Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 94, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1911 — TRAPPING THE WARY BEASTS [ARTICLE]

TRAPPING THE WARY BEASTS

Caution of Martens and Foxes is Taken Advantage of by Hunters in Northern Maine. Olamon, Me.—A curious feature of trapping; fur bearing animals in the woods of northern Maine is that in many cases the hunters are enabled to succeed by reason of the extreme caution of the animals themselves. Along the swift waters of the upper Penobscot river the most valuable fur is that of the slim and alert fisher cat, or marten. The American fisher is one of the most cautious creatures of the forests and streams, and only a few Indians and white trappers have the secret of luring it to the vicinity of traps. The fisher will never negotiate anything but live fish for bait, » and will -never approach its food save from the shore side of a stream or lake. As a rule when winter fishermen catch trout through the ice they pass on from hidden eddies to deep holes, chopping canals in the surface ice as they go. which when filled with water are used to hold the live trout until they return over the same stream later In the day. The trappers of fisher cats, finding half torpid trout squirming about in the icy water, make ready to carry out their plans. The flat trencher of a stout steel trap is baited with a live trout, which has become too weak to spring the mechanism, and a deeper water canal than usual is chopped far Inshore, if possible under a limb of an overhanging tree. g The fisher never walks up or down the stream on the open ice, but clings close to the shore. At the sight of the living trout on top of the ice the fisher creeps out cautiously and having made sure the coast is clear leaps directly from the shore or the tree on top of the trout, only to be clutched In the jaws of the trap. In most parts of New England foxes enter baited traps set In running water without great hesitation. Further north along the Allagash river not a fox will enter a trap save through strategy, although the bait may be scented with secret preparations costing much money to buy and use. The best results are secured by sticking a limber spring pole upright In the ground or in a snowdrift in the center of a small clearing in the forest, the spring \o!e having a dead bare or the body of a ben or duck attached by the neck and lifted a foot or less above the level surface. Two \or more steel traps are put out set but unbaited from ten to fifteen feet jfrom the spring pole, i When an old fox comes along and scents the flesh he sniffs the air for a long time, and begins slowly to circle the pole, keeping far away from the halt at first, but drawing nearer with

every turn. The process is long and slow. At some point along the course the fox, with ears and nostrils and eyes always intent upon the suspended bait, steps suddenly within the open jaws of the trap, which closes with a snap, and the fox Is an active and regretful prisoner until the trapper comes along and removes the pelt.