CARN1VORA. 207 



by carrying in the mouth a quantity of lichen, with 

 which they ascend a tree, crawl on a protruded limo, 

 and drop it, while they lie close and motionless . 

 thus they wait patiently till a deer passes, which, 

 stooping to smell at the bait, uncovers its neck from 

 the protection of its horns, and affords time for the 

 glutton to drop down upon its shoulders, where, 

 fixing the long and formidable claws, the canine 

 teeth are directed at the great blood-vessels of the 

 neck, and there the remorseless brute hangs, regard- 

 less of blows from the horns, or of being dashed 

 against trees ; and, if no deep water is at hand, he 

 never quits hold, nor fails of destroying his prey in 

 a few minutes. It is said to be but rarely the case 

 that a horned animal is thus caught, because deer 

 do not much frequent woods until their attire is 

 gone ; and the elk is said to be protected by the 

 thickness of his mane.* They have an acute sense 

 of smelling, detecting buried food at great depths, 

 and labouring, with prodigious energy and skill, to 

 dig it up, often to the great distress of hunters, who 

 vainly conceal their provisions in what they call 

 caches, well fenced with stones, from their depreda- 

 tions. They are no less destructive to the snares 

 of the fur-trappers, whose track they follow, de- 



* Although these accounts are discredited by recent tra- 

 vellers, who have little or no direct knowledge of the manners 

 of these animals in woody regions, and reason from their 

 condition in the open snowy tracts, yet they are the common 

 belief in America, in Sweden, and in Siberia ; and their ge- 

 neral sagacity cannot be disputed. 



