FUR FACTS 191 



Lynx, as well as other kinds of fur, having captured over four hundred 

 of the big cats alone. 



Right here a few words in regard to the habits and characteristics 

 of this animal will be in order. He is a great traveler, and covers a 

 lot of territory, but he usually goes over the same route a number of 

 times. Along late in December or January, when the snow falls thick 

 and fast, very little of him will be seen, for, like all other of the cat 

 family, he has little liking for deep, soft snow. It is then he betakes 

 himself to some sheltered clump of timber where rabbits abound. 

 However, a little after midwinter, when the snow begins to pack and 

 harden, he is on the move again. Should there be any beaver dams 

 or marshes anywhere in the vicinity of his circuit, there his tracks 

 will be much in evidence. Although the lynx will eat most any 

 kind of meat when hungry, beaver is his chief piece de resistance. 

 Knowing, then, this particular weakness of the lynx, the trapper will 

 provide himself with some beaver castors when starting on a trapping 

 campaign; also have a lot of fish (trout are the best) chopped up fine- 

 Have enough to make a gallon. Don't be afraid you will have too 

 much. Hang up in large bottles, say, along in July and August; 

 cork bottles loosely, put something over top to keep rain out. Be 

 sure and hang in a place where sun will shine on them, and by the 

 time you are ready for it you will have a mixture of fish oil which 

 will make a bait for lynx second to nothing but beaver castors. 



As a rule, the lynx is not a difficult animal to trap. When he 

 is hungry he will eat most anything in the meat line. He is not in 

 the least afraid of a steel trap, no matter whether covered or exposed, 

 and will step squarely on the pan of trap, with as much indifference as 

 if he were merely stepping upon a log to view his surroundings. Now, 

 it is up to the trapper to see that he does this very thing. To bring 

 about this result, I will explain as fully as possible. Build up a pen 

 or enclosure in a sheltered place, if possible. Use dry spruce, fir or 

 hemlock branches. I say dry, because if you use green branches the 

 rabbits will be an unending source of trouble to you. Stick the branches 

 upright in the ground or snow, as the case may be, so as to form an 

 enclosure about two feet wide at the mouth, where trap is to be placed, 

 and tapering to seven or eight inches at the back end, where bait is 

 to be securely fastened. The branches should be cut or broken long 

 enough so that the pen will be about three feet high. You now have an 

 A-shaped enclosure two feet wide, three feet high, and about three 

 feet in length. Do not put any covering over the top, except at back 

 end, and then only a foot or nearly so, just enough to cover bait- 



