212 Tre Aroostook Woops. 

Setting the trap in the beavers bed and covering it nicely with 
the grass from the nest, the end of the chain fastened upon the 
outside, and the opening he has made neatly closed, tight as 
before. But should he take the time he may catch nearly 
every one by setting the traps at the points, or beside the 
stream, some little distance from the house. Finding such a 
place both above and below the house, usually is correct. If 
the stream is not as yet frozen the traps can be set near the 
shore, as for the musquash, but in a little deeper water. A 
dry pole should be attached to the chain, placed and fastened 
so as to allow him to plunge quickly to deep water and drown. 
Too light a trap is not as desirable, but having none sufh- 
ciently heavy to hold him down beneath the water, a stone 
can be added to the chain. Here the medicine (so called) 
comes handy for the beaver, as for musquash.’ This is the 
beaver castor found upon the matured males as upon the mus- 
quash, used upon a dry stick in the same manner. Not hay- 
ing the castor at the first of trapping, bait with poplar wood, 
pushed down beside the trap. 
After the ice forms, to catch them beneath it is the best 
and most satisfactory way, if the hunter will take the time to 
do so. They are not wholly dependent upon the wood sunk 
in the stream in front of their dwellings for their winter food, 
but are travelling or swimming up and down beneath the ice 
to different feeding grounds all through the winter. Many 
trappers say the wood provided for winter is a reserve, and 
only brought up to the well-packed floor of the house and 
eaten in the extreme case; so the traps set a little away 
from their house upon the points, and baited with newly cut 
wood, is seen as they go up and down. 
In water deep enough to drown ‘them quickly, cut a place 
