Three Traps, Three Free Meals

A Greenland whaler wanted to catch a bear without damaging its skin. In “Sagacious Bruin,” a story in a 1901 collection, his rope trap repeatedly became a source of dinner, for the bear. First, the bear took the bait, slipped a foot from the noose and escaped. Next, it moved the reset rope aside. When the sailors buried the rope in snow, the bear reportedly scraped it clear and left with the meat again. The humor is in their confidence that each new attempt would work.