Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/248

the mole hill. The trap should be so arranged that the sharp spikes will be directly over the hill. The next time the mole makes his way through the underground passage he will sooner or later come to the place where the earth has been pressed down to make room for the trigger.

When the little animal reaches this point and proceeds to loosen the earth again, the movement will displace the trigger and bring the dead weight down, pinioning the mole to the ground with the sharp spikes, to which the loose earth of the mole hill offers but little resistance, if the weight be heavy enough. If the skin of the animal be desired, it is best to use as few spikes as practicable, for the fewer holes there are in a pelt the more valuable it is.

I object to deadfalls on principle, and it is not without some reluctance that I include them among the traps. As a boy, the only traps I ever used were made for capturing animals alive; but there are occasions when it is perfectly proper to use a deadfall. If the animal sought is a nuisance upon whose extermination you have settled for good reasons, then use a deadfall, or if you desire the animal for food and have no other means of capturing him, the deadfall is very convenient. Supposing your supply of fresh meat has run short at camp, or that you are on a canoe trip and are placed under similar circumstances, if there be a rabbit or squirrel in the neighborhood no one will find fault with you for trying to capture the game by any means in your power.

is so called either from its resemblance to a toll-gate, or from the fact of its being set across the top of a rail fence, which has been called the "squirrel's highway." This trap can be made in a few minutes with the aid of a pocket-knife and a hatchet. The toll-gate is a deadfall, and the little traveller pays the toll