make the rest shy, for they often travel in pairs. When making your sets, don't disturb anything around the place nor use a bush drag where there hasn't been one, for the fox is quick to notice. Use a grapple that can be concealed under your trap. Just try and see how slick a set you can make and try and learn the habits of the animal you are trying to catch, for that is the key to success.

CHAPTER VII.
SNOW SETS.

Much has been said pro and con relative to trapping that most wary of our wild animals, the red fox. A few incidents pertaining thereto that have come under my observation may be worthy of mention, says J. A. Newton, of Michigan.

There are practically three conditions under which trapping the fox may be done. First, by setting in beds, so called, of dry chaff or ashes before snow falls; secondly, in snow during the coldest weather, and lastly spring water setting as some writers have described.

I shall confine myself to the two first mentioned conditions. In the first instance a spread of chaff or ashes covering three or four feet of space is made where foxes are known to travel. As a rule the most acceptable bait is lard scraps, suet, smoked meat rinds, etc. These are scattered in small bits in the bed, and as a lure nothing can be more efficacious than a few drops sprinkled in the bed composed of the female fox gland taken in the rutting season that has been dissolved in alcohol. It must be kept tightly corked. The same taken from the female dog at this period is about as potent.

The traps must first be thoroughly smoked with some resinous twigs or corn cob, or be boiled in ashes to eradicate the scent of iron, rust, and of other game that has been caught. After this do not handle traps or bait except with gloves.

AWAITING THE TRAPPER.

All old trappers in my section bait a fox a few nights before placing the trap, as the more visits Reynard makes to the bed, and devouring bait without having his suspicions aroused, the more reckless does he become and the easier is he taken when at last the trap is placed.

One old trapper, who is very successful, does not set his traps until some night when the first snowfall is at hand. The new white mantle covers the bed and all human sign made in setting the trap. The clog should have been previously placed some days before so that the fox will become accustomed to the sight of it. The fox has not forgotten the exact location of the bed with its tidbits and comes to it with unerring precision even when covered by snow, and unless he by good luck kicks the trap over and springs it he now comes to grief.

Old man Titus says: "Having nailed the game don't kill on the spot but drag him off a ways. Then don't leave the carcass lying round conspicuous or it will scare the rest out of the neighborhood."

My first insight into the manner of snow trapping I gained from a man named Williams. Several of his sheep concluded to part company with this cold unappreciative world, and their owner determined to make them still serve a purpose. Hauling them off in as many directions as there were of the dead, he left them until deep snow and severe weather came, cutting off much of the natural prey of the fox which reduced him to seeking carrion. After their inroads on the bait had become well established, Williams placed a trap at each of the remains, covering a little snow over them and stapling to pieces of fence rails previously placed.

"Now," said Williams, "the only thing to do is to keep away from here two or three days until a little more snow falls to cover our sign, or is drifted a little by the wind." He used no scent of any kind, saying that "starvation is the best lure in the world." "All I do is to smoke the traps and not handle barehanded," he added.

After two or three days of snow flurrying weather we visited the traps and noted that one was missing. We could see a dim trail where it had been dragged away. We followed and found the fox in a drift. He was poor and had frozen hard. Five were taken at the sheep bait inside of two weeks, after which there came a thaw stopping further snow trapping.

One old trapper tells of a fox that came near outwitting him, being not only the most cunning but also possessing a degree of meanness almost satanic. "I baited him in a bed of chaff several nights," said he, "and then set my trap. The trap could not have contained scent, but the old chap appeared to know it was there; he carefully nosed out and devoured every scrap of bait, and then as deftly dug the trap out, turned it over and sprung it and left a soiling evidence of his scorn and contempt for me upon it. That I was mad you needn't doubt for a minute. I tried setting three and four traps, hoping he'd make a miscue and get into some one of them, but no, he was too smart, he sprung them all each night and insulted me besides. All at once the thought struck me like a brick, I'll set the trap bottom side up. This I did, removing all the traps but one. "The cat came back" and as before turned the trap, bringing it right side up. I had set it full catch so that it would spring rather hard. He slipped a cog in not taking into account that the trap didn't spring when he turned it; when bestowing his disdain a too close contact brought a sharp click and he was fast. I never saw so sneaking and beat out an animal in my life. He would like to have had the ground open up and swallow him if it could."

An acquaintance of mine who is a settler in Northern Michigan heard a great squealing and commotion among his hogs one night late in November, and bounced out just in time to see a large bear drop one of his shoats as it passed through the bars. The porker was stone dead, being bitten through the nape of the neck. The settler, whose name is Clark, drew the pig into the woods and left it between two fallen trees. With his axe he chopped a niche large enough to contain a trap, when set, from each of the logs; a piece of moss was carefully fitted over each cavity and all of the chips were removed.

Foxes there are very numerous, and Clark soon noticed that the bait was being sampled; he knew the fox nature in that they have a habit of walking logs or on the highest points when investigating an attraction. When the tracks to and from and circling the bait became frequent Clark placed a trap on each log, covering them neatly with patches of moss; the chain was fastened to clogs concealed under the logs, and the chains were hidden with strips of moss. Upon his first visit to the traps, two days later, the trapper found a fox in each trap, and several more were taken before crows and other scavengers had polished the bones of the bait.

AFTER THE CHASE.

On the quiet, boys, I will say that it requires so much preparation, caution and patience to successfully trap the red fox that I have more frequently resorted to the hound and shotgun; by this means I have often taken the jacket of a cunning old dog fox, after running him over the hills an hour or two, that it would have taken much time and patience to trap. After one gets the runways learned, and if he possesses a good gun that loads properly, and is a tolerably fair shot at running game, the means is much quicker. It is like digging out a nest of skunks as against the slow process of trapping one at a time.

I had a little experience with a sly old female fox last winter, says Claude Roora, of Ohio. I had noticed on early snows where this old fox had two holes under an old rail fence where she would pass through every night, and also a stone beside a sheep path where she would stop. I picked out those three places to set traps for her under the