secure the meat.

All the marten traps were soon set, but there still remained two fox
traps. These he took to a marsh some distance beyond the lake, as the
most likely place for foxes to be, for while the marten stays amongst
the trees, the fox prefers marshes or barrens. Here, in a place where
the snow was hard, he carefully cut out a cube, making a hole deep
enough for the trap to set below the surface. A square covering of
crust was trimmed thin with his sheath knife, and fitted over the trap
in such a way as to completely conceal it. The chain was fastened to a
stump and also carefully concealed. Then over and around the trap
pieces of ptarmigan were scattered. This he knew was not good fox
bait, but it was the best he had.

"Now if I were only havin' a bit o' scent 'twould help me," he
commented as he surveyed his work.

Foxes prefer meat or fish that is tainted and smells bad, and the more
decomposed it is, the better it suits them. Bob had no tainted meat
now, so he used what he had, in the hope that it might prove
effective. A few drops of perfumery, or "scent," as he called it,
would have made the fresh meat that he used more attractive to the
animals, but unfortunately he had none of that either.

As he left the marsh and crossed from a neck of woods to the lake
shore he saw two moving objects far out upon the ice. He dropped
behind a clump of bushes. They were caribou.

His gun would not reach them at that distance, and he picked up a
dried stick and broke it. They heard the noise and looked towards