THE COON 239 



the lightest weight and is especially adapted for a 

 cold climate and constant wear. What was said of 

 badger applies with greater force to coon. The 

 coon in the East is associated in one s mind with 

 cabbies, in the West with fashionably dressed men 

 and women. And there is just as wide a difference 

 in the quality of the fur as in the quality of the 

 people. The cabbies coon coat is a rough yellow 

 fur with red stripes. The Westerner s coon is a silky 

 brown fur with black stripes. One represents the fall 

 hunt of men and boys round hollow logs, the other the 

 midwinter hunt of a professional trapper in the Far 

 North. A dog usually bays the coon out of hiding in 

 the East. Tiny tracks, like a child s hand, tell the 

 Northern hunter where to set his traps. 



Wahboos the rabbit, musquash the musk-rat, sikak 

 the skunk, wenusk the badger, and the common coon 

 these are the little chaps whose hunt fills the idle days 

 of the trapper s busy life. At night, before the rough 

 stone hearth which he has built in his cabin, he is 

 still busy by fire-light preparing their pelts. Each 

 skin must be stretched and cured. Turning the skin 

 fur side in, the trapper pushes into the pelt a wedge- 

 shaped slab of spliced cedar. Into the splice he shoves 

 another wedge of wood which he hammers in, each 

 blow widening the space and stretching the skin. All 

 pelts are stretched fur in but the fox. Tacking the 

 stretched skin on a flat board, the trapper hangs it to 

 dry till he carries all to the fort; unless, indeed, he 

 should need a garment for himself cap, coat, or 

 gantlets in which case he takes out a square needle 

 and passes his evenings like a tailor, sewing. 



