HISTORY AND HABITS OF THE PEKAN. 73 



impression all along was that it was a small wolrereae that was 

 annoying- me, and I was surprised to find it to be a fisher. It 

 shewed good fight, hissed at me much like an enraged cat, bit- 

 ing at the iron trap, and snapping at my legs. A blow on the 

 nose turned it over, when I completed its death by compressing 

 the heart with my foot until it ceased to beat. The skin when 

 stretched for drying was fully as large as a middle sized otter, 

 and very strong, in this respect resembling that of a wolverene. 



"In their habits the fishers resemble the martins. Their 

 food is much the same, but they do not seem to keep so gener- 

 ally in the woods. They are not so nocturnal in their wander- 

 ings as the foxes. An old fisher is nearly as great an infliction 

 to a martin trapper as a wolverene. It is an exceedingly pow- 

 erful animal for its size, and will tear down the wooden traps 

 with ease. Its regularity in visiting them is exemplary. In 

 one quality it is however superior to the wolverene, which is 

 that it leaves the sticks of the traps where they were planted: 

 while the other beast if it can discover nothing better to hide, 

 will cache them some distance off. It prefers meat to fish, is 

 not very cunning, and is caught without difficulty in the steel- 

 trap. Fishers are caught by methods similar to those employed 

 in fox-trapping." 



It may not be generally known that the Pekan successfully 

 assaults an animal as large as the Kaccoon; indeed, that the 

 abundance of the latter in some districts depends in a measure 

 upon the rarity of the former. The following letter, addressed 

 to Prof. Baird, in 1857, by Mr. Peter Ptcid, of Washington 

 County, Xew York, sufficiently attests these facts: — "Kaccoons 

 are more numerous here now than they were at the first set- 

 tlement of the country, or for some time subsequent. Thirty 

 years ago they were so seldom found, that many boys 15 or 

 18 years old had scarcely seen one. Before the increase in 

 their numbers I once witnessed a circumstance that satisfied 

 my mind on this score. Whilst hunting, early one winter I 

 found the carcase of a freshly killed sheep, and by the tracks 

 around it in the light snow perceived that a Fisher had sur- 

 prised a Eaccoon at the feast. A hard chase had ensued, the 

 Raccoon tacking at full speed to avoid his pursuer, the Fisher 

 outrunning and continually confronting his intended victim. 

 I saw where at length the Fisher had made an assault, and 

 where a bloody contest had evidently ensued. The Eaccoon, 

 worsted in the encounter, had again broken away, and the chase 



