THE animals' fishery. 117 



numerous lakes and swamps,' and patches of timber 

 which had been burnt. The lakes are always sought 

 by the trapper, not only because they enable him to 

 travel more rapidly, and penetrate further into the less 

 hunted regions, but also because the edges of the lakes, 

 and the portages between them, are favourite haunts 

 of the fox, the fisher, and the mink. On one of these 

 lakes a curious circumstance was observed. The lake 

 was about half a mile in length, and of nearly equal 

 breadth, but of no great depth. The water had seem- 

 ingly frozen to the bottom, except at one end, where 

 a spring bubbled up, and a hole of about a yard in 

 diameter existed in the covering of ice, which was there 

 only a few inches thick. The water in this hole was 

 crowded with myriads of small fish, most of them not 

 much larger than a man's finger, and so closely packed 

 that they could not move freely. On thrusting in an 

 arm, it seemed hke plunging it into a mass of thick stir- 

 about. The snow was beaten down all round hard and 

 level as a road, by the numbers of animals which flocked 

 to the Lenten feast. Tracks converged from every 

 side. Here were the footprints of the cross or silver fox, 

 delicately impressed in the snow as he trotted daintily 

 along with light and airy tread ; the rough marks of 

 the clumsier fisher ; the clear, sharply-defined track of 

 the active mink ; and the great coarse trail of the ever- 

 galloping, ubiquitous wolverine. Scores of crows 

 perched on the trees around, sleepily digesting their 

 frequent meals. Judging by the state of the snow 

 and collection of dung, the consumption must have 



