CHAPTER V. 



HOW TO CATCH THE MINK. 



This little animal, whicli is much like the weasel, has, 

 of late years, become so valuable, that no pains is sjoared 

 to obtain his hide. It is but a few years since that a mink 

 skin would not brmg above thirty cents. The value of 

 the fur was not known. At this time, although he is so 

 small a creature, a prime northern skin is worth from ten 

 to twelve dollars. The mink is shaped much like the ot- 

 ter, and although he appears to be no more fitted for 

 swimming than the weasel, yet the water is his home. 

 He eats fishes and frogs, and craw-fish, and now and then 

 gets into the barn and steals chickens, and goslings, and 

 ducks, and crawls into the cellar and eats up the sausage 

 meat, and whatever he can lay his jaws to. He is a pilfer- 

 ing little rascal, and yet so simple and foolish that he will 

 run into a naked trap. For the sake of something to eat, 

 lie runs up streams of Avater and crosses the land from one 

 lake to another, — a regular renegade. He burrows in 

 steep banks, or under old roots, or in the rocks. The 

 young are brought forth in May or June, in litters of five 



or six, — black looking little things. 

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