236 THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



tals are too damp for badger to be in fashion with 

 them. Certainly, with the private dealers of the 

 North and West, badger is yearly becoming more 

 important. 



Like the musk-rat, badger is prime in the au 

 tumn. Wherever the hunting-grounds of the ani 

 mals are, there will the hunting-grounds of the trap 

 per be. Badgers run most where gophers sit sun 

 ning themselves on the clay mounds, ready to bolt 

 down to their subterranean burrows on the first ap 

 proach of an enemy. Eternal enemies these two are, 

 gopher and badger, though they both live in ground 

 holes, nest their lairs with grasses, run all summer and 

 sleep all winter, and alike prey on the creatures smaller 

 than themselves mice, moles, and birds. The gopher, 

 or ground squirrel, is smaller than the wood squirrel, 

 while the badger is larger than a Manx cat, with a 

 shape that varies according to the exigencies of the 

 situation. Normally, he is a flattish, fawn-coloured 

 beast, with a turtle-shaped body, little round head, and 

 small legs with unusually strong claws. Ride after 

 the badger across the prairie and he stretches out in 

 long, lithe shape, resembling a baby cougar, turning at 

 every pace or two to snap at your horse, then off again 

 at a hulking scramble of astonishing speed. Pour 

 water down his burrow to compel him to come up or 

 down, and he swells out his body, completely filling 

 the passage, so that his head, which is downward, is in 

 dry air, while his hind quarters alone are in the water. 

 In captivity the badger is a business-like little body, 

 with very sharp teeth, of which his keeper must beware, 

 and some of the tricks of the skunk, but inclined, on 

 the whole, to mind his affairs if you will mind yours. 



