SQUIRREL TRAP.This loop is run on the projecting stick in the centre of the pound, and pushed back until the loop touches the back wall. The other end of the line is made fast, about 4in. from the ground to the bait, which must be perfectly fresh, clean, sweet, and uncontaminated, to be of any use. Any small pieces of bird or squirrel will do. When the bait is attached, the figure of four is brought into use. The main stem or king post rests on the sharpened end of the centre projecting stick which holds the loop and bait, whilst the drop log rests on the crown point at a slant. Immediately on the animal taking the bait, he walks backward with it, draws the loop along the stick until it draws the king post away, when down drops the fall log across his back and instantly kills him, without injuring his skin.
PLANK FALL-TRAP.In the North of Europe a variety of modifications of the “figure of four” are used for destroying bears, gluttons, and other animals. The woodcuts given on this and the previous page will serve to explain the nature of three of them.
Great numbers of foxes are taken by the Swedish hunters by the use of a contrivance known as a “tana.” This is usually made from the stump end of a small tree, chopped with the axe to a sloping or wedge-like form. Two cuts are then made, one on each side the centre or highest point, on which the bait, usually a cat’s head, or any piece of offal, is fixed. In performing a series of leaps to get at the bait, the fox gets one of his fore-paws in a slit, as shown in the annexed illustration, when he remains a prisoner until dispatched by the hunter.
The fox hook is another contrivance for the capture of foxes and wolves. The illustration on the following page shows the hook when set and before baiting. The body or slip of the contrivance is made by pinning two hard wood sheaves or trucks to a block-piece of any tough wood; a tough young tree is bent down to form the spring; a loop, or bellying of the line, which must be of strong cord, is placed between the trucks, and a small wedge inserted to keep it there. The hook, which is best made from bone or horn, is next baited with a piece of meat, and placed on the ground. When a fox or wolf seizes the bait, the first determined tug he gives draws out the wedge. The block-piece, with its trucks, remains attached to a stump, whilst the pole-spring flies violently up, and carries with it the prowler, who hangs like some fur-jacketed and odd-looking fish. Assafœtida, when rubbed against stumps and logs, is said to attract wolves.
The professional trapper, who derives his livelihood from the sale of the skins which good fortune and skill combined may cast in his way, avails himself largely of the use of the steel trap or gin for the capture of animals of all kinds and descriptions; and in no country in the world has the manufacture and use of this valuable contrivance reached such perfection as in the United States of America. The steel traps manufactured at Oneida, on the Newhouse principle, are admirable, and range from the “0” size, adapted for musk-rat, to No. 6, or “the great bear tamer,” represented in the annexed illustration.