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62 CHAPTER IV

THE HARE AND HER TROD

art of snaring or trapping wild animals has long been invested with a certain flavour of mystery. This may be accounted for in two ways. In the first place, it is chiefly practised among uncivilised men. In the second place, the secrets of the craft are jealously guarded, and handed down from one generation to another. Whenever we find the snaring of wild animals practised by modern Europeans, we feel instinctively that we stand face to face with the devices which enabled our prehistoric ancestors to perpetuate the existence of the race. Here in England we have to thank poachers and other natural men for preserving intact the methods of the distant past. The number of poachers who at present exercise their wits in defying our statutes is very considerable indeed. I have no means of estimating the quantity of game that annually passes through the hands of professional poachers, but it must be worth many