CHAPTER XI.
TRAP, SNARE, SHOOTING AND POISON.
Some say that scent is no good, and that they can trap more without it, and they even go so far as to offer to match their craft with those using it. I don't call myself a trapper, says E. R. Lafleche, of Canada, as I never spend much time at hunting or trapping. When I go in the woods it is only for a little recreation, and not being an old hunter, I do not know it all yet, but will say that I can get more than my share of foxes in any place here in Canada.
For the benefit of the young as well as many old trappers I will give here my methods of trapping, snaring, shooting and poisoning the fox, which is as good, if not better, than any I have seen. I can clean the foxes out of any section of the country without having to purchase any of the so-called famous scent.
To take away the human scent from whatever I do, I make a bath as follows: First, take 2 lbs. of male cedar branches, 2 lbs. balsam branches, and 1 lb. good hen manure; chop the branches fine and place the whole in a pot in 2 gallons of soft water, "fresh rain water is the best" and boil until reduced to 1 1/2 gallon. Second, take a clean pail or tub, smoke it with birch or balsam bark, then place solution, cover and keep in a temperate place. To make the scent, take equal parts of the following: Fresh eel, honey in comb, chicken, pig liver, mice; chop the whole together like mince meat and bottle, cork and place the bottle in a pail or tub of water so that it will float and in a warm place. A good way is to place the bottle in some shallow part of a lake, creek or river much exposed to the sun, and where the water is warm; use a strong bottle and fill about three-fourths of it, and remove the cork from time to time for fear the fermentation smashes the bottle, and as soon as it has settled, cork well and keep in a temperate place for a week or so, and it is ready for use.
Smear your snowshoes and go where you like, and there will not be a single fox that will come to your trail that will not follow it to the end.
To take the iron smell from traps, first clean them well in warm water. Second, put them in the bath for 10 or 12 hours. Third, smoke them with birch and balsam bark; then they are ready to set, Place the trap 18 inches from the bait and put a few drops of the medicine under the pan of the trap, get a small shovel made of sieve wire, and sieve some snow over the trap and over your signs up to three feet or more from your bait. Don't spit or monkey with pipe and tobacco. Place your bait near a large stone, stump, fence or tree, and in such a way that the fox will be able to approach the bait from side where the trap is; always set the trap so that the loose jaw will be at the far end from the bait.