the contrary, that there was no wolf under the trap, and, moreover, that
the bait was gone! This was easily explained. A large hole had been
scraped under the trap, which, running for some distance underground,
came out upon the outside. But the most singular part of the business
was, that this hole had evidently been burrowed before the trigger had
been touched, or the trap had fallen! We could tell this, because the
hole was made from the outside, and through it the animal had most
likely entered. Of course, in laying hold of the bait, the trigger was
sprung, and the trap fell; but it was of no use then, as the wolf had
only to crawl out through the subterranean road he had made, dragging
the meat along with him!

"We again tried the `pit-trap'--although we still had the one which we
had made near the salt springs, and in which we afterwards from time to
time caught deer and other animals, but no wolves. We made another,
however, at a different part of the valley, near some caves where we
knew the wolves were in great plenty. We baited this, first placing
some venison upon the covering of leaves, and afterwards putting one of
our live bucks into the pit; but in both cases the bait remained
untouched, although we had sufficient evidence that wolves had been
around it all the night.

"We were very much chagrined by these numerous disappointments, as we
wanted to thin off the wolves as much as possible. We occasionally shot
an odd one or two; but we as often missed them; and we could not afford
to waste our powder and lead upon them. Cudjo, however, did the
business at last, by constructing a trap such as he said he had often
caught raccoons with in `old Vaginny.' This was arranged something on
the principle of the wire mouse-trap; and the spring consisted in a
young tree or sapling bent down and held in a state of tension until the
trigger was touched, when it instantly flew up, and a heavy log
descended upon whatever animal was at the bait, crushing or killing it
instantly. By means of Cudjo's invention we succeeded in taking nearly
a dozen of our skulking enemies in the course of a few nights, after
which time they grew so shy, that they would not approach anything at
all that looked like a `fixture,' and for a long while we could trap no
more of them.

"Of course all these incidents occurred afterwards, but they convinced
us that it was owing to their great sagacity, why the three we had
killed in the p