THE RARE FURS 313 



fully all round the bare trunk. It was not till many months after- 

 ward when a wind storm had broken the tree that he discovered 

 the upper part had been hollow. Into this eerie nook the pursued 

 marten had scrambled and waited in safety till dog and man retired. 



In one of his traps the man finds a peculiarly short specimen of 

 the marten. In the vernacular of the craft this marten's bushy tail 

 will not reach as far back as his hind legs can stretch. Widely 

 different from the mink's scarcely visible ears, this fellow's ears 

 are sharply upright, keenly alert. He is like a fox, where the 

 mink resembles a furred serpent. Marten moves, springs, jumps 

 like an animal. Mink glides like a snake. Marten has the strong 

 neck of an animal fighter. Mink has the long, thin, twisting neck 

 which reptiles need to give them striking power for their fangs. 

 Mink's under lip has a mere rim of white or yellow. Marten's 

 breast is patched sulphur. But this short marten with a tail shorter 

 than other marten differs from his kind as to fur. Both mink and 

 marten fur are reddish brown ; but this short marten's fur is almost 

 black, of great depth, of great thickness, and of three qualities : 

 (1) There are the long dark overhairs the same as the ordinary 

 marten, only darker, thicker, deeper; (2) there is the soft under 

 fur of the ordinary marten, usually fawn,"in this fellow deep brown ; 

 (3) there is the skin fur resembling chicken-down, of which this 

 little marten has such a wealth — to use a technical expression — 

 you cannot find his scalp. Without going into the old quarrel 

 about species, when a marten has these peculiarities, he is known 

 to the trapper as sable. 



Whether he is the American counterpart to the Russia sable 

 is a disputed point. Whether his superior qualities are owing to 

 age, climate, species, it is enough for the trapper to know that short, 

 dark marten yields the trade — sable. 



