3o8 CAMP-FIRES IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 



the trap, dug a tunnel through six feet of snow, fetched 

 up at the head, — well behind the trap, — and dragged it 

 in triumph through his tunnel and away. 



The female Wolverine has four young at a birth, and 

 they are born in December. The mothers are more fierce 

 and troublesome in February and March than either 

 earlier or later, for it is during those months that they 

 are required to work hardest in feeding their young. 



Contrary to the statements of the earlier writings upon 

 the Wolverine, the three trappers in our party united in 

 expressing the opinion that this animal is not a gluttonous 

 feeder, and that the amount of food it consumes is pro- 

 portionately no greater than that of other members of 

 the Marten Family, — marten, fisher, mink, otter, etc. 

 The Edwards Brothers, animal showmen, have today a 

 captive Wolverine which they have kept for twelve 

 years, and its daily ration of meat is only half a pound. 



To a trapper, the Wolverine's crowning injury and 

 unpardonable insult is the invasion of his cabin, during 

 his absence. Then it is, with the trapper far from home, 

 and his all-too-scanty winter's store of flour, bacon, coffee 

 and sugar laid bare and at his mercy, that the eternal 

 cussedness of Gulo luscus rises to the sublime. He rips 

 open every sack and parcel, scatters flour, coffee, sugar 

 and grease in one chaotic mass upon the cabin floor, and 

 wallows in it, with ghoulish glee. He goes to the bunk, 

 and with fiendish persistence tears the blankets to shreds. 

 The stove is about the only thing in the cabin that goes 

 unscathed. At the last, he defiles to the utmost every 

 edible that he cannot carry away, and departs. 



