THE WOLVERINE. 



501 



propensity of the animal for tree-cutting is again hinted at, 

 as well as his keenness of scent: 



"Brown advised that, as this was a good place, some 

 provisions be cached for those of the party who were to 

 return from Jasper's; and Valad selecting a site in the 

 greenwood, he and Beaupre went off to it from the oppo- 

 site direction, with about twenty-five pounds of pemmican 

 and flour, tied up first in canvas and then in oil-skin, as 

 the Wolverine most dreaded plunderer of cac7ies dislikes 

 the smell of oil. Selecting two suitable pine-trees in the 

 thick wood, they skinned (barked) them to prevent animals 

 from climbing; then placing a pole between the two, some 

 eighteen feet from the ground, they hung a St. Andrew's 

 cross of two small sticks from the pole, and suspended 

 their bag from the end of one, that the least movement, or 

 even puff of wind, would set it swinging. Such a cache 

 Valad guaranteed against bird and beast of whatever 

 kind." 



Whether his guarantee held good, or whether the Wol- 

 verine, disregarding the cross and defying the ingenuity 

 of the voyageurs, plundered the cac7ie, the historian does 

 not state. 



