WILD ANIMALS AND MEN 235 



her axe, and if the other guests would care to see her prize, 

 it was lying on her sled, just outside the door. What a con- 

 trast to the way the Wild West movie actors would have done 

 the deadly work with the aid of all their absurd artillery! 

 Nevertheless, that kindly spoken, smiling-faced, motherly old 

 lady, did the deed with nothing but her little axe. 



But while the men of the wilderness laugh over the serious 

 drivel of most fiction writers who make a specialty of northern 

 tales, nothing is so supremely ludicrous as the attempts made 

 by the average movie director to depict northern life in Canada. 

 Never have I seen a photoplay that truthfully illustrated north- 

 ern Canadian life. 



THE WOLVERINE AND GILL NET 



Next day we again set out on a moose trail, but, as ill luck 

 followed us in the way of a heavy snowstorm, we gave up the 

 chase and continued on our way. It was hard going and we 

 stopped often. Once we halted to rest beside a number of 

 otter tracks. Otters leave a surprisingly big trail for animals 

 of their size. A good imitation could be made of an otter's 

 trail by pressing down into the snow, in a horizontal position, 

 a long, irregular stove pipe of the usual size. The reason the 

 otter's trail is so formed, is that the animal, when travelling 

 through deep snow, progresses on its belly and propels itself 

 principally by its hind legs, especially when going down hill. 

 When making a hillside descent an otter prefers to use an old, 

 well-worn track and glides down it with the ease and grace 

 of a toboggan on its slide. It was the sight of the otter's trail 

 that set Oo-koo-hoo thinking of his younger days. 



"Years ago, my son, I very nearly killed a man. It hap- 

 pened at just such a place as this: a little lake with a patch 

 of open water above a spring. It was on my father's hunting 

 grounds, and late one afternoon, after passing through heavy 



