256 THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



snow. Where had the fugitive gone? When the man 

 came up, he first searched for log holes. There were 

 none. Then he lifted some of the rocks. There was no 

 trace of wapistan. But the dog kept baying a special 

 tree, a blasted trunk, bare as a mast pole and seemingly 

 impossible for any animal but a squirrel to climb. 

 Knowing the trick by which creatures like the bob-cat 

 can flatten their body into a resemblance of a tree 

 trunk, the trapper searched carefully all round the 

 bare trunk. It was not till many months afterward 

 when a wind storm had broken the tree that he dis 

 covered the upper part had been hollow. Into this 

 eerie nook the pursued marten had scrambled and 

 waited in safety till dog and man retired. 



In one of his traps the man finds a peculiarly short 

 specimen of the marten. In the vernacular of the craft 

 this marten s bushy tail will not reach as far back as 

 his hind legs can stretch. Widely different from the 

 mink s scarcely visible ears, this fellow s ears are 

 sharply upright, keenly alert. He is like a fox, where 

 the mink resembles a furred serpent. Marten moves, 

 springs, jumps like an animal. Mink glides like a 

 snake. Marten has the strong neck of an animal 

 fighter. Mink has the long, thin, twisting neck which 

 reptiles need to give them striking power for their 

 fangs. Mink s under lip has a mere rim of white or 

 yellow. Marten s breast is patched sulphur. But this 

 short marten with a tail shorter than other marten 

 differs from his kind as to fur. Both mink and marten 

 fur are reddish brown; but this short marten s fur is 

 almost black, of great depth, of great thickness, and of 

 three qualities: (1) There are the long dark overhairs 

 the same as the ordinary marten, only darker, thicker, 



