CHAPTER XXV.

LAND TRAPPING.

Following animals are trapped on land and in what is known as land sets: Wolf, marten, bear, weasel, mountain lion, badger, fisher, lynx, wild cat, civet, skunk, ring-tail cat, and opossum. Fox are largely trapped on land, but in some sections they are taken in water at bait sets; mink and coon are trapped on land as well as in the water.

Wolves, being one of the shrewdest, methods for catching them will be described first.

WOLVES AND COYOTES.

Find an old trail that the coyotes use, plant your trap in as narrow a part of the trail as possible, fasten trap to a good toggle, bury the toggle to one side of the trail. Have a blanket while doing the work. Place all dirt on the blanket. After trap, chain and toggle are put in place and wool has been put under pan, cover all nicely with dirt from the blanket. The dirt should not be over one-fourth of an inch deep. Leave everything looking as it did before you began.

Now have an old stick (not a fresh cut one) the size of your wrist and long enough to reach across the trail and lay it about eight inches from the trap and crosswise of the trail. A coyote won't step on the stick, but will step over it every time. Use caution and leave no human signs and you will get your coyote. This method is used successfully in Texas, says a wolf trapper of that state.

The wolf is a pretty hard animal to trap, writes a Minnesota trapper. Whenever he gets near a bait he is always shy and that is because he can smell iron, but if you put a trap in his track and he comes along he will walk right in and get caught. That is because he thinks there is no danger in his own tracks. There are many times that he falls a victim to the trap that way. I will describe a set most trappers use here in the winter when there is snow on the ground.

They take some horse manure and haul it out on some plowed field and make two heaps not very high and in one of them they put the bait and in the other the traps. Four traps are mostly used, secured to a log. Care must be taken not to cover the traps too much. The best bait, I think, is the entrails from a hog.

Trappers for wolves should not use smaller than No. 3 traps. The No. 4 is known as the wolf trap and will be found suitable for all sections. If wolves have been feasting off the carcass of a sheep, calf or other animal, set your trap there. If you have plenty of traps a half dozen set within eighteen inches of the carcass and carefully covered up, should make a catch.

The trap and fastening, a weight and clog, be it remembered, should be covered. If you dig up the ground in order to conceal the clog, have a basket or something along to put the earth in and carry away some distance. Everything must be left as natural as possible.

Another method is to hang up a dead chicken and place a trap directly under it. Hang the fowl about three feet high.

The secret, at least one of them, in trapping is to leave everything as natural as possible after setting your trap. Most animals will regard with suspicion if there is much change around their den. In the case of skunk it perhaps is not so particular, yet the trapper who carefully conceals his traps will be well repaid for so doing. Even when trapping for skunk you never know what animal may come along.

Then to be ready, adopt the rule of always carefully covering your traps. We all admit that the fox and wolf are shy animals and are rather difficult to catch, yet they are frequently caught by trappers who are only trapping for opossum or skunk. These trappers, of course, had their traps carefully hidden. While fox and wolf are among the smartest animals, yet they can be caught, as the thousands of pelts sold annually is evidence. See to it, trappers, that every trap is set and covered properly and you will be rewarded some morning on visiting your trap by a fox or wolf if they are many in your section.

Now a word about trapping those cute little coyotes, writes a California trapper. The best way to catch anything that walks on four legs is to make a fool of them. Some people may think that is "hot air," but I know better.

The best way to fool an old coyote is to take a fresh sheep skin and drag it, you riding on a horse, for a mile or so in the hills near where your man is in the habit of going, (now be sure you don't touch it with your hands) until you find an open hill not too high. Have a stake there before hand and your traps set. The traps should be left lying in the sheep pen for a week before setting.

When you get to the stake, hang your pelt on it, so when the wind blows the pelt will move. Mr. Coyote will be sure to find the trail you have made and will follow it until it sees the pelt, and then he will walk around it for a night or so, but he will not get too near the first night or three or four nights, but he will try to pull the skin down and he will forget about the traps and everything else and will be taken in just like all the other suckers.

My outfit consists of the following, writes a well known Western trapper: Sixty No. 3 Newhouse single spring otter traps (I find they will hold any wolf and are easier set than double spring traps), an axe, 60 stakes 16 or 18 inches long, 12 or 15 pounds of wool or cotton, wool preferred, 20 stakes 10 or 12 inches long, a piece of oil cloth or canvas about 3 feet square, a light wagon and team, a good rifle and four stag hounds. The hounds are trained so stay on the wagon until told to go, and will nearly always get a coyote when sent after him.

In setting traps I choose a high knoll or a bare spot on the range--often the bed of a dry creek--where I see plenty of signs, and then proceed as follows: Stick one of the small stakes where I want the bait and from 20 to 24 inches from it lay a trap and stretch the chain straight back, drive stake through chain ring and drive down below the surface of the ground an inch or more. Then fix two more traps the same way at the opposite points of a triangle. Set your traps and place a good wad of wool under the pan so that rabbits and other small game will not spring it, and then proceed to bed the traps and chains, placing all the dirt on the canvas.

Now place your bait (I always use live bait if weather is not too cold, but have had good success with dead bait). Lay an old dead hen or other fowl in the center and drive small stakes through it into the ground firmly; cover end of stake with wing or feathers of bait.

Now step back and take dirt from the canvas and cover traps 1/2 or 5/8 inch deep; also cover your own tracks, and brush over all with a bush. If traps are well set it will be hard to tell where the traps lay. All dirt that is left on canvas should be taken away some distance and dropped. In using live bait proceed the same way with traps, only bait should be tied by the feet with a good stout cord and place a can of corn and one of water within reach of fowl, both cans to be set into the ground level with surface. Do not go nearer to traps than to see that they are not sprung and do not shoot or club game in the traps, but choke to death with a copper wire on the end of a pole; a good stout cord will answer the same purpose. Wipe all blood off traps before setting again and brush out your tracks as before, and above all, don't spit tobacco juice near your traps.

After catching one wolf or coyote, do not use more bait, as the scent is strong enough to draw all that comes near. I do not use any patent decoy or scents, as I consider them useless for any game. The only scent I use is what I make myself, and then only use it from February to April. In the summer I gather up four or five bitch dogs and as fast as they come in heat I kill them and take the organs of generation and pickle them in wide mouth bottles with alcohol enough to cover. I sprinkle a few drops on a stone or bush, stick in center between traps, but use no other bait. This is also good for fox.

The above method is the same as I learned it from an old Hudson Bay trapper, Pierre Deverany, who was born in 1817 and had trapped all through the British possessions and the Rocky Mountains, with whom I trapped for several years.

LYNX, FISHER, WILD CAT.

Here is the method for the capture of a lynx. Where lynx follow up trails, build a house around a tree, of brush, etc., leaving a small door fronting the trail. Cut a rabbit or bird and tie it to the tree in the house. Place a No. 4 or 14 Newhouse trap at the entrance, covering with cotton or wool and boughs. Fasten your trap chain to a clog; drag a rabbit up and down the trail past the house.

For a fisher build a small house and use No. 1 1/2 Newhouse trap and bait with rabbit, bits of deer meat with the hair and skin left on is also a good bait. Use a sliding pole or heavy drag, as the fisher sometimes chews the drag to pieces.

Wild cat are trapped about the same as lynx. There are a great many caught by making a cubby or enclosure where they cross or frequent in search of birds, rabbits, etc. The bait is placed back in the cubby and may be either bird, rabbit or fish.

The No. 1 1/2 and No. 2 Newhouse are used principally, altho the Victor No. 3 and Oneida Jump No. 4 are both adapted to wild cat trapping.

The methods given for catching wild cat, lynx and fisher can and are used by trappers for each of these animals. That is, the set described for wild cat can be used for fisher and lynx, the lynx set for fisher and wild cat and the fisher set for lynx and wild cat. In other words, a set for any of these animals is good for all three.

MARTEN.

To begin with, when trapping for marten, says an Oregon trapper, use only the best traps--No. 1 or 1 1/2 is plenty large enough--in fact, larger traps cannot be used conveniently, for the reason that when the ground is covered with deep snow and your traps are all fastened high up on trees you must set them with your hands. With nothing to rest your trap on except your knee and with fingers like icicles it will require all the strength in your left hand to mash together the spring of a good No. 1 1/2, while with the right you adjust the pan and latch.

Do not fool away your time with a few traps, but of course just how many you can use depends on how thick game is. View out your prospective line during summer time. Some important essentials are: pick out a line in very heavy timber, preferably along some high ridge; work gradually up or down hill and avoid very steep places; a line free from underbrush is desirable unless snow gets deep enough to cover it all up; run your line as near straight as possible; avoid making sharp turns for your blazes will at times be very hard to see owing to snow on the bark of the trees and once off the line it may be hard to find.

Do not make camps too far apart, eight miles is far enough when the snow is soft and deep. Get your traps all strung out before snow comes and have everything ready so as to lighten your work when the time comes, for, even then, it will be hard enough.

Now, in setting traps, you cannot pick out likely places--hollow trees, etc.--do not leave the line even for a few feet to set one in that hollow tree else the trap is apt to be forgotten and lost. Give every tree where a trap is left some mark to indicate its presence.

Use wire staples to fasten traps to the trees and they should be fastened three or four feet above the ground. Set the trap or bend the spring around to fit the curve of the tree. Now drive a 12 penny nail in the tree an inch or so, place the trap so that the cross piece rests flat on the nail and drive two smaller ones between the spring and your trap rests same as if set on the ground. Nail small piece of bait (squirrel, rabbit, or bird is best) eight or ten inches above the trap.

If you desire to shelter the trap, drive a couple of wooden pegs above the bait and lay on a piece of bark or some boughs--this is not necessary if traps are to be looked after regularly, for you can keep the snow brushed off. A large piece of bait is not necessary, but in rebaiting do not remove the old bait, just nail up another. Sometimes I have a half dozen baits by each trap. It is well to try each trap occasionally to see if it will spring with just the right pressure. If the bait is scarce, set the traps any way and you will soon have enough birds and squirrels.

In visiting the line, always make your pack as light as possible, four or five pounds of bait, a hatchet, a few nails and staples and a small Stevens 22 cal. pistol is all you will be apt to need for one hundred traps. If you are a trapper by nature, you will know where to put the traps, close together and where there is a probability of making a catch. Some places I put a trap every fifty yards and some places one-half mile apart. Keep your traps freshly baited and do something with each trap every three or four days, if nothing more than to rub a piece of bacon rind or rabbit entrails from the top of the snow to the bait. A drag is good at times and in some places. Scent is good if bait is frozen.

WHITE WEASEL.

When trapping weasel, writes a Northern trapper, I set my traps near small streams or in swamps, old ditches, beneath old roots and under shelving banks, near running water, and sometimes they may be caught in woodchuck holes. The white weasel and all other weasel are regular dummies, going headlong into a trap, even if they are in plain view. You don't need to cover up your trap at all unless you want to, as the weasel will walk right in to get the bait and click bang and you have your weasel hard and fast.

The best bait for weasel is rabbit heads, chicken heads and squirrels. The same sets will also catch mink, but the traps must be covered in that case unless you are making blind sets. I have caught a good many weasel in my mink sets and then again, I have caught them in old muskrat holes or dens along the banks of small streams and also near river banks in deserted rat dens.

White weasel or ermine are found in Canada and the New England States as well as all other states bordering on Canada, but rarely farther south.

These animals, like all of the weasel kind, are active in their search for food and are easily attracted to bait. They are the smallest of the animals now being sought after by American trappers for their fur. The No. 0 is used in taking this animal, altho many trappers prefer the No. 1 and 1 1/2 as they catch high and the trapper usually finds the weasel dead on his arrival.

MINK.

My father was a successful mink trapper but only trapped when they became bothersome says an experienced trapper. He made mostly dry sets. He would look carefully at a hole in bank of stream or pond, then cut out a place for the trap, drive a stake in bottom of the trap bed, coil trap chain around it and set trap on top, then cover with finely cut grass, a big leaf or writing paper and lastly with the material he took off the top trap bed. Then he cleared all extra dirt away and put the bait in the edge of the hole or under the edge of a stick or stone, if there was one near the hole.

I went with him once and I said, "Some trappers stick the bait on a stick." He looked at me and said, "You young goose, did you ever know a mink to eat part of a muskrat and hang the rest on a stick?" He used bird, muskrat and fish for bait. If bird, he tore some feathers out and made it appear as if some mink had dragged the bait there and hid it.

For a mink that is not hungry, I find an old muskrat den or a runway through a drift pile is a good place. The great trouble with these two last sets is, the rabbits are liable to get into the trap instead of the mink. There are a good many ways to catch mink, and there are mink that will evade a good many well laid plans for their capture.

My most successful plan for catching mink is this: I get a hollow log--it needn't be a long one--and if it is open at both ends I close up one end, then a little back of that I put my bait. Now at the other end if the entrance is not slanting so that the mink would run into it easily, I make it so. I then put the trap inside, about a foot from the entrance. The mink will run into the log because he smells the bait, or simply because it is the nature of the beast to make the run of every hollow log he comes to. Finding the other end closed he will have to come back and he is sure to be caught either going or coming. Trailing bait along the ground and up to the back of the log makes the results surer, as mink are great on the scent.

About mink. One man said mink would not take anything dead unless he was very hungry. Now Brother Trappers, you all know a mink will take anything he finds dead and drag it into a hole if he can and when you find where a mink has dragged something into a hole that is a never failing set for if he is not in the hole when you find it he will sure come back to it.

RACCOON.

Hollow trees in swamps are the favorite denning places of the raccoon, writes an Eastern trapper of years of experience, but in some sections he is found nearly as often in holes among ledges. If there is a rocky hill or mountain side on your line, inspect it thoroughly. The occupied dens may easily be told by the trodden appearance of the ground about the entrance and an occasional tuft of hair on the projecting edges of the stone. Here are the places for your traps.

Set your traps just outside the entrance, cover well with leaves and rotten wood, and fasten to a clog. We say outside the entrance, for if the trap be placed at a point where the animal is obliged to assume a crouching posture, it will be sprung by the creature's belly, and you will find your trap empty save for a fringe of hair. Even if the dens show no signs of recent occupation, a few traps can hardly be misplaced, for the raccoon, like every other animal, frequently goes on foraging trips long distances from his actual home, taking up temporary quarters in places like those above described.

Whenever there is a brook or creek in the vicinity of good raccoon ground, look along it carefully for signs. The raccoon follows the streams almost as persistently as the mink in quest of frogs, fish or clams, and his track may be easily found along the muddy borders, the print of the hind foot strikingly resembling that of a baby's bare foot. He is a far less skillful fisher than the mink, usually confining himself to such unwary swimmers as venture up into the shallow water near the bank. He seldom if ever I believe, goes into deep water.

If you find evidence that a raccoon is patrolling a stream, place a trap without bait at the end of every log affording a crossing place. The raccoon seldom wades or swims when he can find dry footing.

If you wish to trap the raccoon by baiting, you will find nothing that he likes better than an old salt fish skin that has been made odorous by being well smoked. It is not a bad idea to do the smoking near where you are to set the trap. Build up a little stick fire in the woods, hold the fish skin impaled on a green stick, over it until it is thoroughly heated and smoked through, and an odor will be created that will pervade the woods for rods around. And of course if this scent reaches the nostrils of any near-by ringtail that is sleeping away the day, he will lose no time after nightfall in tracing out the source of the appetizing smell, and endeavoring to make a supper off his favorite food. Mice, squirrel, frogs and chicken heads are all good baits, and they are equally good for mink.

Most trappers prefer the No. 1 1/2 Newhouse for raccoon although some use the No. 2 double spring. The Oneida Jump No. 2 and 2 1/2 are also good coon traps as is the H. & N. No. 2. The Stop Thief No. 3 1/2 is also used for coon.

FOXES.

Now I will tell you how foxes can be caught on land when the ground is frozen, writes a New England trapper. Take a large bait, entrails or anything that a fox will eat, and put it in some field where the foxes travel; put out with this bait three bags of buckwheat chaff. Don't set any traps until foxes begin to eat bait and walk on chaff. Then take a No. 2 Newhouse trap, smoke it over burning green fir boughs, and smear it with equal parts of oil of amber and beeswax; also, smear the chain and use leather mitts to set trap with, for it is no use setting unless you do. Bury the trap about a foot from the bait, and cover it with chaff. Make everything level and natural.

When you catch a fox, take him out with mitts on and set again if you haven't a clean trap to put in its place. Always set a clean trap if possible.

My way of catching foxes, writes a Georgia trapper is as follows: I get a lot of dry dust, put it in the hen house and let it stay until I get ready to make my sets; then I take what I can carry handily in a sack to where the foxes "use", dig a hole deep enough for my trap, place a piece of burnt bacon in a hole, cover it up with the dust, burn more bacon, letting the grease drop on and around the dust.

I fix a good many of these places but I do not set my traps the first trip. The next trip I carry my traps with me. If the foxes have found my bait they will dig it out. I then set my trap in the bottom of the hole, driving a stake down in the hole to fasten the trap to. Cover the trap chain and all with dust. I do not put new bait in the hole, but burn more bacon on top.

Try this, brother trappers, and watch results. Do not set traps where the bait has not been disturbed. Carry away all fresh dirt and handle your traps with gloves. In water trapping, form a natural surface over your traps and you will get furs.

I see different ways to catch the fox. They are all right but no person can tell another and guarantee success. The man or boy who sets right will get the fur but careless ones will not. I am going to tell amateurs and boys the secret of an old time trapper. He is alive yet and I guess had a few traps set (altho over eighty years old.) He told me the secret and said at that time he had never told any one but me.

First put out offal of butchering such as beef head; pick out a good place where foxes travel; at the same time, singe the fur on a rabbit or two and put near where you want to set trap; commence baiting early and go there often. Go past close to where you want to set a trap; don't tramp around much but go on thru, not leaving the end of your trail there; renewing bait and singed rabbit fur as needed.

When ready to set traps, boil them in ashes. Then after drying, fasten traps to bottom of a barrel and burn slowly a lot of rabbit fur under them; handle as little as possible. Set carefully and catch your fox if you can and you can if you are careful enough. He said he caught fifteen in one place that way in one winter. Fasten trap to drag so he can go away and not spoil set.

My best method is to set my trap in an old log road or path where there is no traveling done. We should set the trap level with the ground. The trap should be a No. 2 Newhouse which is the best fox trap made.

OPOSSUM.

The opossum is not a cunning animal and takes bait readily. It is found in the Southern and Central States principally. This animal cannot live in the extreme north as they die from the severe weather.

They are caught principally in No. 1 Newhouse traps, at dens or places they frequent in search of food. Almost any fresh meat is good bait: rabbit, squirrel, bird, chicken, etc.

The trap can be baited when used at den but this is not necessary. Along their trails and in thickets they visit a piece of bait suspended a foot or so above the ground and trap under, carefully covered, will catch the opossum. They are also caught by building a pen of stakes, or chunks and stones placing bait in the back part and setting trap in front also at hollow logs where they frequently live.

No. 1 Newhouse trap is used a great deal for this animal, although the No. 1 Victor will hold them; No. 2 Oneida Jump, or No. 2 Tree Trap, are proper sizes to catch this animal.

The Tree Trap can be used to advantage in catching opossum as this trap is so made that it can be nailed to a tree or stump and baited.

BADGER.

The badger is a strong animal for its size, and also slow in its movements. The No. 2 is as small a trap as trappers generally use. The traps are set at the entrance to their dens, carefully covered and should be fastened to a moveable clog.

In setting for badger the trapper should carefully remove enough earth to bed the trap level. A piece of paper or long grass is then carefully placed on trap, and this covered lightly with the same material removed in making the excavation. This set is apt to reward the trapper. If care is taken in making this set a fox may be caught, as they sometimes frequent dens used by badger.

SKUNK.

A Skunk is one of the easiest animals, whose fur is valuable that there is to trap. This animal is one of the first to become prime in the fall. Likewise it sheds early in the spring. When the weather becomes severe they den up, coming out only on the warmer nights. In the North they are seldom out after real winter begins, while in the South, they seek food more or less throughout the winter.

The greatest number are trapped at their dens which can be easily told by the long tail hairs found in and near the mouth of den. These hairs may be either white or black, but are usually both--one end white and the other black. These hairs are from three to five inches in length.

The dens can also be told by their droppings or manure which is usually found a few feet to one side of the den. Skunk "droppings" can be told by observing closely as it contains parts of bugs, grass-hoppers, etc., the skunk being very fond of these.

At such dens place your trap which should be a No. 1 Newhouse, No. 1 1/2 Victor, or No. 2 Jump. While catches may be made without any covering it is best to secret the trap carefully for a fox might happen along, or if near water, a mink.

The best place to put the trap is just at the entrance of den so that an animal in coming out will get caught also one going near to the den, but not entering as they often do.

Remove the earth sufficient to bed the trap so that after it is covered the covering will be on a level with the surroundings. Make a covering with whatever you removed. If there is grass in mouth of den, cover with grass, if leaves, cover with leaves, etc.

Another good set is to find where skunk are feeding, digging for insects, or their trails leading from one den to another, and make a cubby, placing bait in it, and setting trap. Bait should be rabbit, squirrel, chicken, bird, or in fact, almost any kind of meat.

CIVET.

Civet or civet cats are caught much the same way as skunk. This is the little spotted animal often called pole cat, and smaller than the skunk. Skunks have a spot on the head and two stripes while the civet has several stripes and these sometimes run across the body instead of along the back from head to tail as on the skunk.

This animal is caught much the same as the skunk, but being much smaller does not require as strong a trap and the No. 1 of most any make will usually hold this animal. Bait the same as for skunk.

RING TAIL CAT.

The Ring Tail cat or Basarisk is found principally in Texas, although there are some in California, Oregon and Washington. They can be trapped by baiting with insects, frogs or mice. The No. 1 Newhouse, or No. 1 1/2 Victor, or No. 2 Oneida Jump are correct sizes for this animal.

The traps can be set about as for skunk or may be placed on logs and baited or the bait can be nailed to a tree that they frequent, the trap placed beneath and carefully covered.

BEAR.

Bear are caught after finding a place that they visit in search of food, by building a "cubby", made by driving old dry stakes in the ground so as to form a V-shaped pen. Then cover all except the entrance with green brush. This should be three feet high, about two wide, and about three or four feet long.

If a rock or old log is laying where the cubby is to be built it can be used for one side. The "cubby" must be built strong or the bear is apt to tear it down and secure the bait without getting caught.

The bait can be a piece of dead horse, hog, sheep, or most any animal, and the more it stinks, the better. Fish is also good bait.

Stake the bait back in the cubby, and set the trap at the entrance. Cover carefully. The trap should be fastened to a clog weighing thirty pounds or more. This clog should be several feet long and if a few knots are left on so much the better.

The Nos. 5, 15, and 150, are all adapted for black bear, while the No. 6 is especially designed for grizzly bear. It is the largest trap made.

In setting bear traps the Newhouse champ, described elsewhere, is much used. It is not very safe for a lone trapper in the forest to undertake the setting of a powerful steel trap without clamps.

MOUNTAIN LION.

Mountain lion are powerful animals yet they are successfully caught in No. 4 1/2 Newhouse traps.

If you find where mountain lions have killed an animal and left part of it there is the place to set a trap for they are almost sure to return in a night or two.

This animal is also frequently caught by setting a trap where deer or other game has been killed. The chances are good if there is a lion near it will smell the blood and be attracted to the spot as many hunters know that have killed game, dressed and left it until the next day, to find on returning that a lion had been there and helped itself.

In setting for this animal the trap should be fastened to a clog--never solid--as they are quite strong.