The Home of the Wolverene and Beaver. 239 



same time harassed by a snowy owl. It resembles 

 the bear in its gait, and is not fleet ; but it is very 

 industrious, and no doubt feeds well, as it is 

 generally fat. It is much abroad in the winter, and 

 the track of its journey in a single night might be 

 often traced for many miles. From the shortness 

 of its legs, it makes its way through loose snow 

 with difficulty, but when it falls upon the beaten 

 track of a marten trapper it will pursue it for a long 

 way." Mr. Graham observes that " the wolverenes 

 are extremely mischievous, and do more damage to 

 the small fur trade than all the other rapacious 

 animals conjointly. They wall follow the marten 

 hunters' path round a line of traps extending forty, 

 fifty, or sixty miles, and render the whole un- 

 serviceable, merely to come at the baits, which are 

 generally the head of a partridge or a bit of dried 

 venison. They are not fond of the martens them- 

 selves, but never fail of tearing them in pieces or of 

 burying them in the snow by the side of the path, 

 at a considerable distance from the trap. Drifts of 

 snow often conceal the repositories thus made of the 

 martens from the hunter, in which case they furnish 

 a regale to the hungry fox, whose sagacious nostril 

 guides him unerringly to the spot. Two or three 

 foxes are often seen following the wolverene for 

 this purpose." 



