208 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



The superstitious Indian not only believes that the wolverine 

 is possessed of the devil — for it is the most destructive animal 

 in the northern world — but he considers it also to be endowed 

 with great intelligence. The wily Indian, however, knowing 

 the animal's habit of trying to destroy what it cannot carry 

 away, takes advantage of that very fact and hunts it ac- 

 cordingly. 



All that has been said in relation to trapping the fox apphes 

 also to le Carcajou — i. e., the wolverine — save that the trap chain 

 should be doubled, and everything else made stronger and 

 heavier in proportion to the wolverine's greater size and 

 strength. That evening Oo-koo-hoo talked much of wolverines. 



"My son, no other animal siu-passes it in devihsh cunning. 

 For it is not content to merely spring a trap, but it will carry 

 it away — more often for a short distance, but sometimes for 

 miles — and hide or bury it. Later ^n the wolverine may visit 

 it again, carry it still farther awa^ nd bm-y it once more. 

 The wolverine has good teeth for cutting wood, and will some- 

 times free a trap from its clog by gnawing the pole in two. My 

 son, I have even known a wolverine go to the trouble of digging 

 a hole in which to bury a trap of mine; but just in order to fool 

 me, the beast has filled up the hole again, carried the trap to 

 another place, and there finally buried it. But as a good 

 hunter is very observant, he is seldom fooled that way, for the 

 wolverine, having very short legs, has difficulty in keeping both 

 the chain and the trap from leaving tell-tale marks in the snow. 



"Yes, my son, the wolverine is a very knowing brute, and if 

 he thinks he may be trailed, he will sometimes — without the 

 slightest sign of premeditation — ^jump sideways over a bush, a 

 log, or a rock, in order to begin, out of sight of any trailer, a new 

 trail ; or he may make a great spring to gain a tree, and ascend 

 it without even leaving the evidence of freshly fallen bark. 

 Then, too, he may climb from tree to tree, by way of the 

 interlocking branches, for a distance of a hundred paces or more. 



