The tiger is the scourge of India and Southern Asia and some sections
of these countries are so terribly infested with
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the brutes that the inhabitants are kept in a continual state of
terror by their depredations. Many methods are adopted by the natives
for the destruction of the terrible creatures, some of which have
already been described. The pit-fall is still another device by
which this lurking marauder is often captured and destroyed. It
sometimes consists of a mere pit covered and baited in the haunts of
the tiger, or is constructed in a continuous deep ditch surrounding
the habitations of the natives, and thus acting as a secure protection.
The pit is about twelve feet deep and ten feet in width, and its
outside edge is lined with a hedge five or six feet in height.
As the fierce brute steals upon his intended prey, he nears the
hedge and at one spring its highest branch is cleared. He reaches
the earth only to find himself at the bottom of a deep pit, from
which there is no hope of escape, and where he speedily becomes
the merciless victim of a shower of deadly arrows and bullets.

Happily we have no tigers in the United States, but the puma and
the lynx are both fit subjects for the pit-fall. These animals
cannot be said to exist in such numbers as to become a scourge
and a stranger to the inhabitants of any neighborhood, and for
this reason the "Moat" arrangement of the pit-fall is not required.
The simple pit is often used, and when properly constructed and
baited is a very _sure_ trap. The hole should be about twelve feet
in depth and eight feet across, widening at the bottom. Its opening
should be covered with slicks, earth and leaves, so arranged as
to resemble the surroundings as much as possible, but so lightly
adjusted as that they will easily give way at a slight pressure.