WUCHAK THE FISHER, OR PEKAN 251 



prices paid. Ermine not worth twenty-five cents in 

 Wisconsin might be worth ten times as much on the 

 Saskatchewan. 



So it is with the otter. All trapped between lati 

 tude thirty-five and sixty is good fur; and the best is 

 that taken toward the end of winter when scarcely a 

 russet hair should be found in the long over-fur of 

 nekik s coat. 



Ill 

 Wuchak the Fisher, or Pekan 



Wherever the waste of fish or deer is thrown, there 

 will be found lines of double tracks not so large as the 

 wild-cat s,, not so small as the otter s, and without the 

 same webbing as the mink s. This is wuchak the 

 fisher, or pekan, commonly called &quot; the black cat &quot; 

 who, in spite of his fishy name, hates water as cats 

 hate it. And the tracks are double because pekan 

 travel in pairs. He is found along the banks of 

 streams because he preys on fish and fisher, on mink 

 and otter and musk-rat, on frogs and birds and 

 creatures that come to drink. He is, after all, a very 

 greedy fellow, not at all particular about his diet, and, 

 like all gluttons, easily snared. While mink and otter 

 are about, the trapper will waste no steel-traps on 

 pekan. A deadfall will act just as effectively; but 

 there is one point requiring care. Pekan has a sharp 

 nose. It is his nose that brings him to all carrion just 

 as surely as hawks come to pick dead bones. But that 

 same nose will tell him of man s presence. So when 

 the trapper has built his pen of logs so that the front 

 log or deadfall will crush down on the back of an in 

 truder tugging at the bait inside, he overlays all with 



