LEFT FOR THE FOXES TO DEVOUR.
Now I have a question at hand. In one place he is not afraid and around the trap he is afraid. Now, how does he know when to be afraid or not? I think because when he sees a piece of bait in a new place it is not natural. Once last winter I knew where there was a dead horse and I used to go by it, and one day my brother was with me and of course he knew I could get a fox there, so to please him I set a trap, and not another fox came near. Well I smoked that trap, boiled it in hemlock and then smeared it with tallow, but the fox knew and never came within ten feet of it again, when they were coming every night before. When I went by there before I set my trap I left as much scent as after, and how could he tell when there was a foot of snow blown there by the wind after I set my trap.
Now they don't appear to be afraid of human scent or iron in some places and around a trap they are, so now why should they know where to be shy? Well, because it may be in an unnatural place, unless it is instinct or good sharp sense. As for scent, I know that rotten eggs and onions are not natural, although the matrix of the female fox in the running season is very good. Also such as skunk or muskrat scent or fish, as it smells rotten and makes a strong smell.
One word to the novice fox trapper, and I will leave space for something more valuable. You must make things look natural around the spring and smell natural, and put before them the food that God has provided for them, and you will have success by placing the trap in the mud of the spring, and putting a sod on the pan of the trap that has not been handled by the hand of a human being.
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.