THE WOLVERINE. 497 



past, Elliott Coues selected and embodied in his exhaustive 

 article the matter he considered reliable and best calculated 

 to show the nature of this wonderful animal. Some of 

 these entertaining passages I give, adding a few anecdotes 

 from other reliable sources, which it is hoped will prove 

 interesting reading. > 



"The winter I passed at Fort Simpson," writes Mr. 

 Lockhart, ' ' I had a line of marten and Fox traps and Lynx- 

 snares extending as far as Lac de Brochet. Visiting them 

 on one occasion, I found a Lynx alive in one of my snares, 

 and being indisposed to carry it so far home, determined to 

 kill and skin it before it should freeze. But how to cache 

 the skin till my return? This was a serious question, for 

 Carcajou tracks were numerous. Placing the carcass, as a 

 decoy, in a clump of willows at one side of the path, I 

 went some distance on the opposite side, dug a hole with 

 my snow-shoe (about three feet deep) in the snow, packed 

 the skin in the smallest possible compass, and put it in the 

 bottom of the hole, which I filled up again very carefully — 

 packing the snow down hard, and then strewing loOse snow 

 over the surface till the spot looked as if it had never been 

 disturbed. I also strewed blood and entrails in the path 

 and around the willows. Returning next morning, I found 

 that the carcass was gone, as I expected it would be, but 

 that the place where the skin was cached was apparently 

 undisturbed. ' Ah, you rascal! ' said I, addressing aloud 

 the absent Carcajou, 'I have outwitted you for once.' I 

 lighted my pipe, and proceeded leisurely to dig up the skin 

 to place in my muskimoot. I went clear down to the 

 ground, oh this side and on that, but no Lynx-skin was 

 there. The Carcajou had been there before me, and had 

 carried it off along with the carcass; but he had taken the 

 pains to fill up the hole again and make everything as 

 smooth as before. 



"At Peel's River, on one occasion, a very old Carcajou 

 discovered my marten-road, on which I had nearly a hun- 

 dred and fifty traps. I was in the habit of visiting the line 

 about once a fortnight, but the beast fell into the way of 



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