24:8 THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



man-touch would be left on his trail, and the otter, 

 keener of scent and fear than the mink, would take 

 alarm. But for the same reason that the river is the 

 safest refuge for the otter, it is the surest hunt 

 ing for the man water does not keep the scent of 

 a trail. So the man runs his arm along the bank. The 

 river is the surest hunting for the man, but not the 

 safest. If an old male were in the bank burrow now, 

 or happened to be emerging from grass-lined subter 

 ranean air chambers above the bank gallery, it might 

 be serious enough for the exploring trapper. One bite 

 of nekik the otter has crippled many an Indian. 

 Knowing from the remnants of half-eaten fish and 

 from the holes in the bank that he has found an otter 

 runway, the man goes home as well satisfied as if he 

 had done a good day s work. 



And so that winter when he had camped below the 

 swamp for the mink-hunt, the trapper was not sur 

 prised one morning to find a half-eaten fish on the 

 river bank. Sakwasew the mink takes good care to 

 leave no remnants of his greedy meal. What he can 

 not eat he caches. Even if he has strangled a dozen 

 water-rats in one hunt, they will be dragged in a heap 

 and covered. The half-eaten fish left exposed is not 

 mink s work. Otter has been here and otter will come 

 back; for as the frost hardens, only those pools below 

 the falls keep free from ice. No use setting traps with 

 fish-heads as long as fresh fish are to be had for the 

 taking. Besides, the man has done nothing to conceal 

 his tracks; and each morning the half-eaten fish lie 

 farther off the line of the man-trail. 



By-and-bye the man notices that no more half-eaten 

 fish are on his side of the river. Little tracks of 



