HOW TO CATCH THE MAllTEX. 39 



one year the Hudson Bay Company alone sold fifteen 

 thousand skins. 



The Sable inhabits tlie same countries in the ^orth, 

 and has sometimes been confounded with the former, 

 which it strongly resembles in structure and habits ; 

 but Professor Polios, wbo examined it and its native soil, 

 has assigned it its place as a distinct species. It is some- 

 what larger iu size than the Pine Marten; its head is 

 rather more slightly depressed, and its muzzle more elon- 

 gated, the soles of the feet more villous, and finally, the 

 fur on its body is more beautiful, soft, long, black, and 

 shining, and the hair turns with ease either way. The skin 

 is consequently more valuable, and one of them not ex- 

 ceeding four inches broad has sometimes been valued as 

 high as seventy-five dollars. The tails are sold by the 

 hundred at from twenty to forty dollars. The exiles in 

 Siberia are required to furnish a certain number of skins 

 annually, from which the Russian government is said to 

 derive a considerable revenue. The smell of the Marten 

 tribe is rather agreeable. They are taken in traps, and 

 also hunted with the musket. 



The Marten is easily caught. Tlie common way is to 

 set dead-falls a quarter of a mile a^^art on the banks of 

 streams, or through brook and wilderness, hauling a trail 

 of liver, or the body of roasted crow from one to the other. 

 The dead-fall is so well known that it is not necessary to 

 describe it. 



In using the steel trap, bait with the bodies of crows, 



