BAIT SET SNARE.
This snare I consider good for such animals as will take bait. (See
page 141.)
No. 1 and 2, headless wire nails driven horizontally into tree about
ten inches from ground.
No. 3, a No. 10 or 12 wire nail with head used to catch under No. 1
and 2.
No. 4, bait stick or trigger. No. 3 passes through No. 4.
No. 5, bait, frog tied to bottom of No. 4.
No. 6's snare, fastened to No. 3 by two half hitches, then fastened
to No. 3 by two half hitches, then fastened to seven or spring pole.
No. 7, spring pole.
Nos. 8, 8, small stakes driven in ground to form a pen.
Nos. 9, 9, two small twigs split at top to hold snare loop in place.
Nos. 1 and 2 should be about 4 inches apart.
No. 3 goes through a gimlet hole in No. 4. About three inches from
the top use any small round stick from 1/2 to 1 inch in thickness,
not necessary to flatten No. 4 as in illustration. Use it natural
bark on. From hole in No. 4 to bottom end should be about 7 inches.
[Illustration: RAT RUNWAY SNARE. UNDERGROUND RAT RUNWAY. RUNWAY AND
CUBBY SET. LOG SET SNARE. COW PATH SNARE.]
Snare loop about 6 inches in front of bait, held in place by 9, 9,
slightly leaning against 8,8.
It can be plainly seen that if an animal takes No. 5 in its jaws and
tries to remove it, it moves out the bottom of No. 4, moving forward
No. 3 until, flip! up she goes. The top of No. 4 must be tight
against the tree when set.
[Illustration: LIFTING POLE SNARE.]
No. 3 should just catch under No. 1 and 2, then it takes but 1/2 inch
to pull on bait to spring it. Bait with frogs, fish, tainted meat for
skunk, and pieces of rabbit, muskrat or bird, for mink.
The lynx, like the wolverine, is not afraid of a snowshoe track, and
will follow a line of rabbit snare for long distances, and when he
sees a bunny hanging up, he, without the least compunction,
appropriates it to himself, by right of discovery.
When he does this once he will come again and the Indian hunter,
knowing this, at once sets a snare for "Mister Cat." Sometimes when
the thief has left a portion of the rabbit, a branch house is built
up against the trunk of some tree, the remains of the rabbit placed
at the back and the snare set at the doorway.
[Illustration: BAIT SET SNARE.]
A stout birch stick is cut about three or four feet long and lodged
on a forked stick at each side of the door and about two and a half
feet high. To the middle of this crossbar the end of the twine is
tied; No. 9 Holland is generally used, or No. 6 thread cod line. This
is gummed by rubbing balsam branches up and down the twine in the
same way as the bear snare. The noose is held in shape in one or two
places at each side by a light strand of wood or blade of grass and a
couple of small dry sticks are placed upright under the snare to
prevent the cat from passing beneath.
The loop is almost as large as for a bear and as high from the
ground, if not higher. The lynx has long legs and carries his head
straight in front of him and takes a snare by pushing thru it, or by
a rush, never crouching and then springing.
As the resort of rabbits is a young growth of country, there are also
lynx in the greatest numbers. Rabbits and partridges are their
principal food. When the Indian enters a new piece of country to set
rabbit snares to support his wife and family and sees signs of lynx,
he combines the two kinds of hunting and as he goes along, once in a
while, he bars his snowshoe track by placing a lynx snare in the way.
The lynx are fond of the smell of castor, as indeed are most animals,
so the hunter rubs a little on a tree at each side of his snare for
the cat to rub against when he comes that way.
The snare is never tied to anything immovable, as they are very
powerful and would break the twine. As soon as the noose tightens the
cross piece comes readily away from the supports and the cat springs
to one side. The stick, however, either knocks him a blow or gets
tangled in his legs. This he tries several times, but with the same
result, that bothersome stick is always hanging to his neck. About
the last effort he makes to free himself is to ascend a tree. This,
however, is nearly always fatal, for after he gets up a certain
distance this trouble some stick is sure to get fast back of some
limb. The lynx by this time, having become a pretty cross cat, makes
matters worse and the hunter finds him hanging dead, at times twenty
or thirty feet from the earth.