100 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



face; then he took his big auger and bored down into the tree, at 

 an incline of about twenty degrees, a hole of two inches' diame- 

 ter and nine inches deep. Allowing at that spot for two feet of 

 snow, he had bored the hole about thirty inches aboveground. 

 Then taking two inch-and-a-quarter, thin, sharp-pointed nails 

 he drove them obliquely into the tree just above the hole, so 

 that about three quarters of each protruded into the hole. He 

 did the same with two other nails below the hole, but this time 

 drove them upward until they, too, protruded into the hole. 

 Both sets of nails were driven in about an inch and a quarter 

 apart. The bait used was a duck's head placed at the bottom 

 of the hole. The idea was that when the marten scented the 

 bait, he would crawl into the hole to secure it; but when he 

 tried to withdraw, he would find himself entrapped by the four 

 sharp-pointed nails that, though they allowed him to slip in, 

 now prevented him from backing out as they ran into his flesh, 

 and held him until the hunter, placing two fingers of each hand 

 over the four nail-points, seizing with his teeth the animal's 

 tail, and throwing back his head, would draw his victim out. 

 But such work is rather risky, as the hunter may be bitten 

 before he has a chance to kill the marten. 



Though it is a very recent mode of trapping — only about 

 thirty-five years old — it is now considered the best of all ways 

 for taking marten, as the traps not only remain set all winter, 

 but they last for years. Later I learned from a chief factor 

 that it was invented by a Saulteaux Indian named Ke-now- 

 keoose, who was at one time employed as a servant of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company, where he learned the use of car- 

 penter's tools — later, when he left the service, he hunted and 

 trapped along the Athabasca, the Slave, and the Mackenzie 

 rivers. Sometimes twenty-five to thirty such traps are set by 

 a hunter in a single day. Mink and ermine are often caught 

 in them, and on one occasion even a wolverine was taken. The 

 wolverine, having scented the bait, followed it up, and while 



