HIS PISCATORY PURSUITS. 23 



afterwards, he found the glutton still in the tree, and pre- 

 sently made him his prize. 



The glutton, like the lynx, subsists almost wholly on 

 fresh meat, and for the most part on such animals as he 

 himself has killed. He preys on birds and on almost every 

 animal found in the northern forests, from the elk, or rather 

 perhaps its fawn, down to the rat and the lemming ; more 

 especially on the poor hare, of which, to judge by the glutton's 

 tracks in the snow, he seems to be eternally in pursuit. In 

 the summer season he lives much on fish, which he captures 

 with the skill of an experienced angler. Lsestadius tells us, 

 indeed, that on one ocasion he saw four half-grown gluttons 

 on a stone in the midst of a rapid occupied in fishing 

 for grayling. At times, also, he devours amphibious animals ; 

 and we have accounts of his having been shot on the ice 

 in the winter time in the Gulf of Bothnia, far away from 

 the land, where, like the wolf, he had doubtless roamed 

 in search of seals. 



The glutton captures his prey in much the same way as 

 the lynx. Like that beast, he crawls upon his belly until 

 within so short a distance of his victim, that a few leaps will 

 enable him to seize and pull it down. When the animal 

 is large, however, he is said to climb a tree, or overhang- 

 ing crag, and when it passes underneath, to pounce upon 

 it. He is very destructive to the wild rein-deer, parti- 

 cularly in the winter ; for when these animals are neces- 

 sitated partially to bury their heads in the snow, for the 

 purpose of getting access to lichens and other vegetable 

 substances lying below, he is enabled to approach them 

 with facility. "When once seized by the blood-thirsty 

 beast, it is in vain that the wounded deer endeavours to 



