294 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



charges past countless rapids. But he will get all that he needs, 

 all that he wants, all that his labor is worth, this "lazy vagabond" 

 who spends half his time idling in the sun. Of how many other 

 men can that be said ? 



But what of the ruthless slaughter among the little muskrats ? 

 Does humanity not revolt at the thought? Is this trapping not 

 after all brutal butchery ? 



Animal kindliness — if such a thing exists among muskrats — 

 could hardly protest against the slaughter, seeing the muskrats 

 themselves wage as ruthless a war against water-worm and owlet 

 as man wages against muskrats. It is the old question, should 

 animal life be sacrificed to preserve human life ? To that question 

 there is only one answer. Linings for coats are more important 

 life-savers than all the humane societies of the world put together. 

 It is probable that the first thing the prehistoric man did to pre- 

 serve his own life when he realized himself was to slay some de- 

 structive animal and appropriate its coat. 



II 



Sikak the Skunk 



Sikak the skunk it is who supplies the best imitations of sable. 

 The hunter may follow the little four-abreast galloping footprints 

 that lead to a hole among stones or to rotten logs, but long before 

 he has reached the nesting-place of his quarry comes a stench 

 against which white blood is powerless. Or the trapper may find 

 an unexpected visitor in one of the pens which he has dug for other 

 animals — a little black creature the shape of a squirrel and the 

 size of a cat with white stripings down his back and a bushy tail. 

 It is then a case of a quick deadly shot, or the man will be put to 

 rout by an odor that will pollute the air for miles around and drive 

 him off that section of the hunting-field. The cuttle-fish is the only 

 other creature that possesses as powerful means of defence of a 



