238 THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



through the grass of the prairie. But no sooner is the 

 badger hard at work than a gray form seems to rise 

 out of the earth, a coyote who had been slinking to 

 the rear all the while; and as the terrified gophers 

 scurry here, scurry there, coyote s white teeth snap! 

 snap ! He is here there everywhere pouncing 

 jumping having the fun of his life, gobbling gophers 

 as cats catch mice. Down in the bottom of the burrow, 

 the badger may get half a dozen poor cooped huddling 

 prisoners; but the coyote up on the prairie has de 

 voured a whole colony. 



Do these two, badger and coyote, consciously hunt 

 together? Some old trappers vow they do others just 

 as vehemently that they don t. The fact remains that 

 wherever the badger goes gopher-hunting on an un 

 settled prairie, there the coyote skulks reaping reward 

 of all the badger s work. The coincidence is no 

 stranger than the well-known fact that sword-fish and 

 thrasher two different fish always league together to 

 attack the whale. 



One thing only can save the gopher colony, and 

 that is the gun barrel across yon earth mound where a 

 trapper lies in wait for the coming of the badger. 



IV 

 The Coon 



Sir Alexander MacKenzie reported that in 1798 

 the North-West Company sent out only 100 raccoon 

 from the fur country. Last year the city of St. Paul 

 alone cured 115,000 coon-skins. What brought about 

 the change? Simply an appreciation of the qualities 

 of coon, which combines the greatest warmth with 



