With Gun Rod in Canada 



Now, although I believed that my friend was in most 

 things perfectly honest, and although in my early fishing 

 adventures I had " tickled trout " and snared fish with 

 fine wire, my experience with wild animals convinced 

 me that such hypnotizing of the kind of game he was refer- 

 ring to would be impossible. Both the acute sense of 

 smell and sight possessed by wild things would preclude 

 the possibility of their being fooled while Mr. Nowe was 

 giving them a " close-up " of his act. 



A couple of weeks later I was taking a cruise in my 

 motor-boat from Port Medway Bay eastward along the 

 Atlantic coast, and put in at Petite Riviere breakwater 

 for the night. On Monday morning, July 22, as I 

 sauntered along the plank top of the old structure, 

 I saw a mink dodge in under some broken planking. I 

 stood still, and a few minutes later saw three young ones 

 darting in and out among the ballast rocks. They were 

 about twenty-five feet from where I stood, and although 

 they had seen me did not seem to be particularly fright- 

 ened. I hurried back to the motor-boat to get my 

 camera, and returned to the same spot, but did not 

 at first see my quarry. I glanced over the side of the 

 breakwater and saw three young mink playing or fishing 

 on the end of some piles near the edge of the water. 

 I set my camera for a six-foot focus, and, keeping out of 

 sight, sneaked along until I got opposite and just above 

 the point where they were playing, and peered cautiously 

 over the edge. The mink were there, but they saw 

 me before I had time to get the camera pointed down 

 at them, and ducked out of sight. I stood perfectly 

 still and just watched. In a few seconds one stuck 

 his head out, spied me, and ducked again. Then 

 another one stuck his head out a little way and whisked 

 back out of sight before I could snap the camera. A 

 third darted out in another place. I tried my best to 



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