The Ho Die of the Wolvereiie and Beaver. 229 



circulated and devoutly credited concerning its 

 cunning, ferocity, extreme wariness, and gorman' 

 dizing habits. Olaus Magnus, whose appetite for 

 the marvellous was insatiable, tells us, " It is wont, 

 when it has found the carcase of some large beast, 

 to eat until its belly is distended like a drum, when 

 it rids itself of its load by squeezing its body 

 betwixt two trees growing near together, and again 

 returning to its repast, soon requires to have re- 

 course to the same means of relief." Buffon, 

 following the reports of preceding writers, describes 

 it as a ferocious animal, which approaches man 

 without fear, and attacks the larger quadrupeds 

 without hesitation ; but he states that its pace is so 

 slow that it can take its prey only by surprise, to 

 accomplish which it employs an extraordinary 

 degree of cunning. To use his own words "the 

 defect of nimbleness he (the wolverene) supplies 

 with cunning ; he lies in wait for animals as they 

 pass, he climbs upon trees in order to dart upon 

 his prey and seize it with advantage ; he throws 

 himself down upon elks and reindeer, and fixes so 

 firmly on their bodies with his claws and teeth that 

 nothing can remove him. In vain do the poor 

 victims fly and rub themselves against trees ; the 

 enemy, attached to the crupper or neck, continues 

 to suck their blood, to enlarge the wound, and to 



