FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



HOW TO TRAP SMALL ANIMALS. 



S. O. SCOTT. 



You ask what traps I used and how to fix 

 the skins so they will keep. 



1st. The traps I used were of 2 kinds; 

 namely, a No. 2^ steel fox trap and a dead- 

 fall, as it is called by the trappers. 



You should start out to set your traps be- 

 fore the frost sets in the ground. Thetools 

 you need in setting them are simple — just a 

 hatchet and a clasp knife. I will tell you 

 what I do when starting out. I first make 

 bait sticks. They are about 7 inches long, 

 for mink, about 8 inches for martin and 9 

 inches for fisher. They are this shape. 



^ JQait ,§£% cki- 



They are oval and perfectly smooth. 

 Never make them of a green piece of wood. 

 Make of dry gray willow, about %. inch 

 thick. I took 8 of these with me and a 

 little piece of round stick about 4^ or 5 

 inches long and about Yz inch thick. I then 

 started with 8 duck heads for bait. You see 

 on the bait-stick what is supposed to be one. 

 Trappers always save the duck heads from 

 their fall shooting. The heads are all the 



better if they decay a little. They can then 

 be smelt by the animals farther away. 



Now I am started. When I got about 3 

 miles from the settlement I came on the 

 track of a fisher and set my first trap in a 

 clump of fir-trees. I cut about 6 or 7 small 

 fir-trees down to make the trap of. I se- 

 lected a big fir at the bottom, of which I 

 made the trap. Each side of the house of 

 the trap is made as shown in the sketch. 



FISHER TRAP. 

 435 



