144 AT TEE NORTH OF BEARCAMP WATER. 
Carrigain and Bear and climbed the ridge 
towards Paugus valley. Would the traps be 
sprung? The question gave speed to my foot¬ 
steps, which might otherwise have lagged by 
spring or brookside, for the day was meltingly 
warm and no breeze came over the Paugus ram¬ 
parts. The first trap was near the top of the 
ridge, under a huge boulder. It was two miles 
from the nearest house in the intervale, and 
more than double that distance from Berry’s 
or any other inhabited dwelling in Tamworth. 
Perhaps gnomes did not live in spots so remote 
from man and his grain-fields. The trap was 
sprung. Evotomys had found it and perished. 
The next one was sprung, and a second long¬ 
eared victim lay in it. So with the third and 
fourth, set at intervals of many rods. The 
fifth was sprung, but empty; the sixth con¬ 
tained a gray Uesperomys ; the seventh another 
Evotomys. I was now in the deep, dark valley 
between the northern ridges of Paugus and 
Chocorua. Three miles and a half of the 
roughest mountain woodland lay between this 
spot and tilled land, yet animal life was so 
abundant that it seemed to make no difference 
where I set my traps and scattered my corn; 
gnomes were everywhere waiting. 
Out of twenty-five traps, fifteen held victims 
and six others were sprung, but empty. One 
