TWO MODEL CAMP COMPANIONS. 207 



scores of books of adventure and hunting. They 

 told how they had secured thousands of dollars' worth 

 of furs with their traps and guns, how fifty beaver 

 and numerous wolverines, lynxes, otters, fishers, mar- 

 tens, wolves, and other animals which came their way 

 had been captured. They told of the gaunt, black 

 timber- wolves which roamed in great bands through 

 the trackless forests and destroyed many deer ; how it 

 was almost impossible to trap or poison them, for 

 they were too shrewd to eat poisoned meat or go 

 near a trap ; how a pack of the big hungry brutes 

 would kill and eat a deer and leave no vestige of it 

 except a few scattered hairs on the snow. The very 

 bones would be crunched and swallowed by the rav- 

 enous beasts. 



McLaughlin showed where he had stood and seen 

 a fine buck dash from the forest and run directly 

 towards him, its tongue hanging out as it panted 

 from the great exertion. The presence of man did 

 not frighten it, for it was fleeing from a more deadly 

 enemy. As it passed on a pack of howling wolves 

 burst from the woods on its trail, and it was not un- 

 til three of them fell before the balls from the trap- 

 per's Winchester that the ferocious brutes turned 

 back into the depths of the forest. 



McLaughlin told of that mysterious animal, the 

 wolverine, which the Indians have so aptly named 

 the " mountain devil ; " how the trap must be fast- 

 ened to swinging poles or the animal will carry 

 it away. Even when the trap is chained to a pole the 

 wolverine sometimes climbs the chain and gnaws 

 the pole through, carrying off the whole load. One 



