SOME NORTHERN FURS.
When fastened properly to a bush or light drag, the game rarely escapes even though the trap has only a toe hold, unless the trapper is days in making the rounds. Should an animal escape when only slightly injured it is apt to soon return.
In many cases where game has escaped after once being caught it is not the fault of the trap but of the trapper. Should the bone in the animal's leg be broken and after days of endeavoring the animal frees itself there should be no blame attached to the trap, the fault is with the trapper — he should have visited the trap sooner.
Many trappers believe that animals become so sharp that they will turn traps over. This we hardly believe. At the same time trappers have set traps upside down and caught the animals. This, perhaps, is accounted for from the fact that the animal in reaching for bait would turn the trap. It is usually the case that animals will go about getting bait in a certain manner and the changing of location of trap may be the means of making a catch.
Some years ago when trapping mink, I visited a certain deadfall that was "down" each morning and the bait eaten. The trap was reset and rebaited each time for perhaps a week, even after making the pen smaller and the trap easier to go off, it continued to be down and bait gone. By this time I was anxious, and taking a No. 1 steel trap I carefully set it on the inside of the pen, covered it well and rebaited the deadfall. On my round the next morning neither the trap nor bait were disturbed.
The second morning the deadfall was down and in the steel trap was a small mink — the smallest I ever caught. This accounted for the animal being able to get inside the pen and eat the bait. It was so small that when the log fell its body was entirely inside the fall. I hardly think that small mink, which was less than a year old, knew that it would get caught unless it was inside the fall, but its size was such that it could easily get out of danger, and each time it ate the bait it was in the same position on the inside.
CHAPTER XX.
GOOD DENS.
Some trappers as soon as they have caught one animal remove their trap thinking that there is no longer any use to leave it at that den. While this may sometime hold good in case of large game, such as bear, panther, etc., it does not with most animals; in fact, there are certain dens where trappers each season take from two to five or even more animals. In the case of the larger game even they seem to scent your bait and two bears and occasionally more have been caught at the same place within a few days.