TJic Home of the Wolverene and Beaver. 1 39 



when trapped, and escape is hopeless, it becomes 

 the most abject and ignoble coward. To illustrafc 

 this I quote the following from M. Audubon. 

 " After putting up our horses and refreshing our- 

 selves, we entered into conversation with our worthy 

 host (a farmer) and were invited by him to visit the 

 wolf pits which he had constructed about half a mile 

 from the house. Glad of the opportunity, we 

 accompanied him across the fields to the skirts of 

 the adjoining forest, where he had three pits within 

 a few hundred yards of each other. They were 

 about eight feet deep, broadest at the bottom, so as 

 to render it impossible for the most active animal 

 to escape from them. The mouth of each pit was 

 covered v/ith a revolving platform of boughs and 

 twigs, interlaced together and attached to a cross 

 piece of timber, which served for an axle. On 

 this light sort of platform, which was balanced by 

 a heavy stick of wood fastened to the under side, a 

 large piece of putrid venison was tied for bait. 

 After examining all the pits, we returned to the 

 house, our companion remarking that he was in the 

 habit of visiting his pits daily, in order to see that all 

 was right ; that the wolves had been very bad that 

 season ; had destroyed nearly all his sheep, and 

 had killed one of his colts. ' But,' added he, ' I 

 am now paying them off in full, and if I have any 



