262 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



traders did in 1885, when rebel Indians surrounded the Saskatche- 

 wan forts, was to split the casks and spill all alcohol. The second 

 thing was to bury ammunition — showing which influence they 

 considered the more dangerous. 



Ermine is at its best when the cold is most intense, the tawny 

 weasel coat turning from fawn to yellow, from yellow to cream and 

 snow-white, according to the latitude north and the season. Un- 

 less it is the pelt of the baby ermine, soft as swan's down, tail-tip 

 jet as onyx, the best ermine is not likely to be in a pack brought 

 to the fort as early as Christmas. 



Fox, lynx, mink, marten, otter and bear, the trapper can take 

 with steel traps of a size varying with the game, or even with the 

 clumsily constructed deadfall, the log suspended above the bait 

 being heavy or light, according to the hunter's expectation of 

 large or small intruder ; but the ermine with fur as easily damaged 

 as finest gauze must be handled differently. 



Going the rounds of his traps, the hunter has noted curious tiny 

 tracks like the dots and dashes of a telegraphic code. Here are 

 little prints slurring into one another in a dash ; there, a dead stop, 

 where the quick-eared stoat has paused with beady eyes alert for 

 snow-bird or rabbit. Here, again, a clear blank on the snow 

 where the crafty little forager has dived below the light surface 

 and wriggled forward like a snake to dart up with a plunge of 

 fangs into the heart-blood of the unwary snow-bunting. From 

 the length of the leaps, the trapper judges the age of the ermine ; 

 fourteen inches from nose to tail-tip means a full-grown ermine 

 with hair too coarse to be damaged by a snare. The man suspends 

 the noose of a looped twine across the runway from a twig bent 

 down so that the weight of the ermine on the string sends the twig 

 springing back with a jerk that lifts the ermine off the ground, 

 strangling it instantly. Perhaps on one side of the twine he has 

 left bait — smeared grease, or a bit of meat. 



If the tracks are like the prints of a baby's fingers, close and 

 small, the trapper hopes to capture a pelt fit for a throne cloak, 



