WEASELS 



ping has any effect on their numbers, nor do they 

 show any especial fear of man or his works, occa- 

 sionally even coming into lumber camps at night, 

 and being especially fond of old logging roads 

 and woods that have been swept by fire ; but at 

 the slightest hint of approaching civilisation they 

 disappear, not gradually, but at once and forever, 

 and the woods know them no more. If there is 

 anything in the theory of the survival of the fit- 

 test, why is it that not one marten has discovered 

 that, like other animals of its size, it could man- 

 age to live comfortably enough in the vicinity of 

 man? The mink and otter still follow the course 

 of every brook and river and manage to avoid the 

 keen eyes of the duck hunter, while for six 

 months in the year their paths are sprinkled with 

 steel traps set either especially for them or for 

 the more plebeian muskrat. If a pair of sables 

 could be persuaded to take up their quarters in 

 some parts of New England, they could travel for 

 dozens of miles through dark evergreen woods 



71 



