Please wait. Contacting image service... loading

Article text

TRAPS FOR ANT At A LS.
Bob Michael, one of the best hunt
ers and most Thorough oi 'woodsmen
in Northern Herkimer County, New
York, walked against a string one
'glit, and was mortally wounded with
ouckshot.
An old French Canadian trapper
ifcove the Saranac Lake region was
-:elting a 17-lb. steel bear trap near
111 old burning one day. and had both
inns caught "between the jaws, and
.here his body remained lor weeks,
jeiag found at last when the mice
ind lints had gnawed his bones.
I11 Africa a curious trap is used for
.lephau'ts. It consists merely of a
ong blade of steel in a tour foot, log
it wood, suspended from a tree by
triggers. When the elephant stirs the
nring, the contrivance drops, burying
lie steel between the victim's shoul-
Icr blades.
Tigers are captured in India by a
how and arrow trap. A chunk of bait
is hung 011 a stick, below which the
arrow is aimed. When the tiger pulls
the bait, the bowstring is loosened,
-tiitl the arrow is supposed to find its
way into the animal's heart.
Baited traps are not usually dan
gerous to human life. It is when
strincrs. half concealed bv bushes and
grass, are hung across the runaways
that there is danger of men walking
into them and having bullets, arrows,
or drop sticks shot into them.
One of the odd things one meets
in forests where bears, panthers, and
wild eats are found is a log house,
a sort of lean-to camp, with an eight-
inch spruce stick lying over tlie "en
trance and jutting off into the woods
50 or GO feet. A hewn plank inside
tlie inclosure is arranged so as to look
like a fine resting place for a foot.
Beyond the plank is a chunk of foul
smelling meat, burned honeycomb, or
other bait suitable for the intended
game.
Men who use dogs in hunting detest
such contrivances, ior the animal that
steps on the plank lias its back brok
en by the spruce stick. Such a dead
fall is hard to build, but it is among
the surest of traps for large game that
is not shy of enclosure. It is remem
bered of a lost and starving Indian
that he .tried to reach the bait of a
lead fall and was crushed by the logs,
hough not killed instantly. Other
nen have had fingers crushed iu mink
ind marten dead falls.
Men set snares for big game, using
wire rope to encircle the beasts' necks
when they venture to touch the bait.
Tt is a curious fact that such men
sometimes get a leg in their own trap,
and are yanked into the air by the
stout sapling tree used as a spring
pole. After the man has dangled with
his head downward, trying to climb
the spring pole feet first for a while,
and finally gets down safely, he exer
cises extra care with his machines
thereafter.
$