CAPTURE OF ANIMALS. 



37 



are frequently seen in troops of four or six wandering up or 

 down a stream, and travelling for miles over hills and through 

 swamps, from one stream or lake to the nearest point of an- 

 other. In their rambles they make it a point to have a game 

 of antics at every " slide " on their route. They are gone 

 from home on excursions of this kind generally a week or ten 

 days, and the trapper who knows their habits, is not disap- 

 pointed if he does not catch them on their home-grounds the 

 first or second night, but waits patiently for their return from 

 their circuit. 



Otter Slide. 



I have shown on page 14 that the shooting of fur-bearing 

 animals is a wasteful practice, because it injures the fur. It 

 is especially wasteful in the case of aquatic animals, because 

 they sink when shot in the water and generally are lost. Very 

 few Otter are saved that are killed in this way. 



Some trappers take the Otter with what is called a " claw- 

 trap " an instrument that springs 

 like a common steel - trap, but 

 strikes and kills the animal with 

 claws or hooks. This trap should 

 Claw Trap. b e se t on ^ e steepest " slides," 



at about the middle of the descent and in the centre of the 

 path, so that the Otter, in his game of sliding down hill shall 



