THE WOLVERINE. 499 



human, if not more. I gave it up, and abandoned the road 

 for a period. 



"On another occasion, a Carcajou amused himself by- 

 tracking my line from one end to the other, and demolish- 

 ing my traps as fast as I could set them. I put a large 

 steel -trap in the middle of a path that branched off among 

 some willows, spreading no ' bait, but risking tlie chance 

 that the animal would ' i^ut his foot in it ' on his way to 

 break a trap at the end of a path. On my next visit, I 

 found that the trajo was gone, but I noticed the blood and 

 entrails of a hare that had evidently been caught in the 

 trap, and devoured by the Carcajou on the spot. Examin- 

 ing his foot-prints, I was satisfied that he had not been 

 caught, and I took up his trail. 



"Proceeding about a mile through the woods, I came to 

 a small lake, on the banks of which I recognized traces of 

 the trap, which the beast had laid down while he went a 

 few steps to one side. He had then returned and picked 

 up the trap, which he had carried across the lake, with 

 many a twist and turn on the hard crust of snow to mislead 

 his exx^ected pursuer, and then again entered the woods. I 

 followed for about half a mile farther, and then came to a 

 large hole dug in the snow. This place, however, seemed 

 not to have suited him, for there was nothing there. A 

 few yards farther on, however, I found a neatly built 

 mound of snow on which the animal had left his mark; this 

 I knew was his cache. Using one of my snow-shoes for 

 a spade, I dug into the hillock and down to the ground, the 

 snow being about four feet deep; and there I found my trap, 

 with the toes of a rabbit still in the jaws. Could it have 

 been the animal's instinctive impulse to hide prey that made 

 him carry my trap so far merely for the morsel of meat 

 still held in it? Or did his cunning nature prompt him 

 to hide the trap, for fear that on some future occasion 

 he might put his own toes in it and share the rabbit's 

 fate?" 



Coues also selects the following from Captain Cart- 

 wright's journal: "In coming to the foot of Table Hill, I 



