340 TEE TRAPPER. 



hard. They commence to build their lodges in the end 

 of September, and build them about a foot and a half 

 higher than the surface of the water. In spring, like 

 their relatives the beaver, they roam about, and during 

 the summer seem to have no fixed residences. In the 

 months of April and May the smell of musk is the 

 strongest ; this is the mating season, and the Indians at 

 this time call them within shot by imitating their cry, 

 which they do by sucking in air between the lips. 



The pekan or black cat (Mustela Canadensis), sometimes 

 called the "fisher," though why I cannot guess, as it 

 never goes near the water, and lives in the forest like 

 the marten, which it resembles in habits. The pekan is 

 the most agile of all the denizens of the forest, and the 

 most voracious. It eats any animal food it can get, and 

 does not even fear the barbed quills of the porcupine. 

 I have seen pekans whose skins were full of quills. 

 When a cariboo or moose is shot, if there is a pekan 

 in the neighbourhood he will be sure to find the carcase. 

 They are dreadful robbers, and sometimes cause great 

 loss to the trapper by robbing a whole line of sable traps, 

 and eating the sable that may be caught therein; they 

 sometimes, however, carry this game a little too far, and 

 are caught in a trap prepared for them, either a steel 

 trap or a heavy deadfall, which the knowing old trapper 

 generally constructs at intervals along his line. The fur 

 is coarse, but valuable from its colour; price about 11. 

 Persons ignorant of fur have sometimes the skins of tame 

 black cats, with tails and ears cut off, imposed upon them 

 as pekan skins. 



The skunk (Mephitis Americana) is, in my opinion, a 



