THE PINE-MARTEN. 155 



the dogs unless the run be a long one. The 

 marten is a past-master in keeping up a running 

 fight, and will punish an inexperienced dog severely 

 at every effort made to close. 



A Canadian trapper wrote me some time ago 

 on this animal's tenacity of life when trapped : 

 ' Mink and marten live longer than any other fur- 

 bearers we get out here when held in a trap. I 

 have known a marten to live two days, and then 

 to face you with a most diabolical fear and ferocity 

 when you went up to it. Skunk and otter die 

 fairly soon comparatively, but the mink and the 

 marten seem impervious to cold, and will linger 

 on indefinitely. For this reason we usually set 

 our traps on a log elevated from the ground, so 

 that when the animal is caught it falls off and is 

 suspended. They die much sooner this way, and 

 are not so likely to escape maimed. I think the 

 Indian dead -fall is the best for these tenacious 

 animals.' 



He continues : ' You ask me about the food 

 of the marten. In summer, I reckon they eat 

 pretty nearly anything they can catch, barring 

 black-bear and moose. In winter, God knows what 

 they eat up in this country [Mattagami River], 

 but the Indians say that the number of martens 

 depends on the number of snowshoes [snowshoe 

 rabbits], which would seem to indicate that rabbits 

 are their staple diet. I asked Joe Long [Indian 

 chief] what you asked about whether marten ever 

 kill porcupines like fishers do, but he said he 

 had never heard tell of it We generally use 

 partridge [spruce partridge] meat for marten, 

 though they will come for any raw, bloody meat, 

 the same as a skunk something with feathers 

 on it preferred. Of course, where birds are plenti- 



