THE OTHER GREAT STAPLE FURS 141 



It seems to me if badger is to be preserved as a fur, it must be pre- 

 served by fur farming. Weird stories are current yet among Western 

 farmers how you always find a skunk and a snake in a badger hole. 

 If you do, I venture to say you will always find the snake half eaten ; 

 and where the skunk preempts a badger hole, it is a deserted one; 

 for the skunk like the evil spirit of Scripture ejects the true owner 

 of the house; but it is true you do find both denizens in deserted 

 badger holes. I know city naturalists contradict the charge that 

 the badger is a curse to the farmer ; but if they will ride across the 

 open prairie at sunset as I used to do, and come home without a fall, 

 or a bad stumble almost throwing one over the horse's head, it will 

 be because nature notoriously looks after greenhorns. I have 

 ridden all my life and am almost afraid to set it down that I have 

 never been pitched but it was because I learned the knack of getting 

 my horse's head up before he rolled, always used an Indian pony 

 and where there were badger holes, kicked my feet free from the 

 stirrups. Prices on badger for New York ran from 45^ to #3.10; 

 17,500 badger were sold in London in April; almost 2000 in New 

 York; almost 10,000 in St. Louis. Wombat is the Australian 

 badger. 



Wolverine 



Of the wolverine, I have given a fuller account in the second 

 section of the book. He is about the size of a low-set dog and is 

 marked by a saddle stripe of white or lighter fur on his back. He 

 measures 3 to 4 feet and has a dark rich brown fur. He is most 

 abundant in Northern Canada and is the great robber of traps, or 

 anything else to which his keen sense of smell leads him. I have 

 heard old Hudson's Bay men say if he couldn't get a marten to eat, 

 he would eat the trap ; and if he couldn't get the trap, he would 

 come to the trapper's shack and get his bacon, and if he couldn't 

 get his bacon, he would eat the trapper's moccasins. He is the 

 thief and robber of the trapper world and is so cunning, he can play 

 with a trap and get the bait. His fur is one of the recent comers to 

 the trade. 



