If a novice thinks he will trap successfully by such artless endeavours as putting a bait on the plate of a trap that is covered over with moss, or by digging a pitfall in the middle of a wild beast’s track, he is utterly mistaken.  The bait Should be thrown on the ground, and the trap placed on the way to it; then the animal’s mind, being fixed on the meat, takes less heed of the footpath.  Or a pitfall should be made near the main path; this being subsequently stopped by boughs, causes the animal to walk in the bushes, and to tumble into the covered hole.  The slightest thing diverts an animal’s step:  watch a wild beast’s path across a forest —­little twigs and tufts of grass will be seen to have changed its course, and caused it to curve.  It is in trifles of this sort that the trapper should look for auxiliaries.  After setting traps, Mr. St. John recommends the use of a small branch of a tree; first, to smooth the ground, and then, having dipped it in water, to sprinkle the place:  this entirely obliterates all foot-marks.

Springes.—­General Remarks.—­Harden the wood of which the mechanism has to be made, by means of fire; either baking it in hot sand or ashes, or otherwise applying heat to a degree just short of charring its surface.  The mechanism will then retain the sharpness of its edges under a continuance of pressure, and during many hours of wet weather.  The slighter the strain on the springe, the more delicately can its mechanism be set.

Nooses.—­Catgut (which see) makes better nooses than string, because it is stiff enough to keep in shape when set:  brass wife that has been heated red-hot, is excellent; for it has no tendency whatever to twist, and yet is perfectly pliable.  Fish-hooks are sometimes attached to springes; sometimes a tree is bent down and a strong cord is used for the noose, by which large animals are strangled up in the air, as leopards are in Abyssinia.  A noose may be set in any place where there is a run; it can be kept spread out, by thin rushes or twigs set crosswise in it.  If the animal it is set for can gnaw, a heavy stone should be loosely propped up, which the animal in its struggles may set free, and by the weight of which it may be hung up and strangled.  It is a very convenient plan for a traveller who has not time to look for runs, to make little hedges across a creek, or at right angles to a clump of trees, and to set his snares in gaps left in these artificial hedges.  On the same principle, artificial islands of piles and faggots Are commonly made in lakes that are destitute of any real ones, in order that they may become a resort of wild-fowl.

Javelins.—­Heavy poisoned javelins, hung over elephant and hippopotamus paths, and dropped on a catch being touched, after the manner of a springe, are used generally in Africa.  They sometimes consist of a “sharp little assegai, or spike, most thoroughly poisoned, and stuck firmly into the end of a heavy block of thornwood, about four feet long and five inches in diameter.  This formidable affair is suspended over the centre of a sea-cow path, at about thirty feet from the ground, by a bark cord, which passes over a high branch of a tree, and thence, by a peg, on one side of a path beneath.” (Gordon Cumming.)