350 THE TRAPPER. 



catch a squirrel, and I have noticed that those that 

 were taken in my sable traps were invariably head out, 

 i.e. after the deadfall had sprung and before it had 

 crushed them, they had wheeled round. They have a 

 very strong musky smell ; eat hares, mice, &c., &c., and 

 are very inquisitive, playful, and even bold. When lying 

 in camp of an evening I have seen a weasel come in 

 through a hole, walk round, and look at everything, then 

 seize some little bit of meat and walk out, repeating this 

 operation several times. 



As a country becomes more thickly inhabited, it is 

 natural that the wild beasts should fly before the approach 

 of man and gradually diminish. I have observed that both 

 animals and birds are much more easily banished from 

 a certain district in Canada than they are at home. I 

 suppose it is that, in comparison to the vast extent of the 

 country, they are fewer in number. However that may be, 

 I know little spots in the old country a particular corner 

 of a rushy field, or a soft spot in an Irish bog where day 

 after day, the whole season through, the sportsman or the 

 poacher is almost sure to find a brace of ducks, a few 

 snipe, or a flock of teal ; even when shot down, others 

 take their place. In Canada it is quite different, very little 

 hunting or shooting serves to scare away the game and 

 drive them to more remote districts ; but I never could 

 understand how it is that some animals, and those appa- 

 rently the most shy, are so much harder to be banished 

 than others. Cariboo, moose, sable, and particularly 

 beaver, are the first to fly from the neighbourhood of man. 

 The loupcervier, the fox, the bear, and the otter, all par- 



