The next morning he put them on his toboggan, and shouldering his gun
he started out.
Not far away he saw the first marten track in the edge of the spruce
woods near the lake. Farther on there were more. This was very
satisfactory indeed, and he observed to himself,
"The's a wonderful lot o' footin', and 'tis sure a' fine place for
martens."
He went to work at once, and one after another the traps were set,
some of them in a little circular enclosure made by sticking spruce
boughs in the snow, to which a narrow entrance was left, and in this
entrance the trap placed and carefully concealed under loose snow and
the chain fastened to a near-by sapling. In the centre of each of the
enclosures a bit of fresh partridge was placed for bait, to reach
which the animal would have to pass over the trap. Where a tree of
sufficient size was found in a promising place he chopped it down, a
few feet above the snow, cut a notch in the top, and placed the trap
in the notch, and arranged the bait over it in such a way that the
animal climbing the stump would be compelled to stand upon the trap to
secure the meat.
All the marten traps were soon set, but there still remained two fox
traps. These he took to a marsh some distance beyond the lake, as the
most likely place for foxes to be, for while the marten stays amongst
the trees, the fox prefers marshes or barrens.
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