CHAPTER III.

FOXES AND ODOR.

Last winter I could not trap much because the river along which I do my trapping and the woods all around were full of lumbermen, and I was afraid my traps would be stolen. I did a little experimenting on foxes in their relations to the odor of man and iron, says Omer Carmerk, of Quebec.

The results of my experiences confirmed my previous observation that foxes are not afraid of the odor of iron, neither of the odor of man, but mighty suspicious of a bait connected with both odors. I made a trail about two miles long, scattered about it pieces of meat, chicken, rabbit, cheese, etc. I dragged a dead chicken, but I set no trap. Prior to my baiting the trail foxes were crossing it and following it without hesitation, but after I had put out the bait not a fox had ventured to cross that trail again.

One day I saw where a fox had come near the trail, stopped, wheeled about and bounded off like a frightened deer. Another day, a fox tried to cross it at three different places but could not summon up enough courage, and at last, by making a long detour he crossed it at a place where there was no bait, not 20 yards from my cabin. One time a fox walked parallel to the trail several rods, then came nearer to it, stopped and turned back at full speed. The same foxes which were so afraid of my trail were going every night on the public road to eat horses.

I will now relate one instance showing that the foxes smell traps. One day I chopped a chicken on a log. I threw the big pieces in the middle of three traps I had set the week before and left many small pieces on the log. The day after the snow around and on the log was all tramped down by foxes. One fox walked towards the big piece of meat, and when about two inches from a trap he stopped and turned back. I have no doubt he smelled the trap. When the traps are in the snow or wet ground the oxidation of iron produces a peculiar odor noticeable even to the human nostrils.

One day I was going to look at a trap in a swamp road. My dog was trotting ahead of me, and when about ten feet from the trap he stopped and turned around. He detected the odor of the trap for he had not seen me set it, and he had good reasons to avoid it because when young he had often been pinched.

Perhaps my experience does not harmonize with that of other trappers, but the ways of foxes as well as other animals are much influenced by their surroundings. I have observed that foxes frequenting the neighborhood of farms are less suspicious than those living in the deep woods.

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For years, says a Southern trapper, I have invariably caught my fox, whether in a path, water or bait set; but can I swear my success is attributable to my extreme precaution? I always smoke traps to kill the smell of iron then handle them and everything around the setting with gloves, to erase human scent.

I have found the summer and early fall months the best time to locate the haunts of the fox, as they are sure to use the same territory in the winter season. While on one of my recent investigating tours, a few days after a rain, I observed some facts that will be interesting.

I struck an old road running through a farm, and readily noticed some fox tracks. Naturally I followed on and found they led under a wheat harvester, which had been recently left in the road and on under an iron gate, into the pasture beyond. All know that a harvester is largely constructed of iron and steel. Now if the fox is so afraid of this metal, as is supposed, does it seem reasonable that he would walk under such a mass of iron, or under an iron gate?

In fox trapping the smoking and smearing process is advocated as well as the handling with gloves and concealing under the ground. In the light of my observations, are all these precautions absolutely necessary? On this same trip, in question, I noticed a fox track, and as usual followed it. To my surprise the animal went within a hair's breadth of a plow, passing right on, seemingly not either to care for red paint or iron construction.

How is it, fox trappers? Does the iron and steel used in farm implements differ from that used in steel traps, so that the latter must be handled with such care as is advocated by many of the trapper's profession? Or is it the covering of the trap with earth that arouses suspicion?

A red or grey fox will cross through or under a wire fence over the public highway at night, although the roads are continually traversed by the iron bound shoes of the horse. Even the tracks of man are visible here yet we, when trapping, brush out our tracks with great care.

I have known a fox to follow where a plow has been dragged and have seen his tracks in the iron marked groove, just made by the locked wheel of a wagon.

Considering these facts, does it seem possible that the fox has so great an antipathy to iron and to the human scent as supposed? (We believe that the conditions under which these are found have much to do with the foxes shrewdness. A wagon wheel or binder never caught a fox, but the scent coming from a trap--well that is different. Coming down to this would appear that the fox has some reasoning power or intellect.--Editor.)