Where the trapper has just set traps for foxes or wolves and these animals visit them within a few hours they perhaps are aware that a person has been about as both "scent" and "sign" may be there.
To overcome "human scent" and "sign" the trapper must leave no "sign" and as for "human scent" it will leave in a short time. In visiting the traps do not go near unless disturbed.
CHAPTER XXIV.
HINTS ON FALL TRAPPING.
Before the readers of the H-T-T receive the November issue the death sentence will have been passed and executed upon many a luck-less fur-bearer whose hides will be "on the fence," for in many states trapping can be done at any time, more is the pity, writes a Michigan trapper and buyer. In Michigan no trapping is allowed until November 1st, which is plenty soon enough. Last season I saw many hundreds of skunk, coon and mink and also opossum skins that had been taken in October and were only trash. It was a worthless, wasteful slaughter. Muskrats are the only animals that may, with reason, be taken during the first half of October and yet it is better to wait until general collections are good.
I will first ask the amateur if he uses the precaution to stake his rat and mink traps at water sets with bushes instead of stakes. They do not attract the attention of hunters and other stragglers and especially boys as does the new whittled wood of a stake; sometimes it is necessary to go still farther than this and cut a short stake and shove it entirely out of sight under water or mud.