34 On the Fur-hearing Aniinals 



By following tbe animal's footprints those hidden stores can be re- 

 covered ; but in general quite uneatable, as the wolverine to protect 

 its secret hoards from the attacks of other beasts of prey be- 

 sprinkles all his larder plentifully with his urine, which has a 

 strong and most disagreeable odour, and proves a good preserva- 

 tion in most cases. But the desire for accumulating property 

 seems so deeply implanted by nature in this animal, that hke 

 tame ravens, it does not appear to care much what it steals so that 

 it can exercise its favourite propensity to commit mischief. An 

 instance occurred within my own knowledge in which a hunter 

 and his family having left their lodge unguarded during their 

 absence, on their return found it completely gutted, the walls were 

 there, but nothing else. Blankets, guns, kettles, axes, cans, knives 

 and all the other paraphernalia of a trapper's tent had vanished, 

 and the tracks left by the beast shewed who had been the thief. 

 The family set to work and by carefully following up all his 

 paths recovered, with some trifling exceptions, the whole of the 

 lost property. The damage which it does to a trapping road is 

 very great, indeed, if the animal cannot be killed it is as well to 

 abandon it as he will not only break the traps and eat the bait or 

 animals caught, but also out of sheer malice will carry away the 

 sticks and hide them at some distance. To kill or catch it is 

 very difficult. An old stager is a regular bug-bear to the Indians. 

 " Master," said one to me in his own language, " I cant hunt furs, 

 the wolverine eats the martins and baits, and smashes my traps, I 

 put a steel trap for him, he got in, but released himself by screw- 

 ing off the nuts confining the spring with his teeth. I set a gun , 

 he cut the cord attached to the trigger, ate the bait, and broke 

 the stock, what shall I do ?" As the infallible strychnia had 

 not then made its appearance in these parts, I could offer him 

 neither advice nor assistance, and but little consolation. 



Suh-family, — Luteins. 



Mustelida with the upper posterior tubercular molar large? 

 quadrate. The number of molars the same in each jaw. Feet 

 short, palmated. The typical otters bear a strong resemblance to 

 the minks, the last mentioned group of the weasels, although the 

 skull and teeth approximate much more nearly to the Melina. 

 The body is elongated, the feet short, the toes palmated. The 

 species are generally of large size and all more or less aquatic. 



The group of the Otter embraces three principal genera ; Lutrai 



