788 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



old logging roads and woods that have been swept by fire; but at the 

 slightest hint of approaching civilization they disappear, not gradually, 

 but at once and forever, and the woods know them no more. If there 

 is anything in the theory of the survival of the fittest, why is it that not 

 one marten has discovered that, like other animals of its size, it could 

 manage to live comfortably enough in the vicinity of man? The 

 mink and otter still follow the course of every brook and river 

 and manage to avoid the keen eyes of the duck hunter, while for 



six months in the 

 year their paths 

 are sprinkled with 

 steel traps set 

 either especially 

 for them or for 

 the more plebeian 

 muskrat. If a 

 pair of sables 

 could be per- 

 suaded to take up 

 ' W£C their quarters in 



some parts of New 

 England they could travel for dozens of miles through dark evergreen 

 woods with hollow and decaying trees in abundance, while at present 

 there are almost no traps set in a manner that need disturb creatures of 

 their habits. Partridges, rabbits, and squirrels, which form their prin- 

 cipal food, are nearly if not quite as abundant as before the country was 

 settled, so that it would certainly not require any very decided change 

 of habits to enable them to exist, but evidently the root of the matter 

 goes deeper than that, and, like some tribes of Indians, it is impossible 

 for them to multiply or flourish except in the primeval forest. 



The common weasel or ermine, which is the only kind I have seen 

 hereabouts, would seem to have everything on its side in the struggle 

 for existence, and when one happens to be killed by some larger in- 

 habitant of the woods it must be due entirely to its own carelessness. 

 Nevertheless, they do occasionally fall victims to owls and foxes, and 

 I once shot a red-tailed hawk that was in the act of devouring one. 

 Still, these casualties among weasels are probably few and far be- 

 tween. Fortunately, however, they never increase to any great ex- 

 tent. Occasionally in the winter the snow for miles will be covered 

 with their tracks all made in a single night, and then for weeks not a 

 track is to be seen; but usually they prefer to hunt alone, each having 

 its beat a mile or more in length, over which it travels back and forth 

 throughout the season, passing any given point at intervals of two 

 or three days. This habit of keeping to the same route instead of 



