SANCTUARY 189 



banked the bottom of the cabin to prevent the cold 

 from penetrating ; the hinged door was evidently 

 cut out with a cross-saw after the walls were com- 

 pleted, and therefore fitted exactly. The window, 

 too, in which a piece of linen soaked in candle 

 grease did duty for glass, had been cut in the same 

 fashion. 



In front of the shack, a few feet away, blazed a 

 huge wood fire, before which the cased and stretched 

 skins of many animals — foxes, wolverines, martens, 

 ermines, and beavers — were drying off. An un- 

 skinned lynx hung on a tree some two hundred 

 yards away, frozen stiff, with his large cushioned 

 feet extended. He hung there for the most prosaic 

 of reasons — until the fleas, which infest the lynx 

 tribe in myriads, died for lack of the warmth to 

 which they were accustomed, or became sufficiently 

 comatose to be shaken off the rigid carcass, which 

 had been strung up for three days already, and 

 would be for three more. 



The trapper was wise in his generation, and 

 knew the vitality of the swarming enemies. Were 

 he to take the stiff body into the log shack too 

 soon, and thaw it out for skinning, every one of 

 the insects would thaw too, and become as lively 



