656 
FOREST AND STREAM 
November, 1918 
A Box Trap for Small Animals 
I N reading Forest and Stream, I see 
where you invite the readers to contrib¬ 
ute to Nessmuk’s Camp Fire. I have done 
considerable hunting and trapping. If I 
may take up a little space I will try and 
give a description of a box trap I used 
with good success for catching skunk and 
rabbits. The diagram explains the text. 
Make a plain box about 2 feet 6 inches 
long by 9 or 10 inches square and leave 
open on the top and one end. The cover 
is then made with an end on it and fastened 
in the back of the box. Have it so it works 
up and down easy. Now nail the two 
strips (C C) on the box about 4 or 5 inches 
back from the open end of the trap. Have 
them about 12 inches over the box. Now 
nail a strip across the top of the two strips 
(C C), then make your bait stick and stick 
through the hole in the back of trap. Make 
a short stick to fit in a notch in the bait 
stick and a notch in the box. Next take 
a long stick about 2 feet 6 inches and put 
it on top of the cross piece and fasten one 
end on to the cover with a piece of cord 
about 6 inches long and a piece on the 
other end around the trip stick. To set 
the trap lift up the cover and put the trip 
stick in notch in box and bait stick. The 
catch is made of a springy piece of wood 
and when the trap is sprung the catch pre¬ 
vents the cover from being pushed up 
again. It has never failed me and is a trap 
that is easily made. 
Walter Warringer, New York. 
Home Made Skees 
KEEING is one of the very finest 
sports, and there is no reason why 
more Americans should not enjoy it. 
Many fellows hesitate to invest the price 
of good skees in a sport they have not yet 
tried, and they exaggerate the difficulty of 
making a pair. 
It is not such a big job. You can make 
some at least good enough to have a lot 
of fun with, and buy fine ones later, if you 
like the sport. Some Americans claim that 
hickory is the best wood for skees, but 
among best authorities ash is preferred. It 
should be well seasoned and free from 
knots. Have them cut so that the grain 
does not run out at the sides, but goes 
straight through lengthwise. 
The proper length of the skee depends 
to some extent on the wearer’s height. A 
good rule is to have it as long as you 
can reach above your head when standing 
erect. In other words, have the skee’s 
length equal to your height plus the length 
of your arm. 
The thickness should be ij 4 inches at the 
point of contact with the foot, and x / 2 
inch at the ends. Thin skees are prefer¬ 
able in some ways, but thicR ones are safer. 
The width should be not more than 2 Ya 
inches at the narrowest place, where the 
foot is to rest; not over 4 inches at the 
bend, and about 3 at the heel end. Natu¬ 
rally, heavy persons require skees of 
greater surface to prevent their sinking 
into the snow, but this requirement had 
better be met by additional length; increas¬ 
ing the width much beyond the figures 
given places an injurious strain on the 
ankles, by lessening their leverage. True, 
long skees are harder for a novice to man¬ 
age on turns, but practice soon cures this 
trouble, and anyway, most of your going 
will be straight. 
We are now ready to do the bending into 
the skee shape; and the first thing to do is 
to place the toe-end in boiling water and 
keen the water hot till the wood bends 
easily. The bend should begin about four- 
fifths of the distance from the heel-end to 
the toe-end, and be so graduated as to have 
the under side of the toe-tip 5 or $ x / 2 inches 
from the ground. I know of a case where 
this bending was done by placing the end 
of the skee through banisters and nailing 
blocks on the floor to hold the other end in 
position. If a vise is accessible, you will 
find it helpful. Whatever means you em¬ 
ploy to hold the board to its shape, remem¬ 
ber it must remain long enough to retain 
that shape when removed. This curve is a 
vital feature and must be smooth and 
gradual. A sudden bend makes a slow 
and clumsy skee. 
Though some skees are made without it, 
they really should have an arch of x / 2 or 
Ya inch in height just below the foot, and 
when they are put away for any length 
of time their soles should be bound to¬ 
gether and a block of wood placed in the 
opening made by the arches, so that their 
shape may be retained. 
One more point about the runner of the 
skee. It should be lightly grooved from 
heel end to the bend. This serves a double 
purpose: it makes hill-climbing easier, and 
helps you to keep a straight course in 
coasting, and avoid many a tumble. 
For the ankle-strap, bore the hole 
through the middle of the upper half, so 
as to have a good thickness between it and 
the sole. Use two straps, one over the in¬ 
step, the other around the heel. Some 
amateur makers find it helpful to nail a 
block on the skee for the boot-heel to rest 
against, others use skee-sandals. 
When you have the skees well smoothed, 
give them several- treatments with boiled 
linseed oil, allowing one coat to sink in 
before the next one is applied. Finally, 
when they are thoroughly dry, rub in a 
coat of raw linseed oil. Speaking gener¬ 
ally, the oftener skees are oiled the better, 
for both durability and service. 
L. E. Eubanks, Seattle, Wash. 
— 
Camping Out Hints 
HEN building a fireplace for a more 
or less permanent camp I consider 
an outdoor range such as Nessmuk de¬ 
scribes in “Woodcraft” by far the best 
model. I set the stakes first and then place 
the logs or stones in between, for often it 
is impossible to drive a stake in the exact 
spot picked out for it. I used to have 
trouble with the stakes splitting on the 
ends when I put any weight into my driv¬ 
ing blows, but a guide showed me a trick 
this summer that comes in very handy to 
know. Instead of choosing a Y-shaped 
crotch he cuts a straight sapling with a 
branch jutting out at an angle of about 
forty-five degrees. The straight stick was 
not cut off square on top but was slightly 
pointed with a few blows of the axe, then 
when he drove the stake the end flattened 
into a hard splintery mass without splitting. 
I have had my axe handle break in such 
a manner that it was impossible to splice it, 
and have found I can use a sapling as a 
makeshift. I whittle it to fit the head, then 
split it. After inserting I put a small wedge 
of wood in the split and drive it in tight. 
This does very well until I can make an¬ 
other handle. 
For night wood, when camping in a Ness¬ 
muk tent, we did not bother with small logs 
but got busy on a big two-foot birch. We 
cut it into four-foot lengths and skidded 
it onto the fire by means of small saplings. 
Two of these logs burned all night and 
gave warmth a-plenty without any more at¬ 
tention after they were burning well. 
A. S. Foster, Berlin, N. H. 
