EXPERIENCES OF A TRAPPER AND HUNTER 
FROM YOUTH TO OLD AGE 
By T. ALEXANDER 
PART II. 
CHAPTER I. 
HOW TO LOCATE AND TRAP 
THE BEAVER 
Beaver will only be found in some states of the United States 
and Canada and would now be entirely extinct were it not that they 
have protected them. They are easy to locate. Where you see small 
trees cut down by them, showing fresh work, you may know there 
are beaver near. They have two modes of living; some of the time 
in holes they burrow in the banks of streams and lakes, and other 
times they build houses out of sticks, leaves and mud. This is done 
generally in ponds and lakes which they dam to hold the water. You 
will see where they make trails from the water’s edge to where they 
cut the small trees. You will also notice where they throw mud and 
leaves out of the water on the bank, which is called the “beaver 
mud slides” by the old trappers. 
After locating your beaver you may set traps on their feeding 
slides, also on their mud slides or make slides yourself that resemble 
the beaver’s natural slides. 
You should set your traps from 6 to 8 inches under the water 
and place your bait two or three feet from the trap, on the bank, 
and cover it with leaves to protect it from rain. Make the traps 
fast, as shown in the illustration. 
In bad frozen weather you will see where the beaver will get to 
a shallow place and shove the ice up and break a hole. This he will 
do every night, to prevent it from freezing so hard as to render it 
impossible to break. You can go to such places and break the ice 
and you can see where the beaver places his feet when climbing out 
of his ice hole. Place your traps in his tracks and make them fast. 
The No. 4 is the most desirable trap for beaver. Stretch as illustrated. 
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