594 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photo by George Shiras, 3rd 



THIS NIGHT A STAKE WAS DRIVEN INTO THE WATER WITH BAIT SO ARRANGED THAT 

 THE ANIMAL HAD TO STAND UP AND REACH FORWARD WHEN PUELING 



side the fence for the animal's temporary 

 entertainment, that I might in a night or 

 two set out a flashlight after returning 

 from a several days' trip to the house- 

 boat, where I was about to try for a shot 

 at a pack of timber wolves. 



"On the way up the river that after- 

 noon I noticed the ripples caused by a 

 swimming animal under the alders, and 

 supposed it to be a muskrat until the 

 gray body of a coon suddenly crossed a 

 foot or two in front of the canoe. And 

 although I had a chance to disable it with 

 a >low from a hard-wood paddle, I let 



it go for the same reason that withheld 

 the setting of the steel trap. 



"Returning to the house-boat after 

 dark without having gotten a shot at a 

 wolf, though one howled dismally in a 

 dense covert not 50 yards from the 

 canoe, we were surprised as well as 

 gratified at seeing a coon sitting on the 

 gangplank of the house-boat. We there- 

 upon set up a couple of cameras with 

 the flashlight machine a little above 

 them, and ran a string 10 feet to an 

 eye-screw at the base of a hemlock, with 

 cheese and fish fastened to the end of it. 



