UNUSUAL WAYS.
We can hardly approve of some of the methods herein described, but
they will doubtless continue to be employed so long as they are not
prohibited by law. Occasionally too, there might be circumstances to
justify resorting to the most objectionable of them, writes a trapper
and hunter of Maine.
The first of those I shall speak of requires a good dog, one that
will follow the mink's track and drive him to hole. Nearly any
intelligent dog, with a fair amount of the hunting instinct, can soon
be trained to do this by allowing him to smell a few mink carcasses
while skinning, and calling his attention at every opportunity to the
trails of the animals along the streams, following them up and making
an effort to bag the mink, with his help, as often as possible. The
first snows afford good conditions for the rudimentary training, as
the trail can then be plainly seen by the trapper (or rather hunter
as he should be styled in this case) while a good scent is left for
the dog.
Having qualified the dog for tracking, the next requisite is a
partner. This, of course, means a division of the profits, but is
unavoidable, as the work cannot be performed satisfactory by one
alone. Indeed, it will more often be found convenient to have yet a
third hand, which may be a boy to manage the dog and assist
generally.
[Illustration: A FEW GOOD ONES.]
A meadow brook, not too large, with low, spongy banks, can be worked
to best advantage. Look the ground well over in advance, acquainting
yourself with the haunts of the game, and all the holes and other
places in which a mink is likely to take refuge when pursued. For an
outfit you need at least a crowbar and shovel (sometimes a sharp
pointed, hardwood stick can be made to answer for the former) and
each man should have a gun.
Go to the brook in the early morning, before the scent has had time
to cool. Allow the dog to hunt along the borders and under the banks,
and when he picks up a track, work along with him until he has the
game in hiding. You will find it necessary to assist him
considerably, as mink by no means always travel on land. When one
takes to the water, as they usually do at short intervals, the trail
is broken beyond the ability of the strongest nosed dog to follow at
such times as this, that is when Mr. Mink takes the brook for it, one
should go ahead with the dog and find where he resumed dry footing.
It will probably not be far, for he is in and out every few yards or
so, and if you go far without striking the trail you had better turn
back, for he is most likely hiding in the bank somewhere behind you.
After locating the hole where he is hiding, let the dog dig him out
while a man stands a little distance up and down the brook
respectively, with gun ready cocked for him when he comes along. If
the hole extends some distance back into the bank, the rear end may
usually be reached, after a few trials, by thrusting the bar down
from overhead, which will have the effect to send the hunted animal
forth in a hurry. Often, however, the spade will have to be brought
into requisition and used freely before the object is accomplished.
At first he will probably forsake one hole only to take refuge in
another, but when he finds that you are really after him, and that
there is, moreover, a dog in the racket, he will try the dodge of
swimming under water. Then is your time. Watch for him at the shallow
places, where he will prove an easy mark. Have guns loaded light and
aim to have charge strike a little to one side of body. The
concussion will be sufficient to stop him, and the fur will not be
injured as in firing point blank. It is exciting sport for the mink
is like "greased lightning" in his movements, and if given the least
chance will outwit both dog and man and escape.
An old New Hampshire gunner told us that he and his partner once got
sixteen mink this way in one week, the best of which brought them
twelve to fifteen dollars a skin. He knew absolutely nothing about
trapping so resorted to this method instead. We have mentioned spade,
bar and guns as comprising the necessary outfit, but of course various
other implements of one's own invention and manufacture can often be
used to advantage. Some make great account of a piece of wire with a
sharp hook at one end for thrusting into the hole and drawing the
mink to the light, as a trout from the water. Others use a long
handled spear to thrust under banks, or to pinion the game when going
through shallows. A truly barbarous practice besides the further
objections of greatly damaging the pelt of the animals taken thus.
[Illustration: BROKE THE FASTENING.]
Another mode of capturing the mink is to lie about the streams on wet
and foggy days and shoot him. They travel a great deal in such
weather. By selecting a spot where you can keep well hidden, yet
commanding a long stretch of beach under some overhanging bank, you
stand a good chance to secure a shot if you have plenty of patience.
Of course you would not be apt to get many in a day, but one mink
represents a pretty good day's work at the price they are selling
now.
One characteristic of the animal should be borne in mind when
pursuing this method of hunting him, and that is his persistency in
going whichever way he wishes to go. If a mink starts to go up a
brook he's going up before he gets through with it, or lose his life
trying; and down the same. The more anybody or anything tries to
prevent him, the more desperate and reckless he grows in his efforts
to accomplish his aim. So if one sees you and turns back startled
don't follow him, but just crouch down in a convenient hiding place
and wait for him. The chances are ninety to one that he will soon be
back again.
I have known trappers to have good success taking mink with a common
box trap such as is used in catching rats about the house and barn,
and I am inclined to think that aside from its bulkiness this is a
pretty good sort of trap. Some use poison as for the wolf, but the
use of this on animals was always repugnant to me.
Perhaps the queerest method of which I ever heard was that mentioned
by a gentleman in Illinois. He claimed to have caught mink with an
ordinary fish hook, baited, and attached to a piece of wire.
I do not believe, however, that any of the methods mentioned in this
article are equal for effectiveness and true sport to the regular way
with steel trap or deadfall. Some of them, it seems to me, I could
not be induced to make use of on any account. And yet, as already
stated, one might find himself in circumstances that would justify
their adoption.