86 FORT CONFIDENCE. 



contriving to cut a log near one end, so that it 

 may fall down into some void space, and thus open 

 an entrance into the hoard. The animal works so 

 hard in carrying on this operation that it causes 

 its mouth to bleed, as the ends of the logs and the 

 snow often testify. Once admitted into the hoard, 

 it has to gnaw the pieces of meat asunder, as they 

 are generally frozen together, and then it proceeds 

 to drag them out one by one, and to bury them in 

 the snow, each in a separate place. As it travels 

 backwards and forwards over the meat, it smears 

 it with a peculiarly fetid glandular secretion, after 

 which no other animal will touch it. In this way 

 one of these beasts will spoil a large cache in an 

 hour or two, and wholly empty it in a few nights. 

 The pieces which are carried off are so carefully 

 concealed in the snow, and the wolverene makes so 

 many tracks in the neighbourhood, that it is dim- 

 cult to trace out the deposits, and they are seldom 

 found. 



Where there are trees, the meat caches are 

 generally made with logs let into each other at the 

 corners by notches, as in building a log-house. 

 This, as we have seen, can be invaded by the wol- 

 verene. Mr. Rae, however, made a safe cellar by 

 cutting a hole in the ice, covering it thickly with 

 snow, and then pouring water over all, until the 

 frost had rendered the whole a solid mass. 



