and the amazing thing about it was that 

 he had covered it with some kind of sticky 



vegetable gum, probably from some pine-tree 

 Surgery ^^ j^d been S p]j t or barked close to the 

 "",. ground where Musquash could reach it easily. 



"He had smeared it thickly all over the wound 

 and well up the leg above it, so that all dirt and 

 even all air and water were excluded perfectly. 

 An old Indian who lives and hunts on 

 Vancouver Island told me recently that he 

 has several times caught beaver that had 

 previously cut their legs off to escape from 

 traps, and that two of them had covered the 

 wounds thickly with gum, as the muskrat 

 had done. Last spring the same Indian 

 caught a bear in a deadfall. On the ani- 

 mal's side was a long rip from some other 

 bear's claw, and the wound had been smeared 

 thickly with soft spruce resin. This last 

 experience corresponds closely with one of 

 my own. I shot a big bear, years ago, in 

 northern New Brunswick, that had received 

 a gunshot wound, which had raked him 

 badly and then penetrated the leg. He 



^ had plugged the wound carefully with clay, 



