I see where a buyer was called to buy 14 fox hides and only found one prime skin. All water caught. That is my experience with water caught fox. They have to be caught too early. It may be different in some localities, but not here, as the water is frozen by the time fox are prime. Try dry land sets and see if I am not right, and have more money for your work later on.

I always set two traps to one bed, and cover with dry dirt until it freezes. Then I use chaff. Handle all with clean gloves and be as cunning as a fox yourself.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PACK OF NEW ENGLAND FOX HOUNDS.]

CHAPTER XV.

FRED AND THE OLD TRAPPER.

Young trappers can learn much by making the rounds with experienced trappers. The following conversation between Fred and an old Pennsylvania trapper is interesting:

"Where was the trap set? I do not see any bait pen."

"Fred, you take this stick and walk up slowly to him; go up close and give him a sharp blow across the back of the neck. That will fix him.

You see that big mossy log laying on the bank over there. That was where he was caught. We will now set the trap again. See this little sink in the log. That is where the trap was set. This limb is what the trap was fastened to, one end on the ground and the other comes just up to the log where the trap is set, and we will staple the trap to it. We will now cover it with moss just like this on this log, but we will get it from another log. No one could tell that there was a trap there."

"Will not the fox smell it?"

"He might if it was not for this fox carca.s.s. We will skin the fox.

Look out there, Fred, do not disturb the moss or anything on that log where the trap is. Keep away from that. We will put this carca.s.s in the little hollow and will drive a crotched stake straddle of its neck; drive it well down; now take this stick and rake some leaves over it, cover the neck where the stake is quite well, the rest of the carca.s.s only lightly. You have done it very well and the fox will not notice what scent there is on the trap as long as that carca.s.s is there."

"But you had no carca.s.s there when you caught this one, and I have heard that a fox was afraid of the scent of iron."

"That is all bosh! Keep the traps free from all foreign scent and you need not be afraid of the scent of the iron, but if you catch some animal in the trap then you must have some of the scent of that animal around near the trap. This will overcome what scent there is on the trap. This, however, is only necessary with shy animals like the fox. c.o.o.n and skunk are not afraid of what they smell.

"How did you know that a fox would go on that log where that trap was set?"

"By knowing the nature of the animal. When the fox smelt the bear bait in the pen there we knew that he would get on the highest point near the pen to investigate, and that point was that log."

"Is this the only way you catch foxes?"

"No, this is only one of the many ways."

CHAPTER XVI.

EXPERIENCED TRAPPER'S TRICKS.

The fox is the most cunning animal we have, consequently he is the most difficult one to trap, says C. E. Matheny, of Ohio. But like all other animals he has a weak point, and if you attack him at this point he will, without a doubt, fall into your snares. One of the most important things when about to trap a fox is to have the trap perfectly clean. The word clean, in this sense, does not allude to freedom from rust, but means that the trap should be entirely free from human scent. In order to avoid this, the trap must be thoroughly washed in lye and when dry, well greased and smoked over burning feathers. It has already been said that the fox has a very keen scent, but it is particularly shy and scary at the least odor of the human body. It is therefore necessary when handling the trap to use clean buckskin, or still better, rubber gloves, and unless this important precaution is observed success is very improbable. The next step is to make the bed for the trap, and although there are various ways of doing this, the following, I believe, is the best method.

The bed should be about three and a half feet in diameter, and made of wheat, hay or buckwheat chaff. Some trappers use wood ashes, but any of the above will be found better. The ground upon which the bed is made should be hollowed out in the center so as to admit the trap, and the bed should be made as hard as possible and deep enough to cover the trap, and at the same time be perfectly level with the ground.

When the bed is made as directed, take the trap (which should be a No. 2 and have a chain and clog attached to it) and place it in the hollow in the center of the bed. After setting the trap put some of the chaff inside the jaws as high as the pan. Cover the pan with paper so that the chaff will not prevent its working freely, and then cover the whole with chaff and level it off so that the fox will not suspect a trap to be there; finally bait it with fresh meat, cheese, or better still, cracklings after lard is pressed out. Scatter them liberally over the bed; do not tramp about the bed more than is absolutely necessary, and cover up all foot-tracks as much as possible.

It is a good plan to smear the trap with a.s.safoetida or melted beeswax, with a few drops of the oil of rhodium. These are all good and may be employed for the purpose of deceiving a particularly cunning fellow after all other stratagems fail. Another good plan is to bait the bed several times before setting the trap, until the fox begins to think that this is the best place it ever knew to find a choice morsel ready at all hours. When a proper degree of confidence appears to have been established then put the trap in its place and catch him--if you can.

First take a No. 3 Blake & Lamb trap, and look around over the fields or woods and find where the sand has washed down and is fine as wood ashes, says F. A. Aurand, of Michigan. You will always find if you keep close watch over the fields that a fox likes to get on the fine sand and play or walk over and around on it for some reason, as you will always find their tracks on the sand in the fall and spring. Now take for bait any of the following: dead chicken, or turkey, or beef's hind leg, but I think the best is beef's old head. Now take the old head, dig down in the sand and set the head down in the sand so that the jaws and nose are out of the sand about to the eyes. Now take your traps, about three No. 3 B. & L. traps, take a stake and fasten the rings to the stake, and drive the stake below the surface of the sand and cover it over the top.

Now dig a small trench for the chains, lay the chains in the trenches, a trench for each chain. Spread the traps each way from the old head, and set the trap out away from the head as far as the chains will let them go, by driving the stake right close to the head. Then dig a small place in the sand so the trap will set just level with the surface of the sand, for each trap to set in. Take a small piece of cotton batton and put enough under each pan of the traps to keep the sand from getting under pans so they won't spring.

Now take the sand that you took out of the places for the traps and cover them all over, traps, chains and all. Then take a small bush and brush out all your tracks and over the traps. If you have done your work well you can hardly tell where the traps are. You can use some good scent on the sand or on the old head, but I don't think it needs it. Fix the old head in the sand quite a little while before you want to trap. All I ever caught I caught in this way. If you do everything right I am sure of your success.

I have visited hundreds of trappers in Maine and Canada, and have learned many of the secrets of successful trapping from them and also from my own personal experience and observation, writes N. C.

Burbank. I have come to the conclusion that the basis of all the most successful secret decoys for catching fox is the substance taken from the glands of the female fox during the running season, mixed with grease of some sort, together with contents of the glands of the skunk, preferably the female taken in the spring or latter part of the winter. I do not pretend to say that every one will be successful who uses that decoy. I am of the opinion, if directions are closely followed in the following method of water trapping for fox, you are reasonably sure to catch them if you use that decoy.

During the month of August or September select some spring or place about a foot and a half from the edge, or in the center of a circular spring that is not over 4 feet wide, a sod 8 or 10 inches across, and arrange a place to set the trap a few inches from the outside. This must be done early in the season, so all evidence of human work and scent will be removed before trapping time.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SPRING AND SOD SET.]

When the season arrives you are ready to set your trap, and you do so in the following manner: In selecting springs you must find one that has an outlet so you can walk in the water for a distance of three rods, six or eight is better. Set your trap and take it up to the spring or place selected, walking in the water and using the greatest care not to touch bushes or anything to leave the scent of yourself.

Place the trap in the place prepared in the early season, being sure it is covered over entirely, chain and all, by water. Then cover with dead leaves or whatever is on the bottom of the spring. Place upon the trap pan a small sod as light a one as possible, allowing it to be out of the water at least one inch so that the fox in reaching for the bait will step on the sod, which should be six or eight inches from the sh.o.r.e. Fox, like the human being, do not like to wet their feet.

Now you have the trap set and then comes the baiting. Take a small piece of meat and place it on the larger sod, using great care not to leave human scent, take a few drops of this decoy and place on the bait. Also take a rotten stick and break off a piece 6 or 8 inches long, being careful of handling, and place two or three drops on the end and stick it into the sod so it will stick up two inches or such a matter above it. Your trap is now ready for Reynard, and if you use great care in setting and in visiting your traps I am certain of your success.

There are many methods of catching foxes and I am acquainted with them, not all, perhaps, as each man has a little different way, but I am satisfied the above for a water set it correct.

Here in the East where I am trapping near the mountains, if we could not catch fox on the snow path we would not get any prime fur, says J. H. Shufelt, of Canada.

I will give one of my snow sets that I use here for fox. It may not fit your case as every locality calls for its own method, and foxes are slyer in some places than others. I use a No. 3 Blake & Lamb trap with a three foot chain and grapple. How to fix the trap? I take a large kettle and fill with water and put my traps in and get the water boiling hot. For every dozen of traps I put in one-half pint of lime not air slacked, and boil for ten minutes. Now take out your traps, which will be odorless and white as snow, and use gloves in handling and setting them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ODORLESS AND WHITE AS SNOW.]

When you get ready to set your traps go out in a large field where foxes are traveling, make a good path across the field by traveling back and forth. Where you want to make a set leave a little part.i.tion across the path to guide the fox in the trap, which is covered with white paper and a little snow. Be careful in setting and not leave tracks outside of the path nor lay any sticks across. When going to your traps walk in the path, which makes it better, and don't let too much snow get over them. Be careful and you will get your fox.

Do foxes eat skunk? I might say in answer to this question they do, and they will kill skunk if found outside of their dens. And if a fox is run in a den where there is a skunk, their odor is most always sure to prove fatal to a fox in a very short time. Several instances of this kind have happened in this locality where I am hunting and trapping.

Foxes are very fond of skunk for food, and the musk makes a good scent for trapping foxes. A good scent for cold weather, for it never freezes. No doubt a good trapper will say, give me fresh bait. I might say give me a strong smelling bait, for when the fox is smelling a strong bait or scent he cannot smell anything else at the same time.

Now for instance, if you were going out for a fox hunt, and your hound got scented by skunk, it would spoil his scenting anything, and he could not follow the trail. Several experiences have led me to think this is one reason why we make a better catch on a damp or rainy night. The bait smells so much stronger that it takes up more of the game's sense of smell and makes our chance of a catch better.

The old trapper will oftimes make this remark, "Boys, I am going to make a big catch tonight--why, because it is going to be a damp and rainy night." Who knows why?

I trap foxes by land and water set. I sometimes use a set called the all around land set. Every locality calls for its own method. I use two kinds of traps, Blake & Lamb and Newhouse. They are both all right. My trapping grounds are near the mountains where the foxes defy fox hounds, for they have dens in the rocks.

The Hunter-Trader-Trapper, Columbus, Ohio, is in touch with fox trappers, hunters and owners of hounds from all parts of America, so that interesting articles are constantly being received and published.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CANADIAN TRAPPER AND FIFTEEN REDS.]

The following, by W. J. Taylor, of New York, is his method for trapping the red fox: Choose a rotten stump near their runways, cut out a cavity in the top of the stump deep enough to set trap and allow one-half inch of finely pulverized rotten wood to cover trap, spring and chain. Do not handle pulverized wood with your hands. Have your traps thoroughly greased, chain and all, then smoke with hemlock, spruce, cedar or pine boughs. Smoke until trap and chain are black. This is to stop the smell of steel. Sometimes I use a moss covered stump, that is a stump with moss growing all or partly around its sides. Cut the cavity the same in stump, cover lightly with pulverized rotten wood.

Now go to another moss covered stump, cut moss enough to cover top of stump, cut a circular piece out a little smaller than jaws of trap, place this right on top of trap, then place the rest on top of stump, trim outsides to match outside of stump. Handle moss with sharpened stick and knife, never with bare hands unless set is made one week before baiting and scenting. I generally make my sets two weeks before placing bait and scent.