The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-02-01
Trapping the Mink.

1 have had much pleasure in studying
and trapping the mink during the time
takes in practically all of my life. OF
the two, perhaps the former has given
me the most thorough enjoyment, al
though the actual remuneration from the
sale on my part of many mink skin
mounts up to a row of figures that IN
itself is astonishing. There is not a boy
who has had anything at all to do with
the study of nature but that has some
time or another come across this animal
or has noted its presence by those tell
tale tracks in the snow in the winter, and
along the muddy banks of creeks and
lakes before freezing sets in. Sharp and
industrious indeed must the lad be who
can get within studying distance of
mink. Count it sign of unusual pow
ers if you are able to locate one and study
it. Often enough you will have to spend
hours in patient waiting and then may
only get glimpse. Belonging to the
weasel family, with long, sinuous body
. that is almost invariably curved to an
arch, small head with pointed nose
and eyes that are black and penetrating
in their keenness. and teeth that are like
needles, this is briefly the makeup of the
mink. A great wanderer at night with
penchant for robbing hen houses, IL such
i permits, and killing much for the sake of
killing, he is one of the most feared
among the smaller animal kindred who
only too often fall prey to his murderous
instinct. Yet 1t is natures rule, the death
of one to give life and suStenance to an
other.
The mink is a great fisherman, and per-
haDS most Oh his time Is spent In DrlflE-
ing out frogs from the deep and laying
them to waste. How many of the boy
readers of this magazine have not walked
along creek in winter, ana where there
is opening in the ice, where the water
glints back, there on the edge has noted
frogs lying dead with a wound In the
head. 1t is the work of a mink, who,
during the cold midnight hour. was div
ing down into those forbidding depths
and hunting half stiff frogs out ISL OF their a
the top and bit all of them through the
head. Notice the nip, some of the frogs
are even moving; they have not been
killed Brother Mink killed these Just
for the sport of it. If you have a few
traps and wish to make little money
there is always the revenue possible in
the capture of this keen, shrewd little
fellow, and his glossy brown FUR VIII
bring you high as Sc. provided the
hide is prime and you nave care1uIly
stretched, dried, and cleaned off the fat
adhering TO it. You will catch them along
the shores of brooks.
Note there where that trail runs. Here
is the exact place: stick lies across the
trail, and every mink in passing leaps
it, landing with his fore feet at al
most exactly the same place every time.
Dip out a hollow there. so as to fit your
trap in snug, that the round pan Will
be where the feet touch. Simple and Yet
how deadly You then connect your chain
to sunken stone so that the animal
will be drowned when he leaps into the
for a trap. The mink is wont to cross
this rivulet by leaping from the stone
this side on to the chunk OF mud
in the center of the streamlet, and from
there to the other side Just remove
that piece of mud, put your trap there,
and put little of the mud right on the
pan of the trap. Very deadly. He will
land in the trap with both feet and
there is not getting away. Always take
care in properly conceallng the trap. Do
not use foreign matter, but material
found right on the spot, and preferably
that which you dig away. To prevent
material from getting under the pan, put
a niece of cotton there, and where pos
sible use the spring pole to lift the AMI
NAL after he is captured into the air.
How is il done? Very simple. Just bend
a bush down, trim it slightly, connect It
in some niche cut for the purpose, and
the nconnect the trap chain to the pole.
The animal in his struggles viii release
the pole and will be lifted into the air.
You will thus prevent suffering.-Robert
Page Lincoln, in Forest and Stream.