298 New Trap for catching Moles. 



Art. VII. A new Trap for catching Moles, toith some Remarks 

 illustrative of its Superiority over the Traps novo generally in Use. 

 By A. F. 



Sir, 



About two years ago, I had the management of a small 

 garden in Aberdeenshire; and, being very much annoyed 

 with moles, I had recourse to different schemes in order to 

 destroy them, always trying to find out some sort of trap that 

 would require less time and trouble in setting than the com- 

 mon wooden ones : for, as is too often the case with gentle- 

 men's gardeners in that part of the country, I had enough in 

 the keeping and care of the garden and its produce to occupy 

 all my time and attention, without mole-catching. It gene- 

 rally took me an hour every day, for several weeks, in the 

 spring and autumn, to keep about a dozen traps at work ; for 

 the wooden springs soon take a set, and lose their power, 

 when they are not attended to and tightened. I tried cast- 

 iron traps, made in the form of forceps, and found that they 

 answered very well when the tracks were through any sort of 

 firm mould : but, when the tracks were through loose mould, 

 the iron traps were every bit as troublesome as the wooden 

 ones ; for then they required to have a piece of stone or slate 

 along each side, to prevent the mole from getting through 

 without displacing the trigger; and they required also to be 

 particularly covered, so as to be close enough to exclude the 

 light, and prevent the free action of the air, yet so open as to 

 allow the handles of the trap to extend freely as soon as the 

 trigger should be displaced. All these inconveniences, how- 

 ever, I got rid of by using this very simple kind of trap, 

 which I invented ; and which possesses one particular advan- 

 tage over any other kind that I have tried or seen, and that is, 

 that it will catch two moles at one set. 



It consists of a block of wood ( fig. 47. a, upper view, with 

 one end set; and fig. 48., under view) 10 in. long, 3 in. broad, 

 and 3£ in. deep ; with a hole (Z>), 2^ in. diameter, bored length- 

 wise through both ends. In the inside, half an inch from the 

 extremity at each end, a groove is cut for a wire loop to fit 

 into, as in the common wooden mole-trap; only that the grooves 

 on the upper side of this one are cut quite through, having a 

 small nail or pin of wire driven in through the middle, to 

 keep the wires from rising above the wood. In the upper 

 side of the hole, close by the grooves, three blunt-pointed 

 pikes of wire (c) are fixed, so as to stand a quarter of an inch 

 out of the wood. The holes for the triggers are bored in the 

 centre of the upper side, 3 in. from each end ; and in the 



