Fisher 943 



George Linklater, for many years a chief trader for the 

 Hudson's Bay Company at many different posts, has handled 

 hundreds of Fisher pehs, but never saw one without some 

 Porcupine quills in it. The skin is discounted in proportion to 

 the quill damage it shows. He never saw but one Fisher that 

 was seemingly hurt by a Porcupine. He found this — an old 

 one — eating at a Deer carcass. It could scarcely crawl and 

 was full of quills. He thinks it would have died in a few days. 

 This was in December. Another man of the northern woods, 

 Chief Mittigwab, tells me that he never saw a Fisher skin with- 

 out many Porcupine quills in it, but they do no harm, never 

 fester, and always work out. He has seen them dropping out 

 of Fishers' pelts, but never saw them in their flesh, the back is 

 usually full. Then, adding a final and truly Indian touch, he 

 said: "Fisher's liver given to a dog will force all the quills out 

 of him." 



The storage habit is well developed in this species. When stor 

 it kills an animal, it eats as much as it needs and then buries habit 

 the rest. If you place a trap at the cache, you are sure to get 

 your Fisher next day. This is well known among the Ottawa 

 trappers and a usual method of catching the Pekan. 



It is not generally believed to store food for longer than one 

 or two days, but MacFarlane quotes^" Colin Thompson as 

 authority to show that for winter consumption the Fishers pro- 

 vide quantities of "hips" in advance. 



The pelt of this fur-bearer is cased. The market quota- fur 

 tions at Winnipeg for March, 1904, were: Prime, ^4 to ^9. 



During the eighty-five years, 1821 to 1905 inclusive, the 

 Hudson's Bay Company collected 377,338 skins of this species, 

 an average of 4,439 for each year. The lowest was 974 in 1829; 

 the highest, 8,917, in 1868. The average for the ten years, 

 1895 to 1905, was 3,816. 



Poland's lists show that during the seventy-one years, 1821 

 to 1891 inclusive, 305,570 skins were taken by the other Ameri- 



"' Mam. N. W. Ter, Proc. U. S. N. M., 1905, p. 709. 



