down. It should be four feet long. The bed-piece 

 should be enough larger than the dead-pole to enable you 

 to set the guide and trigger posts E JE^ and 11^ into it, 

 driving them into auger holes, or, the ends being cut 

 wedge-shape, into splits made with an axe. 



This trap may be set in the same manner on the top of 

 a fence to catch squirrels, or across the beaten path of any 

 animal that will step on a pole to jump over it if he finds 

 it in his road. 



The dead-23ole should be raised from six to ten inches, 

 according to the size of the animal you want to catch. 

 This is regulated by making the trigger shorter or longer. 



I will now try to describe a wooden trap that may be 

 built with little labor, in which you may easily catch a 

 bear. The only tools necessary are a good, sharp axe, and 

 a two-inch auger. 



Go to the usual haunts of the bear, or to some j^lace to 

 which he makes frequent visits, and lay down a bed-piece 

 or log, say ten inches in diameter and twelve feet long. 

 Directly on the top of this place a dead-pole of the same 

 diameter, and the full length of the tree, or thirty feet 

 long. Let the small end of the dead-pole be somewhat 

 elevated, so that it may lie fairly on the whole length of 

 the bed-piece. At the centre of the bed-piece build a 

 house-like enclosure (about two feet wide and three feet 

 long on one side of the bed-piece) by driving down 

 straight pieces of good timber about three inches in di- 

 ameter, set firmly in the ground so as to be four feet high, 



