94 NORTH AMERICAN MUSTELID.E. 



was not iufrequent in the piue and beech forests of Massachu- 

 setts, and Mr. Allen states that it is still occasionally seen in 

 the mountains of Berkshire County. It inhabits the mountain- 

 ous regions of Kew York and some parts of Pennsylvania; but 

 in tracing its extreme southern limit in the Atlantic States, we 

 see that it has not been found so far south as the Pekan has. I 

 find no indication of its occurrence in Maryland or Virginia. 

 The southern limit, which has been set at about 40^ north, is 

 probably correct for this longitude, though in the mountainous 

 regions of the West it may require to be somewhat extended. 

 General considerations aside, its local distribution is determined 

 primarily by the presence or absence of trees, and further 

 affected by the settlement of the country. Being of a shy and 

 suspicious nature, it is one of the first to disappear, among the 

 smaller animals, with the advance of civilization into its woody 

 resorts. In unpeopled districts, even the vast numbers that 

 are annually destroyed for the pelts seems to affect their abund- 

 ance less materially than the settlement of the country does. 

 IS'otwithstanding such destruction, they abound in the northern 

 wilds. Even in Kova Scotia, a thousand skins are said to have 

 been exported annually within a few years, and they may justly 

 be regarded as among the most important of the land fur-bearing 

 animals. Eespecting their comparative scarcity at times, Mr. 

 Eoss has recorded a remarkable fact of periodical disappear- 

 ance. ^' It occurs in decades,'' he says, *' or thereabouts, with 

 wonderful regularity, and it is quite unknown what becomes of 

 them. They are not found dead. The failure extends through- 

 out the Hudson's Bay Territory at the same time. And there 

 is no tract, or region to which they can migrate where we have 

 not posts, or into which our hunters have not penetrated. . . . 

 When they are at their lowest ebb in point of numbers, they 

 will scarcely bite at all [at the bait of the traps]. Providence 

 appears thus to have implanted some instinct in them by which 

 the total destruction of their race is prevented." 



The Sable is ordinarily captured in wooden traps of very 

 simple construction, made on the spot. The traps are a little 

 enclosure of stakes or brush in which the bait is placed upon 

 a trigger, with a short upright stick supporting a log of wood; 

 the animal is shut off from the bait in any but the desired 

 direction, and the log falls upon its victim with the slightest 

 disturbance. A line of such traps, several to the mile, often 

 extends many miles. The bait is any kind of meat, a mouse, 



