The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-12-10
SOME CURIOUS TRAPS
QUEER METHODS USED IN HUNTING
FISH AND FLESH.

The Way In Which Malays XIII
Sharks by the Thousands = Two
Schemes For Trapping Tigers-The
Python and His Pig Dinner.
If you were handed fish, dog and
strip of bamboo and hidden to kill a ten
foot shark with these crude implements,
the odds are that you would decline the
unequal contest. Nevertheless the Ma
lays annually kill thousands of these vo-
racious monsters by this means without
mourning the slightest risk.
The method is as follows: The bamboo
is split into a strip measuring about four
feet in length by one inch in width. Hav-
ing been well charred at each end and
pointed, it is coiled into the smallest pos
Yible space and sewed into the fishskin.
The dog is next killed, trussed and his
interior cavity reflled with the delusive
fshskin.
Forthwith Jack Shark swallows the
dog at a gulp, and his doom is sealed.
Three or four days later, when he has
digested the dog and the fshskin, the
bamboo flies apart and gradually pene-
trates the great brutes side with fatal
effect. 1t is not pretty sport, but it is
marvelously effective and absolutely safe.
Were you handed a piece of meat, a
bundle Of leaves and a pot of birdlime
you would scarcely feel yourself match
for Bengal tiger, but the little Bengal
csc are particularly successful in catching
Mr.. Stripes with these crude implements.
The rnaof ic Of oil fipd TO the
Dough of tree some twelve feet from
the ground. The leaves, which are the
size of large plane leaves, are next
smeared with the birdlime and thickly
strewn, sticky side uppermost, beneath
the bough. Mr.. Stripes, perambulating
past, smells the bait and makes leap
for it. He misses for the very good rea-
son that it has been purposely placed
couple of feet higher than he can reach.
Again and again he springs for it, and
each time he alights upon a fresh lot of
leaves, which stick fast to his huge feet.
Now he notices them and starts to try
to lick them off, with the result that he
transfers them from his claws to his face.
He gets impatient, the lime gets into his
eyes and makes them smart, and he re-
doubles his efforts, only to redouble the
number of leaves. Finally he loses his
temper and, half blinded with rage, fear
and birdlime, rolls over and over until he
looks like a jack in the green. Then,
when he is no longer capable Of rational
resistance, the willy native energies and
jabs him in some vital part.
Sometimes, however, Mr.. Stripes is des-
tined for some great menagerie. Then the
procedure is different. He is first of all
trapped by an ingenious arrangement of
weights and springs which convert an in
nocent looking cowshed into four sided
wooden cell the moment he passes the
threshold. His removal thence is ingen-
ious.
A tube of string mating measuring
some twelve feet in length by about
eighteen inches in diameter and strongly
fortified with rattans and bamboo is sud-
denly introduced lengthways into the
darkened cell. Mr. Stripes, who has
meanwhile been stirred up by countless
unseen hands, sees the welcome daylight
and leaps madly for it. But although he
has sprung into the narrow tunnel it is
only to find the end safely barred. Be
fore he can say "Jack Robinson" deft
fingers have barred his exit from behind,
and he is sprawling powerless in
JdCkeI WulCa Ito AAhN LIZ
skin of a sausage. His subsequent trans
port is merely a question of weight lift
ing.
The willy Chinaman gets some queer
sport. He is a great fisherman, and his
''tackle" is unique of its kind. His right
hand assistants are the cormorant and
tie sucking fish, or remora.
This latter atrocity is lazy creature
90 oh w
means of a natural sucker it has devel-
oped at the back Of its head. John mere
ly fixes an iron ring in the remora's tail,
ties string to the ring and drops the
fish overheard. The remora quietly at
taches himself to the nearest fish, and
John as quietly hauls in and out until the
remora tires of the game.
His cormorants are trained from early
youth to return at their masters whistle.
John places an iron ring round the neck
of one and let's him dive for fish. Inn
mediately he has seized his prey he is
whistled back to his master The ring
prevents him swallowing the fish, which
John quietly drops into his own pocket.
The process is repeated until the cormo-
rant tires of it. Then John tries fresh
bird.
In certain parts u Auuld "ACAC INC
snake pest is terrible nuisance Curl
GUS trap is set for the larger pythons. A
small hole few inches in diameter Is
made low down in stout wall. On either
side of this hole young porker is teth-
cred and left to his fate.
The python speedily spots the external
pig and swallows him. He then turns his
attention to the internal animal, which
he can only reach by wriggling the fore
part of his body through the hole in the
wall. Having swallowed the second pork
er, the python suddenly realizes the PEN
atty of his piggishness.
Horrible to relate, he is now much the
same shape as a dumbbell. the thin part
OF which just fits the aperture through
the wall and the bullying portions Of
which, representing the swallowed pork
ers, effectually prevent him moving back
ward or forward through the wall At
this point it is etiquette to help him out
of his difficulty by cutting him in two and
so saving the lives of the little pigs. Civ
en- a big python. and this sport can be
very exciting.-Pearson's Weekly.