326 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



man's tracks. If the man does not molest it, it will follow a scent 

 and quarter and circle under his feet ; so the man has no difficulty 

 in taking the little beast. So bold are the little creatures that the 

 man may discover their burrows under brush, in rock, in sand 

 holes, and take the whole litter before the game mother will 

 attempt to escape. Indeed, the plucky little ermine will follow 

 the captor of her brood. Steel rat traps, tiny deadfalls, frosted 

 bits of iron smeared with grease to tempt the ermine's tongue which 

 the frost will hold like a vice till the trapper comes, and, most 

 common of all, twine snares such as entrap the rabbit, are the means 

 by which the ermine comes to his appointed end at the hands of 

 men. 



The quality of the pelt shows as wide variety as the' skin of the 

 fox; and for as mysterious reasons. Why an ermine a year old 

 should have a coat like sulphur and another of the same age a coat 

 like swan's down, neither trapper nor scientist has yet discovered. 

 The price of the ermine-pelt used to be higher than any other of 

 the rare furs taken in North America except silver fox ; but jt no 

 longer commands the fabulous prices that were certainly paid for 

 specimen ermine-skins in the days of the Georges in England and 

 the later Louis in France. How were those fabulously costly skins 

 prepared ? Old trappers say no perfectly downy pelt is ever taken 

 from an ermine, that the downy effect is produced by a trick of the 

 trade — scraping the flesh side so deftly that all the coarse hairs 

 will fall out, leaving only the soft under-fur. 



