ENCAMPMENT IN THE WILDERNESS 103 



They are caught in two ways : first, in steel traps ; 

 secondly, by means of a poised log of wood, which, falling 

 on the mink, kills or disables it. These little creatures 

 are as tenacious of life as an eel. They smell abomin- 

 ably ; and the carcasses must be skinned with care, other- 

 wise the bundle of pelts can scarcely be endured while 

 under transport, and the sweetening process is a long and 

 troublesome one. 



From the numbers mentioned above it will be per- 

 ceived that the mink was tolerably abundant hereabout ; 

 but the ermine was by far the most numerous of all the 

 small mammals that we found here. In this animal, 

 which is very much smaller than the mink, having the 

 body some ten to twelve inches long, the fur changes 

 colour at the approach of winter, becoming snow-white, 

 with the exception of the end of the tail. But most 

 persons know the fur of the ermine. We obtained 

 several hundred skins, nearly all of which I afterwards 

 brought to England; for the Hudson Company were, at 

 this time, scarcely giving thanks for them, and many 

 trappers only captured them in traps set for other small 

 animals. 



Of the other members of the genus Mustela in this 

 neighbourhood, I am uncertain that my remarks have a 

 general interest, as I am almost sure to be told they 

 have not to the professional naturalist. My view is that 

 they are simply local varieties of animals common to all 

 countries within certain parallels of the northern hemi- 

 sphere. Take the common American marten, for instance 

 (Mustela Americana) : in what does it differ from the 

 European marten ? or the Asiatic sable ? In nothing, in 

 my opinion, of sufficient importance to constitute it a 

 distinct species ; or nothing that would be considered a 

 remarkable difference in any species of domestic animal 

 if found occurring in even the same country. I doubt if 

 it could always be told, by even an experienced naturalist, 

 which was the European, which was the American marten ; 



