1 50 The Home of tJie Wolvere)ie and Beaver. 



hungry foe. The squirrel leaped lightly among the 

 smaller branches on which the heavier animal 

 seemed disinclined to trust its weight, but in its 

 fright it miscalculated a distance, and fell from one 

 of the topmost boughs, lighting unhurt upon the 

 rocks beneath. Now was the time for the fisher to 

 have exhibited his tumbling propensities had he 

 possessed them, but instead of leaping boldly after 

 his prey he commenced running down the stem of 

 the tree. At this point the bystanders interfered, 

 and advanced to the foot of the tree which the 

 fisher was descending. He paused on the opposite 

 side, as if trying to ascertain whether he had been 

 observed, and no one of the party carrying a gun 

 they commenced hammering on their tin botanizing 

 boxes with the handles of their knives, a measure 

 which filled the fisher with consternation, and the 

 greater the noise became the more his terror in- 

 creased, and in terrible trepidation he re-ascended 

 the tree, sprang to another, down whose stem he 

 ran until within twenty feet of the bottom, when he 

 made a flying leap to the ground and in a few 

 moments was out of sight. The title "fisher" is 

 evidently a misnomer, for the animal is not amphi- 

 bious in its habits ; the Canadian hunters always 

 call it the Pekan. 



The next animal of the tribe possessing valuable 



