CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS — 243 
and are brown, somewhat lighter below (throat 
and breast-spot orange in the Canadian sable), 
and variable according to age, sex, and season. 
The winter fur is thick, soft, an inch and a half 
deep, of richest hue, and has scattered through 
it. coarse black hairs which the furrier pulls 
out; the tail is somewhat bushy. . . .” 
Canadian fur-bearers. For two hundred 
and fifty years the Canadian marten has sup- 
‘plied, as had the sable for perhaps as many 
centuries, the most, valuable furs sent to 
market,, excepting a few rarities like sea- 
otter. 
North America also contains the giant of the 
tribe in Pennant’s marten, named by the early 
_ French Canadians pekan, and by modern trap- 
pers, ‘fisher, ”? “black cat,’”’ or ‘‘black fox,’’—it 
being none of the three! It.is remarkable for 
its great size—24 inches, plus 13 inches of tail 
—and for its dog-like head. A: third still 
larger relative is the wolverine or ‘‘carcajou,”’ 
an uncommonly large, clumsy, shaggy marten, 
of great strength, and displaying extreme per- 
severance and sagacity in procuring food 
where the supply is limited and précarious. 
