954 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



things, tying the string where it had been bitten. But the 

 result was exactly the same for three successive occasions, as I 

 could plainly see by the footprints; and, what is most singular 

 of all, each time the brute was careful to cut the line a little 

 back of where it had been tied before, as if actually reasoning 

 with himself that even the knots might be some new device of 

 mine, and therefore a source of hidden danger he would pru- 

 dently avoid. I came to the conclusion that that Carcajou 

 ought to live, as he must be something at least human, if not 

 worse. I gave it up and abandoned the road for a period. 



"On another occasion a Carcajou amused himself, much 

 as usual, by taking my line from one end to the other and de- 

 molishing my traps as fast as I could set them. I put a large 

 steel trap in the middle of a path that branched off among some 

 willows, spreading no bait, but risking the chance that the 

 animal would 'put his foot in it' on his way to break a trap at 

 the end of the path. On my next visit I found that the trap 

 was gone, but I noticed the blood and entrails of a Hare that 

 had evidently been caught in the trap and devoured by the 

 Carcajou on the spot. Examining his footprints, I was satis- 

 fied that he had not been caught, and I took up his trail. 

 Proceeding about a mile through the woods, I came to a small 

 lake, on the banks of which I recognized traces of the trap, 

 which the beast had laid down in order to go a few steps to one 

 side to make water on a stump. He had then returned and 

 picked up the trap, which he had carried across the lake, with 

 many a twist and turn on the hard crust of snow to mislead his 

 expected pursuer, and then again entered the woods. I fol- 

 lowed for about half a mile farther and then came to a large 

 hole dug in the snow. This place, however, seemed not to have 

 suited him, for there was nothing there. A few yards farther 

 on, however, I found a neatly built mound of snow on which 

 the animal had made water and left his dirt; this I knew was his 

 cache. Using one of my snowshoes for a spade, I dug into the 

 hillock and down to the ground, the snow being about four feet 

 deep; and there I found my trap, with the toes of a Rabbit still 

 in the jaws. Could it have been the animal's instinctive im- 



