CHAPTER XV.

FRED AND THE OLD TRAPPER.

Young trappers can learn much by making the rounds with experienced trappers. The following conversation between Fred and an old Pennsylvania trapper is interesting:

"Where was the trap set? I do not see any bait pen."

"Fred, you take this stick and walk up slowly to him; go up close and give him a sharp blow across the back of the neck. That will fix him. You see that big mossy log laying on the bank over there. That was where he was caught. We will now set the trap again. See this little sink in the log. That is where the trap was set. This limb is what the trap was fastened to, one end on the ground and the other comes just up to the log where the trap is set, and we will staple the trap to it. We will now cover it with moss just like this on this log, but we will get it from another log. No one could tell that there was a trap there."

"Will not the fox smell it?"

"He might if it was not for this fox carcass. We will skin the fox. Look out there, Fred, do not disturb the moss or anything on that log where the trap is. Keep away from that. We will put this carcass in the little hollow and will drive a crotched stake straddle of its neck; drive it well down; now take this stick and rake some leaves over it, cover the neck where the stake is quite well, the rest of the carcass only lightly. You have done it very well and the fox will not notice what scent there is on the trap as long as that carcass is there."

"But you had no carcass there when you caught this one, and I have heard that a fox was afraid of the scent of iron."

"That is all bosh! Keep the traps free from all foreign scent and you need not be afraid of the scent of the iron, but if you catch some animal in the trap then you must have some of the scent of that animal around near the trap. This will overcome what scent there is on the trap. This, however, is only necessary with shy animals like the fox. Coon and skunk are not afraid of what they smell.

"How did you know that a fox would go on that log where that trap was set?"

"By knowing the nature of the animal. When the fox smelt the bear bait in the pen there we knew that he would get on the highest point near the pen to investigate, and that point was that log."

"Is this the only way you catch foxes?"

"No, this is only one of the many ways."