214 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



are comuionly trapped by baiting a pen, built of logs, with 

 fish or offal, and setting before it a spring-trap of from 

 fifteen to twenty-five pounds, I need not now speak of traps 

 built of logs only, where a dead-fall is used; none of these 

 are sufficiently strong to hold or to kill a moderate-sized 

 Grizzly. To these steel trajjs, as they are set in the East, a 

 strong chain is attached, and this ends in a ring; through 

 the ring a strong stake is driven, and sometimes this is 

 fastened into the ground. By this means the captive is 

 held until his hour arrives. Out West the same traj) is 

 used; but instead of pinning it to the ground, a long chain is 

 attached, and the end of this chain is made fast around a 

 log with a "cold-shut" or split-ring, such as you put your 

 pocket-keys on, and which can be fastened by hammering. 

 As soon as the Bear springs the trap, with either fore or 

 hind foot, and so is fast, he begins to make things lively all 

 around, slashing at the trees, biting at the trap, and drag- 

 ging the log. This, of course, is an awkward customer to 

 pull along, especially if it is made of part of a young, tough 

 pine-tree, with the branches left on. It leaves a trail that 

 is easily followed. Sometimes the Bear will take in the 

 situation very soon, and set himself to demolish, not the 

 trap, but the thing that makes the trap unendurable. I 

 have myself seen a pine-tree, some fourteen feet long and 

 eight or nine inches in diameter, perfectly tough and green, 

 so chewed up that there was not a piece of it left whole that 

 would weigh five pounds. In this case we were able to trail 

 the Bear by the trap- chain, and kill him farther on. 



The best way to fix a trap is the simplest. Scoop a hol- 

 low by the carcass of a dead Elk, and, drawing up a pine, 

 fix the end of it firmly to the trap. The branches of the 

 tree half cover the dead game, and can be easily so arranged 

 that naturally the Bear will, for his convenience, approach 

 on the side where the trap is set. Some old Grizzlies, how- 

 ever, are extraordinarily 'cunning, and though they can not 

 have had any extensive experience with Bear-traps— ^for 

 none have been taken into the West till within the last eight 

 years or so — yet seem to divine just where those dangerous 



