MUSKRAT TRAPPING. 



J. A. NEWTON. 



When the trapping grounds are of con- 

 siderable extent and game is plentiful, musk- 

 rat trapping can be done most profitably 

 by 2 men working together. 



Several years ago 1 joined forces with 

 a veteran trapper known as Shepp ; it. be- 

 ing our intention to "skin the river," 

 as Shepp termed it, and then haul our 

 boats and .luggage to the lakes in our 

 vicinity, moving from one to another 

 as game grew scarce. At that time 

 there was no law regulating the taking ol 

 fur animals and we usually began rat trap 

 ping October 15. As we intended driv- 

 ing to and from our traps each day, no 

 camp equipage was required. We had only 

 to repaint our boats and color our traps to 

 hide their accumulations of rust. The lat- 

 ter we did by boiling them in a dye made 

 from walnut shucks or soft maple bark. 

 The traps are placed in the liquor after it 

 has acquired a dark color and each lot 

 of traps is boiled 15 or 20 minutes or 

 until they are blackened. New traps will 

 not take the color until they have been 

 used a week or so to rust them. 



Shepp and I owned over 100 traps be- 

 tween us, and as most of them were old, 

 many repairs had to be made. Then, when 

 we had cut a quantitv of stakes having 

 prongs at the top, we were ready for bus- 

 iness. 



We were each to take one shore in set- 

 ting the traps. The South shore, which I 

 was to follow, presented a low, sandy 

 stretch at first, with no grass or material 

 to attract rats. As Shepp's side was ex- 

 actly the reverse I paddled along slowly, 

 watching his shrewd methods. The first 

 sign noticed was a quantity of droppings 

 which had been deposited on a half-sub- 

 merged log. Shepp produced his hatchet 

 and chopped a notch under water and just 

 below the sign, large enough to contain 

 the trap when set. He was careful not to 

 knock off or disturb the sign. The notch 

 was cut so deep that the trap when set 

 would be barely under water ; the chain 

 was stapled to the log, no stake being re- 

 quired. 



"The rat was there last night," said 

 Shepp ; "you see the top deposit haint 

 dried a bit. If he had stopped coming, the 

 sign would all be dry." 



A few rods farther on, a log showed 

 much sign, but it lay so high a water sec 

 could not be made. Shepp is always look- 

 ing for just such perplexities and is pre- 

 pared for them. A notch was chopped as 

 before at the point showing most sign and 

 lightly covered with dry, short, broken June 



grass, which was sprinkled with water to 

 prevent its being blown away. In all case^> 

 the trap must be covered by water or 

 grass or nothing can be caught in it. 



We then came to high, grassy banks 

 where rats had been climbing and digging 

 up vegetable matter. 



"Now, most likely one rat did all that 

 work," said my companion. "They ain't 

 more'n a pair of 'em anyway ; so I pick 

 out the places showin' the most diggin' an' 

 set to 'em. A feller not so well posted 

 would set a half dozen for one rat an' 

 soon have all his traps out fer mighty little 

 purpose." 



Here the traps were set at the foot of 

 the scratch signs, bedded to set level and 

 at the same time be barely under water, 

 and the chain was staked full length in 

 deep water to insure the rat's drowning be- 

 fore ii could twist off a foot. 



Before many traps were set out we came 

 to a large bay filled with a rank growth of 

 flags and reeds and containing several 

 houses on which the rats had recently been 

 woiking. as indicated by material that was 

 still wet. One side of a house is always 

 of a gradual slope. That is the roadway 

 traveled by the rats in carrying up material 

 for construction and repairs. In the fall 

 the trap should always be set at the 

 foot of the slope and bedded level. If the 

 water is shallow it should be deepened by 

 the paddle, to insure drowning. 



We found several feed beds, floating 

 masses of chewed flags and grasses, built 

 by the rats to sit on while feeding on flag 

 roots and other food. Traps were set on 

 those and bedded by parting the material 

 until they were submerged. The water was 

 deep and the longest stakes were used. 

 Some well traveled runways led off among 

 the reeds and grass, and traps were set in 

 a few of the most promising ones where 

 they met deep water. 



A stretch of wild rice was seen where 

 cuttings and signs were numerous. The 

 water, however, was so shallow that to 

 have set would have insured the loss by 

 foot amputation of every rat caught, as 

 no excavating could be done there, the bot- 

 tom being hard. There Shepp used an in- 

 vention of his own. Out from shore, where 

 the water was 3 or 4 feet deep, he lopped 

 down enough grass to form the semblance 

 of a bed, and on that a trap was set with 

 the water just covering it. Six or more 

 of these artificial beds were made, 3 or 4 

 rods apart. 



"There ! that'll ketch every rat and they'll 

 git drownded, too," said Shepp. 

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