TRAPPING OF RATS. 
247 
througli the market-place to a little public-house in a narrow 
street ; then went up stairs to a back garret, and upon the 
keeper's securing the dog, and opening the door, there lay 
the poacher in. bed, and the deer on the floor. This at once 
shows how powerful must be the odour of the human body, 
arising out of its natural perspiration ; or how could the 
dog have scented out the man's footsteps, and that too, not 
only so many hours after he had reached his home, but 
through a public market on a market-day ? 
CHAPTER XI. 
TRAPPING OF RATS, AND THE VARIOUS KINDS OF RAT-TRAPS. 
The traps in most common use are the box-trap, the 
wire-trap, and the gin, or steel-trap, each of which is 
good, as far as it goes; that is to say, when properly baited. 
But they will catch only one at a time, unless by accident ; 
for if the spring be fixed too hard, then a second or 
a third rat may get in before it goes off, if it goes off at 
all. However, generally speaking, they catch but one rat 
at a time, and for that purpose each is equally good, if pro- 
perly managed. But, generally speaking, persons unskilled 
in the art manage their traps so badly, that rats as scrupu- 
lously avoid them as they would a strange dog or cat. Thus 
is the remark so often made, that rats are as crafty and cun- 
ning as we are, and know what a trap is as well as we do. 
But this is erroneous. Traps have been brought into dis- 
repute not in reality through the wisdom of rats, but 
through the inexperience of those who set them. Few 
persons consider that the rat has the sense of smell as keen 
as the bloodhound, and by instinct feels that man is its 
enemy ; consequently, if the hand of man has touched either 
trap or bait he instantly smells it, and will turn away. 
Now the first principle of the profession is, to handle both 
trap and bait as little as possible. Indeed the bare hand 
should never touch either ; and the same care is as neces- 
sary with the mouse-trap as the rat-trap. But generally 
speaking, when a youth makes up his mind to set a trap, he 
