436 LABRADOR 



ball of ice had formed on it, apparently where the saliva 

 had made it sticky and the snow had balled on it ; yet the 

 poor brute was marching along on his journey. A wolverine 

 taken in a trap shows fierce fight and endurance. From 

 the latter fact have arisen some of the stories of his cun- 

 ning. Thus, a wolverine in a trap was hit over the head 

 by a hunter, and " killed." But as soon as the trapper 

 stooped to pick him up, he jumped up and bit him. On 

 another occasion a wolverine lay "dead" while the trap 

 was taken off his leg, whereupon he immediately leaped up 

 and ran away. 



The red squirrels are very numerous and very tame. One 

 frequently finds their caches of food in holes in the ground 

 or in stumps. They will also make their way into houses 

 and stores, appropriating biscuits, bread, and other pro- 

 visions. At Rigolet, the Hudson's Bay Company's agents 

 have twice found collections of biscuits amounting to 

 nearly a barrelful, which the little fellows had carried off 

 and stored for winter. Their skins are of little value, but 

 the animals are not bad eating when proteid food is scarce. 



Castor Canadensis. The Labrador beaver has been abso- 

 lutely protected by law for many years, and in some of the 

 rivers near the East Coast, which are only hunted by single 

 settlers, has become quite numerous. The hunters are 

 most law-abiding, for it is very easy to sell the skins, and 

 there is practically no one in Labrador to enforce the law. 

 Their sturdy honesty, however, has not permanently saved 

 the beaver. The roaming Indians found the animals extend- 

 ing farther up the rivers on to their own more central hunt- 

 ing grounds, and followed them down-stream to the coast, 

 killing every animal which they met with as they went 



