APPENDIX F 357 



feet are white, except on the soles, where the hair is brown; 

 eyes, black and beady; the rear view is all brown, except the 

 narrow white lining of thighs which ends at the anus. This one 

 was apparently young and had not borne young this year, or at 

 all. Its body after skinning was three-fourths of an inch through 

 the deepest part, but through the chest it was only one-half an 

 inch. Its stomach was empty. It had come on one of our 

 mouse-traps containing a mouse, had torn the head of it and taken 

 it some twenty feet away, when another mouse-trap killed it. 

 As its stomach was empty, maybe there were two weasels. 

 Weeso calls it Tel-ky-lay-azzy, i. e. y Little Weasel. 



Mustela americana abieticola Preble. Hudson Bay Marten. 



The marten is still taken by trappers along the Athabaska 

 although it is much less common than formerly. We collected 

 skulls at a deserted cabin of a trapper at Fort McMurray. 



The following account of the taming of young martens was 

 related by E. Robillard: 



One year, in the early spring, near Lac la Biche, his brother- 

 in-law, Ben Edwards, saw a marten come out of a hole under a 

 stump. He dug in and got two little martens; these he brought 

 up; they were as tame and playful as kittens. He had them 

 a year and a half before they were killed by the dogs. They 

 had a box of sand and ashes; in this they always buried their 

 dung. They would sleep in bed with the children, under the 

 blankets, and never got cross. They were male and female. 

 They were cleaner than cats. They were never seen to cache 

 food. They ate only meat and fish, or perhaps bread with 

 grease on it. They caught mice, hunted day and night, but 

 chiefly by night. They were free of the country, often went to 

 the woods, but always came back. They curled up together to 

 sleep, never quarrelled, uttered sometimes a shrill screech, and 

 were so tame that they often crawled into one's pocket to sleep. 



Mustela pennanti Erxleben. Fisher. 



The fisher is generally distributed throughout the region north 

 to Great Slave Lake, but is nowhere common. According to 



