56 NORTH AMERICAN MUSTELID ^. 



wiser are we in our generation ? Is there anything new under 

 , the sun! But we need not go beyond the strict fact to be 

 impressed with the extraordinary wit of the beast, whom all 

 concur in conceding to be " as cunning as the very devil ". 



With so much for the tricks and the manners of the beast 

 behind our backs, roaming at will in his vast solitudes, what of 

 his actions in the presence of man ? It is said that if one only 

 stands still, even in full view of an approaching Carcajou, he 

 will come within fifty or sixty yards, provided he be to wind- 

 ward, before he takes the alarm. Even then, if he be not 

 warned by sense of smell, he seems in doubt, and will gaze 

 earnestly several times before he finally concludes to take him- 

 self off. On these and similar occasions he has a singular 

 habit — one not shared, so far as I am aware, by any other beast 

 whatever. He sits on his haunches and shades his eyes with 

 one of his fore paws, just as a human being would do in scruti- 

 nizing a dim or distant object. The Carcajou then, in addition 

 to his other and varied accomplishments, is a perfect skeptic — 

 to use this word in its original signification. A skeptic, with 

 the Greeks, was simply one who would shade his eyes to see 

 more clearly. To this day, in sign-language among some of the 

 Xorth American Indians, placing the hand to the forehead sig- 

 nifies '^ white man " — either in allusion to this habit, or to the 

 shade given the eyes by the straight vizor of the military cap, 

 which the Indians see oftener than they desire. Mr. Lockhart 

 writes that he has twice been eye-witness of this curious habit 

 of the Wolverene. Once, as he was drifting down stream in a 

 small canoe, he came within a short distance of one of the ani- 

 mals on the bank ; it stopped on perceiving him, squatted on 

 its haunches, and peered earnestly at the advancing boat, hold- 

 ing one fore paw over its eyes in the manner described. Not 

 seeming to take alarm, it proceeded on a few paces, and then 

 stopped to repeat the performance, when Mr. Lockhart, now 

 sufficiently near, fired and killed the beast. On another occa- 

 sion, when the same gentleman was crossing the Rocky Mount- 

 ains, a Wolverene, which had become alarmed and was making 

 off, stopped frequently and put up his paw in the same manner, 

 in order to see more clearly the nature of that which had dis- 

 turbed him. 



On other occasions, the Wolverene displays more boldness 

 than this in the presence of man. It has been known to seize 

 upon the carcase of a deer, and suffer itself to be shot rather 



