HOW THE CATTLE ABE TRAPPED. Ill 



are tempted to go through it by hay placed in the park 

 beyond. When they have become accustomed to this, 

 lyers-in-wait stand prepared in a plantation, which 

 skirts the " trap " and goes up to it on one side. In 

 this, some twenty yards distant, is a roughly constructed 

 place of concealment, which hides the man who manages 

 the "trap." From him proceed thin ropes attached to 

 the spring-catches, which keep the gates at each end 

 open; and when he sees the required animal passing 

 through, he pulls the ropes. The spring-catches in an 

 instant release the well-balanced gates at each end ; 

 they shut with great rapidity, and the animal is en- 

 closed. The first notice he has is the sight of the 

 gate in front closing upon him in an instant. Much 

 alarmed, he backs, but the one behind him has closed 

 too. He makes frantic but useless struggles to escape 

 for his captors mount the platform on the outside, beyond 

 the reach of his furious attempts to gore them, fetter 

 him with ropes, drag him to the corner, and tie him to 

 a post. The operation is performed in the quickest and 

 most primitive fashion, and the animal is speedily re- 

 leased to rejoin the herd. No further attention is paid 

 to him, and bad consequences scarcely ever occur. 

 Michie, however, related to me a rather exciting case 

 which occurred in connection with the " trap " in the 

 spring of 1873. It shows pretty clearly how ferocious 

 the wild cattle are when thoroughly roused. I give it 

 in Michie's own words : — " When enticing a young 

 bull into the trap, there happened to enter with him a 

 young cow. When she found herself secured and unable 

 to vent her rage upon her captors, she began to roar 

 and bellow so furiously that she soon brought the whole 

 herd to her rescue. They came, with their heads up in 

 M 



