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Full Title
How to make and set traps : Including hints on how to trap moles, weasels, otter, rats, squirrels and birds. Also how to cure skins / by J. Harrington Keene.
Author
Keene, J. Harrington.
Date Added
9 January 2014
Format
Journal
Language
English
Publish Date
1902
Publisher
New York : Frank Tousey
Series
Ten cent handbooks > no. 40
Source
Dime Novel and Popular Literature
Alternate Title
Ten cent handbooks -- no. 40
Topic
Trapping > Handbooks, manuals, etc. Hunting > Handbooks, manuals, etc. Hides and skins > Handbooks, manuals, etc.
About
More Details Permanent Link
Disclaimers
Disclaimer of Liability Disclaimer of Endorsement
OCR
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How Tu MARE AND -SET TRAPS. 2s
of the creature for fishing purposes, is by no means uncom-
mon.
The otter is usually hunted with dogs of-a particular
breed, but I shall not attempt to describe this species of
sport in this place. There are those who object to hunting
on principle, and I am not bigoted enough to say they are
altogether wrong. Certain, however, it is that otter hunt-
ing is remarably exhilarating, and there is a great deal of
{un to be got out of the mishaps which are sure to eusue to
the hunters as they scamper and splash and rush and dash
over the bowlders, through bush and brier and stream and
rivulet, till the wily brute ig either caught or ‘ kenneled.”
So far as Wwe are now concerned, I shall content myself
with telling you how to trap this vermin of the water, and
ifever you become possessed of a stream or lake of fish do
not forget that the otter is your chiefest evemy—excepting
the human poacher, of course.
~-Now we will presume you are one morning early taking a
walk by the side of your favorite stream. On each side the
willows and alders bend over the water and their roots
clutch the banks with rigged fingers, forming coverts for
rats, moorhens, dabchicks, aud other small fry, as well as
for the quiet-loving trout.
Presently, as you attentively note these features, you are
aware of a sort of footpath proceeding from the stream, and
on looking closer you notice that fresh excrement has been
left and that footprints of a dog like animal are to be seen
in the soft earth. Follow this trail and perchance, ere many
steps have been taken, you come upon the carmine-spotted
body of a two-pound trout, minus head and shoulders, or 4
pound silver eel with its brondest part eaten away. You vow
know that an otter has been at work, and you must vow that”
he shall die. But how? Listen. The track is fresh. Good!
Procure the largest rabbit-gin you can, and after attaching
it firmly to a stake driven under water, drive two more
sticks under water exactly where the otter comes ashore,
and set it upon them. Do not bait the trap at all, or the
otter will not come near, but simply set it under water, SO
that when his ottership comes to bank with his ill-gotten
booty he puts his foot on the plate of the gin, A good plan
algo, where this one is not practicable, is to carefully cut up
a sod of dirt in the pathway_of the otter, and set the gin
very gingerly, covering it up completely with short grass
anda sprinkling of dirt. In any case use gloves, so that
your hands are not snelt, for, strange as it may seem in an
animal getting its food by gicht, the sense of smell is ex-.
quisitely developed in the otter. When caught be very cares
{ul not to handle him, His teeth are “ orful.”,
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