Canadian Wilds: Tells About the Hudson's Bay Company, Northern Indians and Their Modes of Hunting, Trapping, Etc.Hunter, Martin
History
Canadian Wilds: Tells About the Hudson's Bay Company, Northern Indians and Their Modes of Hunting, Trapping, Etc.
Hunter, Martin
Hudson's Bay Company; Hunting -- Canada
The Indian also, when he is dependent on rabbits, lives on the border
of such a country, and has long lines of snares which he visits two
or three times a week. Along this snare road at certain distances he
has his lynx snares, which are nothing different from those set for
rabbits, except being much larger. Yes, there is another difference:
Instead of the snare being tied to a tossing pole, it is simply tied
to a stout birch stick, 3 or 4 feet long by about 2 inches in
diameter. The extreme ends of this are lodged on two forked sticks,
and the snare hanging down in the middle is then set, tied to small
dry twigs on each side to keep it in position.
At the back of the snare, at about 2 or 3 feet, the head and stuffed
skin of a rabbit is fixed under some brush. The skin is filled with
moss, or pine brush, and is fixed so as to look as much as possible
like a live rabbit in its form. The head being to the skin gives it
the natural shape and smell, and the lynx, walking leisurely along
the snowshoe track, notices the game and makes a spring for it
through the snare. In his headlong bound he carries snare and cross
stick along with him, and as soon as he feels the cord tightening
about his neck he not infrequently becomes his own executioner by
getting his forefeet on the stick and pulling backwards as hard as he
can. The more he struggles, the madder he gets, and pulls the harder
to free himself, but this is, on the contrary, only making matters
worse. The loop of the noose gets matted into the soft, thick hair of
the throat, and there is no "slack" after that; in a few moments the
great cat is dead.
Sometimes the lynx carries the cross stick in his mouth and climbs a
tree. This is invariably the last tree he ever climbs, because once
up the tree he lets the stick drop and it hangs down, generally on
the opposite side of the limb from that on which the lynx is. As the
cat goes down the tree on one side, the cross stick goes up toward
the limb on the other and gets fixed in the crotch. As soon as the
cord tightens about his neck he tries the harder to get down, and is
consequently hanging himself.
Lynxes are very stupid. They will even put their foot into an open
and exposed steel trap; and the better-off Indians often use small
No. 1 traps instead of snares. This, however is only done latterly,
and by the very well-off Indians. As a rule Indians only have traps
for beaver, otter, fox and bear.
Lynxes are very rarely seen in summer, keeping close to the thickest
bush. In any case, the skin is then of no value, and they are far
from being "a thing of beauty," with nothing but a bare skin.
In the prime state they are largely used on the continent as linings,
and each skin is worth about $4.
* * *
There are three kinds or qualities of martens recognized by the
trappers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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