EYE-BEAMS 



I. A WEASEL AND HIS DEN 



My most interesting note of the season of 1893 

 relates to a weasel. One day in early Novem- 

 ber my boy and I were sitting on a rock at the 

 edge of a tamarack swamp in the woods hoping 

 to get a glimpse of some grouse which we knew 

 were in the habit of feeding in the swamp. 

 We had not sat there very long before we 

 heard a slight rustling in the leaves below us 

 which we at once fancied was made by the 

 cautious tread of a grouse. (We had no gun.) 

 Presently through the thick brushy growth, we 

 caught sight of a small animal running along, 

 that we at first took for a red squirrel. A 

 moment more, and it came into full view but a 

 few yards from us, and we saw that it was a 

 weasel. A second glance showed that it car- 

 ried something in its mouth, which, as it drew 

 near, we saw was a mouse, or a mole of some 

 sort. The weasel ran nimbly along, now the 

 length of a decayed log, then over stones and 

 branches, pausing a moment every tliree or four 

 yards, and passed within twenty feet of us, and 

 disappeared behind some rocks on the bank at 

 the edge of the swamp. "He is carrying food 



