CHAPTER XI.

TRAP, SNARE, SHOOTING AND POISON.

Some say that scent is no good, and that they can trap more without it, and they even go so far as to offer to match their craft with those using it. I don't call myself a trapper, says E. R. Lafleche, of Canada, as I never spend much time at hunting or trapping. When I go in the woods it is only for a little recreation, and not being an old hunter, I do not know it all yet, but will say that I can get more than my share of foxes in any place here in Canada.

For the benefit of the young as well as many old trappers I will give here my methods of trapping, snaring, shooting and poisoning the fox, which is as good, if not better, than any I have seen. I can clean the foxes out of any section of the country without having to purchase any of the so-called famous scent.

To take away the human scent from whatever I do, I make a bath as follows: First, take 2 lbs. of male cedar branches, 2 lbs. balsam branches, and 1 lb. good hen manure; chop the branches fine and place the whole in a pot in 2 gallons of soft water, "fresh rain water is the best" and boil until reduced to 1 1/2 gallon. Second, take a clean pail or tub, smoke it with birch or balsam bark, then place solution, cover and keep in a temperate place. To make the scent, take equal parts of the following: Fresh eel, honey in comb, chicken, pig liver, mice; chop the whole together like mince meat and bottle, cork and place the bottle in a pail or tub of water so that it will float and in a warm place. A good way is to place the bottle in some shallow part of a lake, creek or river much exposed to the sun, and where the water is warm; use a strong bottle and fill about three-fourths of it, and remove the cork from time to time for fear the fermentation smashes the bottle, and as soon as it has settled, cork well and keep in a temperate place for a week or so, and it is ready for use.

Smear your snowshoes and go where you like, and there will not be a single fox that will come to your trail that will not follow it to the end.

To take the iron smell from traps, first clean them well in warm water. Second, put them in the bath for 10 or 12 hours. Third, smoke them with birch and balsam bark; then they are ready to set, Place the trap 18 inches from the bait and put a few drops of the medicine under the pan of the trap, get a small shovel made of sieve wire, and sieve some snow over the trap and over your signs up to three feet or more from your bait. Don't spit or monkey with pipe and tobacco. Place your bait near a large stone, stump, fence or tree, and in such a way that the fox will be able to approach the bait from side where the trap is; always set the trap so that the loose jaw will be at the far end from the bait.

It is a good thing to place some clean white cotton wool under the pan with a few drops of the scent. As soon as a fox is caught save a front leg and with it print some signs such as a live fox would do, all over the place where the trap is set; also save the urine from the bladder of the fox and when it becomes rancid, sprinkle a few drops on the weeds near the trap and the first fox that will come will be yours.

To poison them strychnine is required. First, use fresh beef suet and make pills the size of a big pea. Second, put the size of a large grain of wheat of strychnine and stick these pills in your bait the same way as garlic in a roast. Third, take a fresh cow head, stick your pills in the fleshy parts of the head, but do not place them too close to each other, then hang the head out of the reach of the hens, etc., in a stable where there is cattle for one night, then take it to the place you wish to leave it and there throw away like a lost head. A good way to place such bait is on a good sized lake. Place the head in the center of it and you will find your fox every time.

Of course when you are using poison you must visit your bait every morning at daylight, so that the drifting snow, etc., will not cover the fox's tracks. While visiting the bait, keep to one side and from three to five feet from it; don't monkey around it, and if Mr. Fox came to the bait and if you have reason to think he has taken a pill, make a circuit of a 100 yards or more until you come to the trail of a fox going away from the bait. As soon as a fox feels the effect of the poison he will make several long jumps and then start to walk.

Follow his tracks, and the moment you notice zigzags in the tracks, or that the fox is looking for an easy place to go through a fence, etc., this is a sure sign that the fox is sick, and you can follow that track and find the fox. Sometimes you will find them not 50 yards from the bait, and other times a half or three-quarters of a mile from the bait. This depends upon the time spent at the bait and is also due to other causes.

A good way to poison them is to place a pill in a mouse or a small piece of liver, but I prefer to make pills with lard, about a square inch, and I insert the poison in the middle of the bullet. To do this, I bore a small hole with a stick, and then place the strychnine and cover the hole with the lard taken from it. To do this with ease, the lard must be partly frozen, smear with honey and keep frozen; then take some frozen liver (any kind will do) and chop it in fine pieces and mix with honey and keep in a small wood box. Smoke the box the same as the traps and smear inside with honey and add a few drops of the medicine. The kind of box I recommend is one 4"x12" made of either cedar or bass wood 1/4 inch thick, with two compartments, one 4"x8" for the liver pieces and the other 4"x4" for the bullets, with a sliding door at each end, and a piece of leather held by small screws on the top for the hand.

When ready, take your ammunition and once on fox land, smear your snow shoes with the scent and at every hundred yards drop a few bits of liver, and at every 500 yards or so, a few more with a pill, and in the pill stick a four inch black feather, and two feet to the right stick a strong weed, and in such a way that the wind will not throw it down. This will enable you to find the pill in case of a snow storm, and by brushing the snow lightly with your mit, the pill can be found at once, unless a fox took it. If the bullet has not been touched you can tell without having to remove the snow, as the feather will stand straight up, and this is a sure sign that the poison is still there. If no feather can be seen and if it has been stormy, brush the snow away, the lard is not as white as the snow and is easily found. Should it be gone, look carefully around the place; sometimes you will see the feather 10 or 20 feet from the place you have placed the pill, and there or elsewhere you should see a place where the fox has been digging a hole. Examine the hole carefully and you may find the poison, as often when not hungry he will hide it for some other time, or for his friend. If you have reason to believe that a fox took the pill, and owing to stormy weather you cannot find him, you must survey the grounds as soon as the snow commences to melt, and by looking carefully along the fences you will often find them. Always keep trace of your pills; the best places to put these is in the middle of a lake or field; the black feather will attract the attention of the foxes at once, and they will make immediately for any black spots they see in a field or on a lake.

To shoot them in winter: Get a complete suit made of white cotton, including cap, smear your suit with scent, or have some balls of cotton wool smeared with it and tie these around your belt with a good string in such a way that you can remove them at will. In a fine moonlight, take your snow shoes and go where the foxes are traveling, and the moment you see one or hear one bark, circle around him so that the wind will carry the scent. He will come towards you and will stop at a certain distance from you, and as you notice him on the alert, stop moving. The fox will put his head up and will look in all directions in order to locate where the nest of the plump mice are, and as you notice this sound the squeal of the field mouse; the fox will at once run toward you; then shoot him. I use BB shot for foxes.

Where foxes are plentiful, a hunter of some experience can bag several in three or four hours. I have killed as many as four in three hours. A good wind, fine moonlight, and lots of foxes, a fellow will have fine sport. In shooting foxes, keep as much as possible on the small hills so as to survey more land. While I was living in the country I had good sport shooting them in the spring, in the high snow banks along the fences.

Foxes are fond of playing at such places, especially when there is a crust to carry them. This generally comes in Canada at the latter end of February and during the month of March. I have often killed them at bait. Horse meat is fine bait for them. I once killed two big foxes at one shot. A hunter can always approach a fox when he is feeding, providing he knows how.

When I trap fox I do it on a large scale. I always set a combination of traps and snares. I carry a good supply of wire snares. The twine must be of dark color. In making a trail for fox, I take advantage of every good place I find either for trap or snares, either between bunches of weeds, trees, stones, stumps, roots, logs, fences, etc., where Mr. Fox will have to pass to follow my trail. On the rail or other board fences I use the twine snare, and on a barbed wire fence, the wire snare. In setting a twine snare, I always use a drop log or stone, and so fixed that as soon as the fox pulls the weight drops, and he is lifted and hung at once. I use ordinary wire fence staples and two to each set, one placed so that when the weight falls the neck of the fox is carried close to the staple and held there, and the other staple close to the drop. The drop must be placed so that it cannot reach the ground, and must weigh about three times as much as any fox.

Any fox that puts his head in the loop is sure to stay there. In the bush, I take advantage of all shanty roads, and I use spring poles when I find a suitable tree. I just trim the head and use a wire snare so that the squirrels, etc., will not bother it.

I set traps at the baits and in the middle of the fields in the same way as poison, with bits of liver around it, and I cover the trap with a light coat of snow with the same little shovel, and under the pan I place some cotton wool with a few drops of scent, and should, while the fox is picking up the pieces of liver, not step on the trap, he is sure to scratch for the mouse under the pan, and the trap will mouse him.