388 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



and destructive creature has four or five young ones at a time, 

 their birth-place being generally the hollow of a log, a tree, or 

 a rocky cavity. The stoat certainly deserves its technical 

 name, for when aroused by anger or sexual passion, it emits a 

 vile odour which is almost unbearable, so that it is no wonder 

 that rats and ground squirrels ilee before it in terror, for, 

 omitting even its fierce and destructive nature, which induces 

 it to kill even when there is no necessity for it, the stench 

 alone which it exhales is enough to make its superiors in phy- 

 sical strength scamper away from it. Tt roams abroad prin- 

 cipally at night, but it is also often out in the day time. 



This creature has a total length of about fourteen inches, 

 and its fur, which is soft, thick, and fine in the northern 

 latitudes, becomes white in winter, when it is in the best con- 

 dition for the market. This is a favourite fur on the Continent 

 for several purposes, hence it is nearly always in active demand. 

 There are two or three other species of the weasel in the 

 country, but they amount to little in the fur market. 



Of the muskrat, polecat, and badger, little need be said, as 

 they are well known. The former is amphibious ; the second 

 is famous for its destructive character, courage, and perfume 

 bag; and the third is notorious for its combativeness and its 

 nocturnal habits. The skin of the skunk is now becoming so 

 popular that thousands of this animal are killed annually to 

 supply the increasing demand. The sooner they arc all made 

 into robes the better will the Western pioneers like it, for not 

 only is the creature offensive to the nose and the farmyard, 

 but its bite is often attended with fatal results, the symptoms 

 it produces being similar to those attending an attack of 

 hydi'ophobia. 



The badger is so common in some portions of the West that 

 its burrows cover a large area of country ; and are so numerous, 

 that it is dangerous to gallop a horse in some places. As this 

 animal seldom travels abroad in the day-time, it is a rare thing 

 to see one, but should a person meet it accidentally and try to 

 head it off' from its burrow, it would probably pay no heed to 

 his presence, and attempt to enter, nolens volens t though he 

 might keep kicking it. 



