288 FUR FACTS 



Whatever care you exercise you will frequently learn that his power 

 of observation and his sense of smell have thwarted your earnest 

 efforts to trap him. He will thoroughly scrutinize the ground sur- 

 rounding a trap before drawing near. Water sets, for this reason, 

 are particularly desirable and are considered effectual by trappers. 

 Their preference to land cubby sets and those at the ends of hollow 

 logs is well known. 



Personally, I prefer water sets to those made on land. If possible 

 visit your proposed trapping ground prior to the opening of the season 

 so as to ascertain the best locations for sets. Go along the streams 

 and lakes and make small holes, say two inches in diameter. In 

 many cases you will find when you have returned several weeks 

 later that mink have completed the digging and enlarged the holes, 

 for such places are like heaven to a mink. He will enter them in the 

 hope of finding a muskrat or other animal or merely to gratify his 

 uncontrollable desire for exploration. The male mink makes long 

 nocturnal journeys along streams, lakes and ponds, visiting whatever 

 openings in the banks appeal to his fancy. He will be cautious at 

 such places but a clever set with a well-concealed trap, will, in the 

 greater number of cases, bring him to bag. At least, this has been 

 my experience. 



I have trapped mink in cubby sets, at ends of fallen and decayed 

 timbers, at stream junctures; in fact, in every conceivable place. 



One old male mink caused me no end of trouble that winter. For 

 two months I had resorted to different methods to get him. Like 

 the coon he was either darned lucky or extremely observant. More 

 than likely it was cleverness in this case, since the mink is a more 

 adroit creature than the awkward coon. 



Sets were made at holes, at points where he would have to trespass 

 unless he resorted to swimming, on fallen logs, in addition to those 

 made in the water, of which there were many. Every variety of bait, 

 from duck heads to muskrat flesh, was temptingly placed. Some- 

 times no bait was used but always with the same results failure. 



At last I fairly stumbled onto a place which I conceded to be a 

 novel one. On the edge of the stream where they loved to ramble, 

 was a rotten log, one end of which lay several inches below the water's 

 surface, the other protruding into space and leaning against a sort of 

 natural dam built by the eddying current. 



He had often climbed through this log I knew and it was exceed- 

 ingly improbable that a previous set had ever been made there. The 

 tracks of his feet were clearly defined in the soft, yielding slime near 



