CHAPTER XXVIII.

SOME DEEP WATER SETS.

When the rivers and lakes are fast bound with the grip of winter, it is not always convenient to find a suitable place to set a beaver or otter trap under the ice, says Martin Hunter in the H-T-T. The shore line may drop away into too deep water to set at the bank, or, it may be uneven rocks which preclude the possibility of making a safe and sure set.

When such conditions confront the trapper, it is good to know how to set a trap in deep water. It was a Mic-Mac Indian who showed me how and on several occasions I have found the knowledge very useful and profitable. In fact, more than once had I not known this, the conditions were such that it would have been utterly impossible for me to have set in the usual way. In after years, during my sojourn amongst Montagnais, Algonquins and Ojbway Indians, I never came across any trapper of these tribes who knew how to set a trap in deep water.

For beaver especially, what better place than in the proximity of their lodge? And what more successful time than in January or February, when their winter supply of wood has become sodden and slimy from months of submersion.

Then cut an opening in the ice, off from the lodge entrance, and introduce a birch or popple sapling into the hole, cover the opening up with snow and come back in a couple of days, chisel about the protruding sticks and pull them out. Oh! where are they? You will find only the stumps in your hand. The beaver has come and cut the succulent young trees off close to the under surface of the ice and towed them away to his lodge. Now, if you could only set a trap there and place more flesh food you would most likely get that beaver, but the water is deep. Your baiting hole is away from the shore thirty or forty feet and you measure the depth and find six or seven feet of water. Again you scratch your head and are sore perplexed.

But, my fellow trappers, it is right here where I step in and show you the way to overcome the difficulty. Had I not caught beaver under such conditions I would not presume to teach others, but I have trapped them this way and always with success. And as for otter, setting in deep water is much surer than at an opening in a dam or other place which is likely to freeze up and put the trap out of order.

Now if you will follow me I will describe a "deep water set" in as clear a way as possible, so that any ordinary trapper ought to be able to use it successfully. Cut a trench in the ice thru to clear water, fourteen to eighteen inches broad by four feet long; clear this hole free from any floating particles of ice, cut (dry if possible) a young spruce or tamarac, twelve to fifteen feet long. Have it three or four inches in diameter at the butt end, branch it off from end to end and rub off with axe blade all loose bark.

Introduce the small end into the water obliquely, shoving it down in the mud or sand of the bottom, with the butt end resting on the ice at one end of the opening. If the pole is too long to get the proper angle, take it out and cut off the surplus. This dry pole is to set the trap on and has to be at the proper incline so that when the beaver is swimming while cutting the bait sticks, he sets off the trap. When the pole is in the proper position, mark with your axe or chisel about twelve or fifteen inches under the level of the water.

Now take out the pole and hew a flat surface, at the spot previously marked, about a foot long. Slant your pole sideways and drive in the corner of your axe half an inch under the hewed flat surface, drive the axe until the pole is almost split in twain. If the opening wants to close back too tight, introduce a small sliver of wood. Now set your No. 4 trap; run the ring up the pole above where the trap is to rest and secure it there with a piece of wire or a small staple. Force the spear part of the bottom of the trap into the split, chuck up to the main bottom part that engages the ends of the jaw. The trap is now in place.

When there is a muddy or sandy bottom, the better way is to allow enough length of pole to bury a foot or so into the bottom. This will hold the pole secure and prevent rolling. Now take two nice, young, juicy popple or young birch, branch them off clear to the small end and have them six to nine feet long; put them in small end first and place one on each side of trap, five inches from it and about the same above. These pieces of food wood can be kept in proper place by packing the butt ends down on the solid ice and putting snow and water on top.

If it is at all cold it will get solid in a few moments. Next process is to cut fifteen or twenty young spruce trees a couple of inches in diameter and about five feet long; place these straight up and down outside the popple wood. This will form a fence at each side with spaces four inches apart. Right up at the end where all your work centers, a few dry branches can be forced in and down to prevent the animal from cutting away the food from the back. With a little practice you can have all this fixed to a nicety.

The beaver entering from the lower slope of the wood and swimming up to gnaw the sticks close to the ice, sets off the trap and in his struggles he pulls it clear from the cleft and in a few moments is drowned. After all is in shape the opening in the ice is dusted over with snow and left to freeze.

In visiting the trap at the end of two or three days, it is only necessary to chisel a very small hole to see if the trap or bait are displaced. This can be readily ascertained by lying flat on the ice, partly cover your head with your coat or blanket and with your face close to the hole all objects in a few moments will become clear.

For otter set, the trap pole is made in the same way, but instead of popple or birch, a small fish is used for bait. Skewer it from the dorsal fin thru to the stomach and suspend it above and back of the trap at the proper distance. As it appears in its natural position in the water and the skewer is hardly visible, an otter swimming past takes it for a live fish and in dashing for his meal gets caught.

I have found this set very successful in creeks and small rivers, even in setting out from the shore.

Otters, like mink, have their feeding grounds on lakes and connecting rivers and are sure to skirt the shores in swimming down or up stream. If the stream is very broad it will be as well to have a trap on each shore and thus enhance the certainty of getting his fur.

The best fish for an otter set is white fish or trout a pound and a half to two pounds. By changing the bait once a week your trap can be kept set all winter without getting out of order.

Back of this article I mentioned "chisel." A chisel is almost a necessity to a trapper, especially if the ice is thick. With only an axe the trapper gets splashed all over and when this freezes he is in a most uncomfortable state. A good strong ice chisel can be had in the ordinary one and a half-inch carpenter's mortising chisel. Have a hole drilled thru both sides of the socket about three-quarters of an inch from the rim, carry a stout screw in your pocket and the chisel in your bag or bundle.

When necessary to use the chisel for ice trenching, cut a dry sound young sapling, six feet long, take off most of the bark and point the end the required length and shape off the socket by knocking the end of the handle against a nearby tree or rock. The chisel becomes firmly fixed. Now introduce the screw into one of the holes and with your axe bang it clear thru and out on the other side. The screw used for this purpose should be one and three-quarters inches long.

When finished with your chisel, if not likely to be required again at that place, it may be chopped off the handle and at your first fire the socket part can be placed in hot ashes or close to the blaze until the wood stump is so charred that it will readily scrape out, securing the screw for another time. Ice chisels are indispensable to any one trapping beaver, otter or mink, and no Indian would consider his outfit complete without one. I have seen them made out of the prong of a deer antler. This was before the imported article was introduced into the far back country. The horn was sharpened to a cutting edge at the business end and the shank lashed to the handle with deer skin thongs.