952 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



hoard, it has to gnaw the pieces of meat asunder, as they are 

 generally frozen together, and then it proceeds to drag them 

 out one by one, and to bury them in the snow, each in a separate 

 place. As it travels backwards and forwards over the meat, it 

 smears it with a peculiarly fetid glandular secretion, after 

 which no other animal will touch it. In this way one of these 

 beasts will spoil a large cache in an hour or two and wholly 

 empty it in a few nights. The pieces which are carried off are 

 so carefully concealed in the snow, and the Wolverine makes so 

 many tracks in the neighbourhood, that it is difficult to trace 

 out the deposits, and they are seldom found." 



"In which case," as Thomas Hutchins says,'' "they 

 furnish a regale to the hungry Fox, whose sagacious nostrils 

 guide him unerringly to the spot. Two or three Foxes are 

 often seen following the Wolverine for this purpose." All 

 Northern traders grow eloquent on the subject of this animal's 

 diabolic pertinacity and destructiveness. 



"The winter I passed at Fort Simpson [writes Lockhart]'* 

 I had a line of Marten and Fox traps, and Lynx snares, extend- 

 ing as far as Lac de Brochet. Visiting them on one occasion, 

 I found a Lynx alive in one of my snares, and being indisposed 

 to carry it so far home, determined to kill and skin it before it 

 should freeze. But how to cache the skin till my return ? 

 This was a serious question, for Carcajou tracks were numer- 

 ous. Placing the carcass as a decoy in a clump of willows at 

 one side of the path, I went some distance on the opposite side, 

 dug a hole with my snowshoe about three feet deep in the snow, 

 packed the skin in the smallest possible compass, and put it in 

 the bottom of the hole, which I filled up again very carefully, 

 packing the snow down hard, and then strewing loose snow 

 over the surface till the spot looked as though it had never 

 been disturbed. I also strewed blood and entrails in the path 

 and around the willows. Returning next morning, I found 

 that the carcass was gone, as I had expected it would be, but 

 that the place where the skin was cached was apparently un- 

 disturbed. 'Ah! you rascal,' said I, addressing aloud the 



" F. B. A., 1829, Vol. I, p. 43. " Coues, Fur-bearing Anim., 1877, pp. 52-5. 



