194 FUR FACTS 



Once they smell it they go directly to it, and, like a cat, instead of 

 putting his nose up to smell it, as a dog would do, he reaches up with 

 one front paw and cuffs it, or tries to pull it down to him. In doing 

 this he springs the trap. If a No. IJ^ trap is used it seldom ever 

 misses getting a hold, while a No. will miss getting a hold more 

 times. It will always hold a lynx if it gets hold of only one toe back 

 of the knuckle. A trap set this way never freezes up or snows under, 

 and never gets sprung by birds or rabbits, but it is never left un- 

 sprung by a lynx once he smells that odor of Funsten's Bait. On 

 the other hand, if the spot I have chosen is surrounded by brush or 

 small trees, in such a manner that snow is not likely to drift there, 

 move off 100 yards or more, and cut an armful of straight, dead sticks 

 three feet long, and about the size of your thumb at the small end. 

 I cut them slanting on one end and square on the other. I then choose 

 the south side of the tree, and with a stick mark off a circle four feet 

 in diameter, by starting at the east side of the tree and ending at 

 the west side. I then draw the snow from center of circle to the out- 

 side edges, and press it down into a ridge about six inches deep and 

 wide; then cut two sticks twenty inches long and forked at one end. 

 These I stand in the snow, fork end up, three feet apart, east and 

 west in line with the extreme south edge of the circle or ridge. I 

 then take a pole five feet long and two inches in diameter, and lay it 

 in the forks of the two sticks just set up; then to the center of this 

 pole, just half way between the two forked sticks, I tie one end of a 

 strong, hard-twist cord, which is a little larger than a wire clothes 

 line and is about twenty-eight inches long. With the other end of 

 cord I make a slip-noose loose enough so that the weight of the cord 

 will slip it. The cord must be long enough to form a circular loop 

 or noose six inches in diameter, and not leave more than one and one- 

 half inches of cord above the loop. I now take the armful of sticks 

 first cut and stand them, square end up, one and a half 

 inches apart in the ridge of snow, all the way around, except where 

 the loop hangs. Here I leave a space six inches wide; then tie the 

 sides of my slip-noose to the sticks forming the sides of the opening. 

 Have the noose in the form of a circle, as near as possible. I use a 

 blade of grass to make this tie, so that it will require but little force 

 to break it loose. Now take a dead stick, the size of a lead pencil, 

 and stand it in the ridge, directly under noose, allowing it to be just 

 long enough to reach one-eighth of an inch above the bottom cord 

 of noose and on the north side of it. This will hold the bottom part 

 of noose still. If it is put on the south side of cord the lynx may step 



