176 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



upset, was an awkward animal to come suddenly upon. 

 Even a forty-pound trap on his foot makes surprisingly 

 small difference to the activity of a full-grown specimen 

 of this powerful animal. One of the largest bears I 

 have ever shot was trapped in this way. On arriving 

 at the bait we found a scene of desolation young 

 trees uprooted, the ground torn in all directions, the 

 log of the trap in splinters, and the trap itself gone. 

 We finally found the bear, after a long trail, in a 

 furious temper at the bottom of a deep and thickly- 

 wooded valley. Fortunately, he was below us, and 

 there was plenty of time to shoot as he charged 

 uphill. 



We once caught a skunk in a bear-trap. Nature 

 has endowed this beautiful, but most hateful and 

 obnoxious, little animal with an awful weapon of 

 defence, against which anything with olfactory nerves 

 is helpless. I have seen a dog howl with agony after 

 attacking a skunk. Fortunately, a skunk only emits 

 its odour when assaulted. The animal knows its 

 power well. It will walk into a ranch as if the place 

 belonged to it, and the only thing to do is to leave 

 it severely alone. Presently, after sampling the 

 groceries, it may depart. If slain, the building 

 straightway becomes uninhabitable, and, moreover, 

 all the skunks for miles around will flock to the 

 funeral. Whenever I caught a skunk away from my 

 habitation, I promptly shot it and ran away, actuated 

 only by motives of revenge. For I never forgot or 

 forgave the skunk that compelled us to take its 

 carcass from that bear-trap, and left us the linger- 

 ing memory of its presence for the rest of that 

 hunting-trip ; for the bear-trap had to be taken in 

 the waggon. 



