2-982-538 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sporting Scenes in Canada - Round the Traps, 1858. '...the marten is perhaps the most valuable of the animals sought after ; but in trapping for him a great variety of others of the furry tribes fall into the snare...The trapper bends down a stiff sapling, fastening it slightly to the ground by means of a notched peg. To the top of the sapling he affixes the trap with a thong, sets it, and, haying covered it slightly with leaves, scatters some offal of venison or any kind of meat about...The marten or comer of whatsoever kind, in tugging about at the bait, inevitably springs the trap, and, at the first pull, slipping the sapling away from the peg, up he goes into the air...In the first trap we came to there was an animal known to the hunters as a fisher...(although) he catches no fish, but depredates in the tree-tops and thickets...This is the animal represented in the Sketch. A blow on the head from the tough hickory wiping-stick... carried by the trapper, settled his business, and on we went. In the next trap...we found the forepaw of a marten; and in most of the others, amounting perhaps to a dozen, there were martens, fishers, or minks-the latter of which is a sort of water-marten or diminutive otter, with a very good dark brown fur'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.