THE SMALL NEIGHBORS OF BIG GAME 309 



Charlie Smith tells with much fervor how he got even 

 with a Wolverine which made several unsuccessful at- 

 tempts to raid his cabin. One morning before starting 

 out on his trap-line, he buried a trap directly in front 

 of his cabin door, and set the door slightly ajar. Just 

 inside the door, he placed some meat. Then, on the roof- 

 peak of his cabin, at one end of the structure he rigged 

 a balanced pole, like a well-sweep, drew down the small 

 end, and under it very carelessly hung a deer's head, in 

 a small tree. Directly under the head he set a trap, and 

 attached it to the end of the pole. 



He figured out the mental process of the Wolverine 

 in this wise: He will suspect the trap in front of the 

 door, and avoid it. But he will discover the deer's head, 

 and say, "Aha! This fellow has forgotten that / am 

 about!" and straightway he will stand up on his hind 

 legs and reach for the head, with his front feet against 

 the tree. 



The Wolverine came, and saw, and thought, and did 

 precisely as the trapper had figured it out that he would; 

 and that night when Charlie came home, he found his 

 cunning enemy hanging high in the air, " and dead as 

 a wedge." 



In the United States, the Wolverine is now so rare 

 that it is almost non-existent; but it is not extinct. In 

 British Columbia, and northward thereof far into the 

 Barren Grounds, it is generally distributed, though it is 

 nowhere really numerous. Rarely indeed is one ever seen 

 afoot by hunter or trapper, save in the far north. In all 

 C. L. Smith's years of trapping, he has seen only three; 



