January, 1922 
L ast winter I found a swamp that 
was no bigger than an acre and a 
half, but it was located right in the 
elbow of a big creek. All season, trap- 
pers followed along the shores or pad- 
died along the water in canoes while I 
trapped right in that swamp in the bend. 
When I discovered this swamp while 
scouting in early fall I found many fur 
trails of muskrats, minks, skunks, foxes 
and a few otters. There were also 
weasel tracks in the mud. Some of the 
trails seemed to lead across the bend) of 
the creek and so I concluded that this 
was a cut-off for the furbearers who fol- 
lowed the water. They did not keep 
along the water all the way around but 
cut across through the swamp. So I 
made up my mind to spot trap here 
hard. 
It was easy enough to make the musk- 
rat sets, for there were plenty of signs 
along the south side of this swamp that 
said plainly, “Here are ’rats.” There were 
trails and droppings, tracks in the mud 
and remains from muskrat dinners on 
wild onions. So I put out fifty sets for 
these furbearers. Often the sets were 
only a few yards apart. On logs that 
extended from shore into the water I 
chopped out holes for trap beds and set 
two or three traps. On little bogs where 
the ’rats sat to wash and eat I put traps. 
Then I found where there were piles of 
sticks and poles that had washed in 
when the swamp was flooded in the 
spring and I set traps there. 
For the minks I made water sets where 
the trails led through shallow water, 
using no bait at all. I selected the most 
used paths and where these followed past 
a rock or along the edge of the deep 
water I made my sets. Also I found 
many places where the mink paths passed 
over piles of rubbish that had washed 
into the swamp in high water. On such 
places I made a place for the traps by 
sticking down posts so that there was 
only one good place to cross. Then I 
put some bait scent that I had taken 
from the musk glands of a female mink 
and dropped a little on the sticks that I 
had stuck upright. Thirty traps were 
devoted to minks only. 
I put out twelve sets for foxes and 
used mostly water sets. I selected places 
where there were pools of water a foot 
or so deep, and the pool at least six feet 
across. Then I waded in with my rub- 
ber boots and placed a big sod on a pile 
of rubbish or stones that I built in the 
center. On this I placed some fish oil 
and bloody meat. Then I built up an- 
other mound of stones and sod eighteen 
inches from shore and here I put the 
trap with the jaws just under water and 
with a piece of sod on the pan of the 
trap that projected half an inch above the 
surface. This set would have been a 
good one for raccoons if they had been 
there. 
At the base of an otter slide I set two 
traps and left them right there through 
the season, catching one of these scarce 
furbearers. The skunks had two dozen 
traps devoted to them on the northern 
border of the swamp where the high 
land began and there were dens in the 
(Continued on page 42) 
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