THE WARY WOLF 147 
The hunter and the trapper keep bringing 
forward new and skillful ways of poisoning and 
trapping wolves. But getting a wolf becomes 
increasingly difficult. The majority of wolves 
now trapped are the young or the stupid ones. 
Many trappers use traps by the gross. These 
are set in clusters in selected places—in narrow 
trails, round carcasses, and in the approaches to 
stream crossings. The traps are concealed; 
placed in water; they are deodorized, hidden, 
and false-scented with offal. Whole batteries 
are placed before or round a stake the top of 
which is highly scented with something alluring 
to wolf nostrils. 
One day I watched a trapper spend several 
hours in placing more than a hundred traps 
round the carcass of a cow. He avoided touch- 
ing the carcass. This concealed trap arrange- 
ment was as complicated as a barbed-wire en- 
tanglement. At one place he set the traps 
three abreast and five deep. On another prob- 
able line of approach he set ten traps, singly, 
but on a zigzag line. Two fallen logs made a 
V-shaped chute, which ended close to the car- 
cass. In the narrow end of this chute another 
cluster of traps was set. Thus the carcass was 
completely surrounded by numerous concealed 
traps. It seemed impossible for any animal to 
walk to the carcass without thrusting a foot into 
